''Machine Gun Preacher'' is a 2011 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

action drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by

Marc Forster Marc Forster (born 30 November 1969) is a Swiss filmmaker. He is best known for directing the feature films ''Monster's Ball'', '' Finding Neverland'', '' Stranger than Fiction'', ''The Kite Runner'', ''Quantum of Solace'', '' World War Z'', and ...

and starring

Gerard Butler Gerard James Butler (born 13 November 1969) is a Scottish actor and film producer. After studying law, he turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as '' Mrs Brown'' (1997), the James Bond film '' Tomorrow Never ...

Michelle Monaghan Michelle Lynn Monaghan ( ; born March 23, 1976) is an American actress, best known for her starring roles in '' Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' (2005), '' Gone Baby Gone'' (2007), '' Made of Honor'' (2008), '' Eagle Eye'' (2008), '' Trucker'' (2008), ''So ...

, and

Michael Shannon Michael Corbett Shannon (born August 7, 1974) is an American actor, producer, musician, and theater director. He is an off beat actor known for his on-screen versatility, performing in both comedies and dramas. He became known for his frequent ...

. It tells the story of Sam Childers, a former gang biker turned preacher, and his efforts to protect, in collaboration with the

Sudan People's Liberation Army The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), is the army of the Republic of South Sudan. The SPLA was founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 1983 and was a ...

(SPLA), the children of

South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the ...

from the atrocities of

Joseph Kony Joseph Rao Kony (likely born 1961) is a Ugandan militant who founded the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Christian fundamentalist organization, designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Peacekeepers, the European Union and vario ...

Lord's Resistance Army The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), also known as the Lord's Resistance Movement, is a rebel group and heterodox Christian group which operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Co ...

(LRA). The screenplay by Jason Keller was adapted from Childers' book ''

Another Man's War ''Another Man's War'' is a 2009 book written by Sam Childers about his life as a former gang biker turned preacher and defender of South Sudanese orphans. The book was the basis of ''Machine Gun Preacher'', a 2011 biographical adventure drama ...

'' and

Ian Urbina Ian Urbina (born March 29, 1972) is an American investigative reporter who has written for a variety of outlets, including ''The New York Times'' and ''The Atlantic''. Urbina is the author of ''The New York Times'' bestseller ''The Outlaw Ocean ...

's '' Vanity Fair'' article "Get Kony". The film' premiered at the

2011 Toronto International Film Festival The 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 8 and September 18, 2011. Buenos Aires, Argentina was selected to be showcased for the 2011 City to City programme. The opening film ...

and opened in the United States on September 23, 2011.

Plot

In 2003 in southern Sudan, the LRA attack a village and force a young boy to kill his mother. A few years earlier, Sam Childers, an alcoholic drug-using biker from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

, is released from prison and finds that his wife, Lynn, has given up her job as a stripper after accepting

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religi ...

as her savior. Dumbfounded by her decision, he returns to a life of crime and partying and doing heroin with his friend Donnie, and one night he almost kills a vagrant. Shaken by the experience, Sam goes to church with Lynn, where he is baptized and offered salvation. With a new outlook on life, Sam is able to find a stable job as a construction worker and later starts his own company. He helps Donnie get sober and goes on a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

trip to

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The south ...

to build homes for refugees. While there, he asks Deng, one of the SPLA soldiers watching over his group, to take him north to see Sudan. Deng warns him that it is a war zone, but Sam still wants to go. In a medical tent, Sam is asked by a female doctor to help move a woman who has just had her lips cut off by

's LRA rebels. That night, Sam witnesses the large numbers of children who come from their villages to sleep outdoors on the ground at the

displaced persons camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

because it is safer than staying at home, and Sam brings as many as will fit into his and Deng's room to sleep. The next day, Deng takes Sam to a village that was attacked by the LRA, and Sam sees a child get killed by a

land mine A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automatic ...

. Traumatized and changed by the trip, Sam receives a "vision" from God that tells him to build both a church in his own neighborhood, which will not turn anyone away, and an

orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abu ...

in southern Sudan. He begins preaching at the church once it is built and then returns to Africa to build the orphanage. During construction, the LRA attack, destroying everything. Sam calls Lynn to tell her what happened and that he is giving up, but she says it is a test from God and he should start building again. After the orphanage is complete, a young girl brought there dies of her injuries, prompting Sam to start to lead armed raids to rescue children, including

child soldiers Children (defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child as people under the age of 18) have been recruited for participation in military operations and campaigns throughout history and in many cultures. Children in the military, inclu ...

, from the LRA. At home, Sam becomes increasingly unempathetic toward his family and their petty problems, his sermons become angrier, and his sole focus becomes raising money to fund his work in Africa. In Sudan, he starts to make an impact, with Kony putting a price on his head and SPLA-leader

John Garang John Garang de Mabior (June 23, 1945 – July 30, 2005) was a Sudanese politician and revolutionary leader. From 1983 to 2005, he led the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) after the Second Sudanese Civil War, the comprehensive peace agreement ...

inviting him to upcoming peace talks, though Sam does not attend. One night, he and some SPLA soldiers are attacked on the road by the LRA. After chasing off the attackers, they search the area and discover a large group of children hiding in a ditch. They cannot take all of the children to the orphanage in one trip, and when they return for the children they left behind, they find a pile of burned bodies. Events such as this, along with Donnie's death from an overdose after Sam yelled at him and he broke his sobriety, push Sam away from God and further into despair. He sells his construction company and goes back to Sudan, but his changed attitude leads his men to no longer trust him to lead them in battle. William, the boy who was forced to kill his mother at the start of the film and subsequently ended up at the orphanage, tells Sam his story and reminds Sam that their fight is already lost if they become full of hate. His faith and purpose revitalized, Sam begins to play with the children at the orphanage and calls his daughter to say he loves her. Later, he goes out with some SPLA soldiers and rescues a caravan of children kidnapped by the LRA. There is again not enough space to take everyone to the orphanage in one trip, but this time Sam and a few soldiers stay to protect the remaining children.

Cast

as Sam Childers *

as Lynn Childers *

Kathy Baker } Katherine Whitton Baker (born June 8, 1950) is an American actress. Baker began her career in theater and made her screen debut in the 1983 drama film '' The Right Stuff''. She received the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Suppo ...

as Daisy *

as Donnie * Ryann Campos as Paige #1 (younger) * Madeline Carroll as Paige #2 (older) *

Souléymane Sy Savané Souléymane Sy Savané is an Ivorian actor. He is best known for his role in the drama film ''Goodbye Solo'' (2008). Life and career Born in Côte d'Ivoire, Sy Savané moved to Paris and also worked as a flight attendant for Air Afrique. Air Afr ...

as Deng * Grant R. Krause as Billy/Contractor * Reavis Graham as Pastor Krause * Peter Carey as Bill Wallace * Steve Blackwood as Bank Manager *

Rhema Marvanne Rhema Marvanne Voraritskul (born September 15, 2002) is an American former gospel singer from Carrollton, Texas. Early life Rhema Marvanne Voraritskul was born September 15, 2002. Her mother was Wendi Marvanne and her father is Atethan Vorarit ...

(credited as Rhema Voraritskul) as Child Singer *

Mduduzi Mabaso Mduduzi Mabaso (born 1 April 1976), is a South African actor. He is best known for the roles in the films and teleserials ''Blood Diamond'', ''Machine Gun Preacher'' and ''Hotel Rwanda''. Personal life He was born in 1976 in Alexandra, South A ...

as Marco *

Fana Mokoena Fana Mokoena (born 13 May 1971) is a South African Film, television and theater actor, and a political activist who served as a Member of Parliament, first as a delegate to the National Council of Provinces representing his home province Free ...

* Junior Magale as William * Jessica Joffe as Agnete Closson * Abena Ayivor as Betty

Production and release

Filming commenced in June 2010 in

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. The film had a gala premiere at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

on September 11, 2011, and a limited theatrical release on September 23, 2011. Sam Childers has shown a shortened and edited version of the film at Christian charity events.

Soundtrack

Chris Cornell Christopher John Cornell (né Boyle; July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017) was an American singer and musician best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and primary lyricist and songwriter for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave. ...

wrote the song "The Keeper" for the film, which he performed on the ''

Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production c ...

'' and ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, California, as part of ABC's l ...

'' to promote it.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has an approval rating of 28% based on 116 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8 out of 10; the site's critics consensus reads: "There's a complex man at the center of ''Machine Gun Preacher'' but the movie is too shapeless and emotionally vacant to bring his story to life." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 43 out of 100 based on 32 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Globally, ''Machine Gun Preacher'' made $3 million at the box office, a mere 1/10 of its $30 million budget.

References

External links

* *
''Machine Gun Preacher''
at

''Machine Gun Preacher''
at

ComingSoon.net Mandatory (formerly CraveOnline Media) is a lifestyle website based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The site is owned by media company Evolve Media, LLC. Mandatory focuses its contents into the male- ...

''Interview: The Real Story Behind 'Machine Gun Preacher''
from CriticizeThis.ca {{Marc Forster 2011 films 2011 action drama films 2011 biographical drama films 2011 crime drama films 2011 war drama films American action drama films American biographical drama films American crime drama films Biographical action films Action drama films based on actual events Crime films based on actual events War films based on actual events Films about war crimes Films directed by Marc Forster Films about evangelicalism Films set in South Sudan Films shot in Michigan Films shot in Pennsylvania Lionsgate films Lord's Resistance Army Relativity Media films Sudan People's Liberation Movement Films shot in Detroit 2010s English-language films 2010s American films