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Machine Gun Preacher Trailer: Gerard Butler Saves Africa And Why I Hate Hollywood

By TK | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (16)

Machine-Gun-Preacher-trailer-with-Gerard-Butler.jpg

I’m trying — trying — not to come down too hard on Machine Gun Preacher. It’s a decent enough trailer, though it’s a bit heavy on the melodramatic one-liners and inspirational music. Despite being something of a Douchey McGreasebag, I actually like Gerard Butler in some flicks, as long as he stays away from romcoms. However, children, I am what they would call conflicted.

You see, it’s true. The story of Sam Childers, former drug dealing biker gang member, is an absolutely riveting one. How a man like that turns his life around and dedicates himself to forming the Angels Of East Africa, a home for orphaned children, tohelping the poor, starved, and war-ravaged people of a country thousands of miles away? That is some dramatic material, and it’d be surprising if it didn’t get made into a movie.

On the other hand, I can’t help but think — here’s yet another movie about war and famine ravaged Africa, and once again the noble hero is a white guy. A white American, no less. The thing is, there are countless powerful, emotionally affecting stories of tragedy and heroism that take place in Africa that involve actual Africans, but as is typical, Hollywood chooses, Hotel Rwanda aside, to focus on a Caucasian protagonist. It is endlessly frustrating. Look at the IMDB page — there are an astonishing number of white people, considering it’s a movie about the plight of the Sudanese.

You see, here’s my issue: I have zero problems with Machine Gun Preacher being made, although it looks like it might be a healthy bit of melodramatic Oscar bait. I think it’s a hell of a story, and it deserves to be told. I just wish Hollywood had the fucking wontons to produce the other stories, the ones about neighbors helping and saving each other in the midst of the brutality and violence and horror around them. The stories that show that there are other Africans besides warlords and children, besides soldiers and victims. The stories that use Africans as the story, not the setting.

I don’t have a problem with Sam Childers’ story being told. I just wish they’d tell the other stories too.

So that aside, watch the trailer. It’s got a killer cast — besides Butler, it stars Michelle Monaghan, Michael Shannon, and the phenomenal Kathy Baker.









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Comments

You just hate white people don't you?

I knew it! *Stomps off self righteously*

Posted by: Ender at August 23, 2011 11:44 AM

I have zero problems with Machine Gun Preacher being made, although it looks like it might be a healthy bit of melodramatic Oscar bait. I think it’s a hell of a story, and it deserves to be told. I just wi(s)h Hollywood had the fucking wontons to produce the other stories, the ones about neighbors helping and saving each other in the midst of the brutality and violence and horror around them. The stories that show that there are other Africans besides warlords and children, besides soldiers and victims. The stories that use Africans as the story, not the setting.

If only I could state this concept as well as you did here...

Posted by: Socrates_Johnson at August 23, 2011 11:45 AM

Ok kinda cheesey but the last line made me laugh out loud.

Posted by: logan at August 23, 2011 12:02 PM

Who wants to see a movie about former NBA player now deceased Manute Bol, the guy died broke because he gave away most of his money to his birth nation of Sudan in the hopes that it would help feed the Sudanese people. Or a movie about another former NBA player Dikembe Mutombo, Mutombo help finance and build a hospital for the poor in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hollywood isn’t interested in these types of stories, for whatever reason. And I also don’t blame Gerard Butler, this story may interest him on some level. Maybe it should fall upon black directors and black actresses and actors to put forth movies about the history of Africa in the same way that the black entertainment community came together to help finance Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X.”

Posted by: Pookie at August 23, 2011 12:06 PM

If Hollywood made movies about black heroes no one would see them because it doesn't fit in with the racist stereotypes held by Americans who watch mainstream movies. Their heads would explode if they were offered something other than people of color as murderers and gang members. That's why schlock like The Help and The Blind Side are so fucking popular. Americans love seeing white folks save the poor black people.

Posted by: Melanie at August 23, 2011 12:20 PM

Blame it on Planet Terror, Machete, Death Proof. Hobo with a Shotgun or any other neo-grindhouse movie of late. But I really don't think it would take much to make this movie into one of those. It already has a Grindhouse title, and an actor who cannot decide what accent he's wearing today. All it needs is a color filter to pump up the primaries, add a few film scratches, a a '70's metal soundtrack. Hell upon the second viewing of this, that's about all my imagination did auto-editing it.

"Based on a true story" is Hollywood speak for "Don't blame us if the story is ridiculous, it's real. Really it is. We didn't change it. Much. Well, alright we did punch it up here and there but that's only so we could fit all the actual awesomeness into one movie. We would NEVER change a true story into a fictitious one. Nope. Everything is as it happened. More or less. You believe us, right?"

I guess the gunrunning, embezzling, threatening of parents, and chronic bullshitting in general doesn't make for compelling heroes.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/04/christian-vigilante-201004#gotopage1

Posted by: bleujayone at August 23, 2011 12:22 PM

Actually Pookikins, I would like to see both of those. They have recognizable characters that have a good story and could be broadened to include the conflict and other aspects of humanity involved in both of those situations. What happened to Manute's money? Is that hospital still operating? Did government corruption essentially ensure that none of that aid reached the people it was intended for?

I'd watch the hell out of that.

Posted by: admin at August 23, 2011 12:23 PM

I was in the part of West Pennsylvania where the Machine Gun Preacher lives a few months agao, and although I never met him I did see his trucks and trailers, proudly displaying his name and mission, all over the place. Yes, he seems to like the publicity, and his mission is EXPLICITLY christian. Although I don't know this, I believe him to be driven by a kind of anger rather than love, hoping to restore biblical law to a world gone wrong.

Posted by: Michael Murray at August 23, 2011 12:23 PM

Actually Pookikins, I would like to see both of those. They have recognizable characters that have a good story and could be broadened to include the conflict and other aspects of humanity involved in both of those situations. What happened to Manute's money? Is that hospital still operating? Did government corruption essentially ensure that none of that aid reached the people it was intended for?

I'd watch the hell out of that.

Posted by: admin at August 23, 2011 12:23 PM


Admin, Manute was able to see to it that some of his money did indeed go to help his countrymen. As usual with a corrupt government and infrastructure that mainly thrives on bribes, I’m sure some of his money ended up in the wrong hands. But still, Manute’s story is one that should be told. Mutombo's case was a little different, Mutombo had the government and a infrastructure that was more than willing to see that the hospital was built, it actually was named after his mother. The process was fraught with financial missteps, but in the end the hospital was finally built in 2007.

Posted by: Pookie at August 23, 2011 12:46 PM

I was in the part of West Pennsylvania where the Machine Gun Preacher lives a few months agao, and although I never met him I did see his trucks and trailers, proudly displaying his name and mission, all over the place. Yes, he seems to like the publicity, and his mission is EXPLICITLY christian. Although I don't know this, I believe him to be driven by a kind of anger rather than love, hoping to restore biblical law to a world gone wrong.

Posted by: Michael Murray at August 23, 2011 12:23 PM


Interesting Murray, but not all that surprising. Most Christian crusades or missions are filled with anger, biblical teachings, and of course sex to purify the soul.

Posted by: Pookie at August 23, 2011 12:57 PM

Slightly off topic but interesting I think:
A couple of years ago at the annual Global Health Council meeting, I became involved in a discussion about why the international aid community is so overwhelmingly White.
A Black, British physician said that he found it very difficult to recruit other Black physicians and nurses to work in his organization because they:
a) felt patronized that they were somehow expected to take third world jobs instead of seeking jobs in Britain; and
b) felt they had a lot to give to their own immigrant communities who needed help instead of going overseas.
This has nothing to do with Hollywood's unbearable colonialist attitude, but interesting nonetheless.

Posted by: PaddyDog at August 23, 2011 1:13 PM

I'd like to think that in the near future, Africans will be able to tell their own stories and the rest of the world will be as interested as they are in American stories. Uhm...right?

Posted by: Joker at August 23, 2011 1:59 PM

I really don't see how color can be an issue if it's a good story devoid of any manipulation.

there's racism and then there's inferiority complex. i hope ppl don't mistake the two.

also, i can't wait for the movie about Clooney's journey in Sudan.

Posted by: haplo at August 23, 2011 2:17 PM

I really don't see how color can be an issue if it's a good story devoid of any manipulation.

there's racism and then there's inferiority complex. i hope ppl don't mistake the two.

also, i can't wait for the movie about Clooney's journey in Sudan.

Posted by: haplo at August 23, 2011 2:17 PM


haplo I hope you don’t have to make a living using your brains.


Posted by: Pookie at August 23, 2011 6:22 PM

I was in the part of West Pennsylvania where the Machine Gun Preacher lives a few months agao, and although I never met him I did see his trucks and trailers, proudly displaying his name and mission, all over the place. Yes, he seems to like the publicity, and his mission is EXPLICITLY christian. Although I don't know this, I believe him to be driven by a kind of anger rather than love, hoping to restore biblical law to a world gone wrong.

Posted by: Michael Murray at August 23, 2011 12:23 PM

A lot of Christians would disagree with him, and a lot would disagree with you as well. I will give you that the branding thing casts a bit of a pall.

Posted by: coryo at August 23, 2011 10:42 PM

I thought Aldous Snow would suddenly appear amidst the gunfire and sing "African Child".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFHOzarT78Q

Posted by: Adrien at August 23, 2011 11:58 PM