For simplicity’s sake, I don’t do endorsements.
Perhaps you’ve asked me for one in the past – your new album, your latest book, your game-changing product, etc. I’ve politely declined after explaining to you that I’ve maintained a non-endorsement policy for years just so I don’t have to pick and choose who to say yes to. My friends all say they understand. I’m pretty sure they don’t.
This non-endorsement policy of mine is, admittedly, hypocritical:
1) I’ve occasionally solicited endorsements in the past for worthy causes. (Thank you, Mr. Campolo, etc.)
2) I’ve never been offered big money to push a product. How would I respond if, say, Steve Jobs needed “Am I In Sync?” to shill the iPad? (Hmm… the more I imagine that commercial, the more I think it’s a perfect fit.)
3) There are a tiny handful of situations where I’ve violated my own rule. The One Campaign, for example. But when Bono says jump…
I tell you all this to set up my non-endorsement of a movie I’d like you to consider seeing this weekend. The producers haven’t asked me for a shout-out, and it’s already been in theaters a few weeks. But To Save A Life is surprisingly good.
It didn’t sound promising going in. Produced by a church. Written by a youth pastor. Directed by a first-timer. Have we not heard this set-up before? Did we not squirm at the results?
But To Save A Life is different. The acting was generally good, especially the high schoolers. The situations were plausible. And despite its miniscule budget, the movie looks and sounds just fine.
But more important, this is a movie that presents a realistic view of the church. The youth group has its share of hypocrites. The pastor’s kid is a pot-smoking reprobate. The basketball star has a conversion experience midway through the movie… then things get worse for him. Yes, things eventually get better, but, as in life, not all the loose ends get neatly tied up before the movie comes to its believably satisfying ending. (Satisfying, that is, unless you’re big fans of that other church’s movies.)
We’ve all heard Voltaire’s quote that “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” To Save A Life is not a perfect movie. (And I speak from experience on that count.) But it’s breaking new ground, and it’s good enough that it would be ungenerous to waste any of my non-endorsement picking on its faults.
Go see it, and tell me what you think.
Well, when *Steve* says jump…
Been wanting to research the movie anyway,after hearing pop-ups here and there about how “we need to support this movie”. I usually don’t bite. This one had me intrigued. Now, it is more so.
=jb=
You should endorse what you like and tell the truth about what you don’t. For crying out loud, you’re Steve Taylor. What are people going to think; that after all this time you care if they like your endorsement or not? Use the position you have been blessed with.
Steve, I’m taking a group of students to see this. Are you in L.A.? Where are you right now?
Almost 20 years ago i booked Chagall Guevara to perform at Covenant College. You guys came and performed and were terrific.
I’d lost my Chagall CD but found one on Half.com, and it arrived today. It’s already ripped to my iPod.
Hope all is well.
Steve…
miss your wit in deciphering this “Escher’s world” we live in now…
keep your tounge firmly lodged in your cheek…
write more…
write often…
…”carve your name in the”… twitterverse
this scares me. it looks very after school special. i saw a trailer for it before crazy heart and couldn’t help but laugh. i didn’t even know it was a christian film. the rotten tomatoes rating on it is 31%. generally RT is not very off in measuring a film’s basic, overall quality. i will see it, maybe on video, because steve told me to. but the director of blue like jazz endorsing this movie does frighten me. i hate to say it, i don’t want to sound negative or pessimistic in any way. but i hope BLJ’s quality far, far exceeds this one. it takes a master to be able to pull off a message movie and even sometimes they screw it up.
Thanks for reminding me why I don’t endorse, Matthew. Now watch how fast I can backpedal…
The only similarity between the “Blue Like Jazz” movie and “To Save A Life” is that they’re both in English.
No, the trailer isn’t very good. And yes, it plays a bit like an Afterschool Special. I saw it with a friend, and I think he was surprised how enthusiastic I was afterwards. It’s just that I was seeing the movie strictly out of duty, and I was expecting something bad. (It’s very hard to make anything that’s even watchable on a million dollar budget, and the exceptions only prove the rule.)
There’s plenty to criticize in “To Save A Life,” but despite the scenes that made me wince, there were plenty of times I was pleasantly surprised and even moved. I don’t hold a movie written and produced by a youth director to the same standards as the Coen Brothers latest. Maybe my blog should have included a long list of caveats, but I’ve been critical enough of past attempts like this that I didn’t want it to read like a back-handed compliment. It wasn’t until I made my first movie that I realized how many things in the process are beyond my control, and how hard it is to make something that’s not utter crap.
I’m not sure what genre “To Save A Life” belongs to, but in the Movies Produced By A Church genre, it’s tops in my book.
The youth at our church are out of hand. They are very sexual in dress and the way they talk to each other. They text during youth group time and worship (phone etiquitte is a soap box of mine) and sneek vodka and kaluah on youth trips! They bully other kids and, yes, some families have left our church because of our youth group. This is not an inner city church. We live in a very rural, redneck area. My husband is one of the pastors on staff (not the youth pastor thank God!) and church members frowned upon it when I took my children to another youth group for a while.
Sooooo, when I read Steve’s endorsement I was very interested in seeing this movie. I took my son (14 years old today)and he liked it. The conversations we have had since have been well worth the ticket price. I am very proud that my son learned about drinking games while watching this movie with me instead of finding out some other way (Like, at the next church lock-in) He got a big kick out of the pot heads in the youth group and how the keg party crowd turned up their noses at the marijuana crowd. His comment about sex was thus: “Why do people have sex and then act all surprised when they become pregnant? I mean they did have sex! ”
I liked it that the kid becomes a Christian because he is searching for a more meaningful life and not because someone “scared the hell out of him.” This movie deserves an endorsement because there was not some plan of salvation monologue randomly shoved in the middle of diologue!
So anyway, thanks Steve! I guess there is a time and place for the After School Special after all. Oh, and I do apologize for this sounding too much like a mommy blog. My regrets if I alienated your fan base.
i understand what you’re saying, though i do find the genre itself part of the problem. art is art. it is the artist who differs. the art is simply the result of the artist. to classify it within a sub-par genre only gives it a pass of much lower expectations. which is fine, not saying there’s anything wrong with that. i just hope BLJ is not considered a part of that genre, regardless of it’s spiritual content. i think you know plenty about this, you of all people don’t need a lecture on that subject. however, i do have to mention a few films which all had well under a million dollar budget and don’t lack a single ounce of quality.
The Station Agent ($500k)
Swingers ($250k)
The Puffy Chair (Micro)
Manic (Micro)
I have to give a mention to Junebug, even though it’s budget was right at a million. Can’t verify the budget on Frozen River, but know it was under as well.
As the Duplass Brothers (Puffy Chair) would say, it all comes down to the writing and acting, production value is secondary. Also, much more effective to make strengths of weaknesses (such as shooting a movie in documentary style because you can’t afford film and have to use video), than trying to make weaknesses LOOK like strengths when they’re not. I could go off for hours on this crap, but I’ll spare you. Love you Steve, I hope you’re as ballsy with the film as you were with some of the music I remember you making.
by the way, when is this thing happening?? haven’t really heard much else about the progress. looking forward to it.
Saw To Save A Life, based completely on your recommendation. I took my daughter and her boyfriend, along with my teenage nephew. They all agreed that it was very realistic in it’s portrayal of high school and where they all were in their lives. I personally cannot stand “christian” cinema–my wife & I usually go to these “films” for pure entertainment(ie we go to laugh and mock them!! LOL). To Save A Life, however, was different. It may not have had the greatest acting and writing, but it did have something those “other” films are lacking. It had authenticity!! Thanks for the “invite” to go see it. It was a great evening to share and converse with my daughter and her friends. And Steve, keep making those movies; Second Chance was amazing and yes, authentic. It’s good too see real life and real faith portrayed in an authentic way.
I’ve always treasured the way you went about declining my request for one, AND I’ve long suspected you gave me one anyway…albeit telepathically.
I’ve only just now discovered your blog presence. I know what I’M doing for the next two hours.