The Refiner’s Fire: Film

Film Evangelism: A Time To Change

Wealthy Warren Cole, society mother Fran, teen-age son Jeff, and Miss Pollyanna Christian, Michelle, Jeff’s girlfriend, are the main characters in Time to Run, a new film produced by World Wide Pictures. Thematically there has been little change since the filming of The Restless Ones: characters, plot, and outcome are quite similar. But there are some differences in the execution of this film. The changes are intended to bridge the evangelical culture gap and help the film appeal to the general movie-going public.

In World Wide’s newest film, the young Christians attend not churches but rock concerts on Sunday afternoons. Jeff’s parents don’t become Christians, though Jeff, played by Randall Carver, does. The traditional visit to a Billy Graham crusade with parents and son going forward is missing. Instead, Jeff picks up two Jesus people going to a Graham meeting. As he sits in the crusade parking lot eating an orange and listening to the evangelist over the loudspeaker, his parents watch the same sermon on television. The camera switches from Jeff and his orange to Graham and his message. At the invitation Jeff drives off and his parents turn off their set. This realistic touch does not entirely compensate for the contrived effect of introducing the crusade scenes in the first place. There ought to be a way to present the biblical message without the telltale “And now a word from our sponsor …”

Writer Allan Sloane built the plot and title around Francis Thompson’s poem, “The Hound of Heaven.” As the movie opens, Michelle, a college student played by Barbara Sigel, is reading the poem to unbeliever Jeff:

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Although Jeff seems satisfied with his life and just laughs about Thompson’s hound, trouble begins with a television interview.

Actor Ed Nelson (Dr. Rossi of “Peyton Place” fame) plays Jeff’s father, winner of a local industrial-achievement award. As Warren gives his acceptance speech, Jeff tells reporters why he dislikes the “military-industrial complex” his father is a part of. That evening when Warren asks Jeff about what he said, a fight ensues. But Director Jim Collier doesn’t provide enough tension and dramatic buildup to account for the son’s sudden walkout. Jeff packs his things, throws his credit card at his father, and drives off in his General Motors van (bought for him by his father).

Jeff reacts in a similar way to Michelle’s Christian piety. Alone with her, he says, “We could really make it here together.” She gives him an injured, little-girl look and walks away from him without really dealing with the situation. Somehow Michelle’s treatment of Jeff makes one wonder whether she does indeed love him as she says. Jeff storms out, leaving Michelle wide-eyed and confused. Collier makes Michelle look like a more-than-modern coed (though her ultra-mini skirts are now somewhat out of fashion), not quite in character with her actions.

The dialogue misses the mark in trying to be “with it.” Jeff hides out in an unoccupied mansion (his big misdeed, which gets him charged with a misdemeanor and a $50 fine) and Michelle goes to see him. Michelle’s remark, “You look pretty strung out,” seems strange, since Jeff’s appearance hasn’t changed. He melodramatically replies, “I’ve been trying to put it all together.” The best and most dramatic line follows: “If you mention that Jesus stuff, I’ll throw up.” Jeff serves that line with true disgust.

It takes four policemen and a TV-style chase to capture Jeff at the mansion, which seems a little forced for one whose only crimes besides trespassing were three speeding tickets.

The rebel finally leaves and travels across the country, still, unbelievably, clean-shaven and neatly dressed (see photo). Eventually he returns to Michelle, stops running from the hound of heaven, and testifies at another Sunday-afternoon concert (the kids are singing “Kumbaya”). His parents arrive on the scene and the three are reunited. Here the action stops and Billy Graham invites those who have felt “the hound of heaven … tugging at your heart” to come to the front of the theater and commit their lives to Christ.

Time to Run will reach some kids (about twenty teen-agers made commitments for Christ at the matinee this reviewer attended). But it is doubtful that this technique of evangelism will work with moviegoers off the street (some viewers were heard to comment cynically about the ending). The film seems aimed at an evangelical audience. A spokesman for World Wide Pictures said inquiries are running as high as 10 per cent of the viewing audiences. For example, in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, 68,500 attended showings and more than 7,000 inquiry cards were turned in.

Warren Cole remarks to Jeff, “You could never be any more than an annoyance.” He was this to his parents, his girlfriend, and himself. This reviewer wishes he had been less of an annoyance and had instead shown a sense of deep-seated, deeply realized sinfulness.

Making a believable Christian film is a difficult task; a project conceived with Francis Schaeffer’s blessing at L’Abri was stillborn. Although World Wide Pictures has the technical potential and the resources, a vital element of believability is still missing. A more sensitive portrayal of characters would help, but there is a deeper problem that will be difficult if not insuperable. The celluloid medium is the vehicle of illusion par excellence: can it believably convey spiritual truth?

CHERYL FORBES

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