Sight and Sound Theaters are the pinnacle of theater. I've seen a couple of their shows in their main building in Lancaster, and I must say that their productions are so impressive, detailed, and talented that I suspect Broadway pales in comparison. I can't recommend them enough.
Their first foray into cinema isn't as grand, unfortunate to say.
I'm just being honest, here. When you branch out into cinema, you must go up against more than a century of experience. Hollywood owns the film sphere, so you must come out swinging. Sight and Sound Films and I Heard the Bells fall short.
The intro to this movie feels like you're watching a play through a TV screen. The acting is over the top, and the cinematography only elevates this feel. It feels like a Hallmark film, but less genuine. I constantly retained the fact that this film is a flagship for S&S Films, but it still broke my suspension.
This feeling continued until (SPOILERS) his wife, Fanny, tragically dies. Then the acting and the cinematography RAMPS up. I was enjoying it much, much more after this. The dinner scene and the soldier campfire scene stood out to me as very well-done moments.
Every now and then you get an actor who still delivers lines as if on stage, and also some moments where the script just feels illogical and characters make decisions that don't really make sense (I.e. Charley enlisting, proving himself, etc.)
When it comes to action scenes, if you're here to watch some high quality Civil War sequences, prepare to be disappointed. BUT this really isn't a war-focused movie and that the lack of quality action set pieces never bothered me in the slightest. Not why I watched this.
All in all, I really enjoyed this movie, mainly for some of the impressive cinematography later into the film, as well as some GREAT acting moments by the cast, which leads me to the message...
To me, it's no different than many other Christian movies out there. You go through hardship, blame God for your problems, someone says something about God has always been with you but you haven't felt His presence, you feel good again.
Not only is this a tired trope, it's not a good message. Not ONCE did anyone mention anything about sin. No depravity of man. No recognition of one's own wickedness. I understand that's not really a concept to explore here, but without this, the gospel message in this movie really fails. Thus treading out another "emotional gospel message". It's all about the feels. I hate this. We've seen it too many times. And WORSE, the times where we do see the depravity of man, is in HOLLYWOOD movies. And they do a better job of conveying this than most CHRISTIAN Movies do! Why are we allowing pagan organizations to explain to us the truth of right and wrong, when we are the ones who need to show THEM the truth that we have in the Gospel? That all men are cruel and desperately wicked and need the blood of Christ to save our souls? See we have this in I Heard the Bells, but only the second part, and barely that. It seems Longfellow equates his remedy of being able to right again to the fact that his wife is alive through his works. Hmmmm.
In short, S&S Films need to explore more deeply into the truths of the world and the art of His Creation and not stick exclusively to making feel good Christian movies. They're too many of those.
6/10. I'm hopeful for S&S Films, but scriptural if it's future.
Their first foray into cinema isn't as grand, unfortunate to say.
I'm just being honest, here. When you branch out into cinema, you must go up against more than a century of experience. Hollywood owns the film sphere, so you must come out swinging. Sight and Sound Films and I Heard the Bells fall short.
The intro to this movie feels like you're watching a play through a TV screen. The acting is over the top, and the cinematography only elevates this feel. It feels like a Hallmark film, but less genuine. I constantly retained the fact that this film is a flagship for S&S Films, but it still broke my suspension.
This feeling continued until (SPOILERS) his wife, Fanny, tragically dies. Then the acting and the cinematography RAMPS up. I was enjoying it much, much more after this. The dinner scene and the soldier campfire scene stood out to me as very well-done moments.
Every now and then you get an actor who still delivers lines as if on stage, and also some moments where the script just feels illogical and characters make decisions that don't really make sense (I.e. Charley enlisting, proving himself, etc.)
When it comes to action scenes, if you're here to watch some high quality Civil War sequences, prepare to be disappointed. BUT this really isn't a war-focused movie and that the lack of quality action set pieces never bothered me in the slightest. Not why I watched this.
All in all, I really enjoyed this movie, mainly for some of the impressive cinematography later into the film, as well as some GREAT acting moments by the cast, which leads me to the message...
To me, it's no different than many other Christian movies out there. You go through hardship, blame God for your problems, someone says something about God has always been with you but you haven't felt His presence, you feel good again.
Not only is this a tired trope, it's not a good message. Not ONCE did anyone mention anything about sin. No depravity of man. No recognition of one's own wickedness. I understand that's not really a concept to explore here, but without this, the gospel message in this movie really fails. Thus treading out another "emotional gospel message". It's all about the feels. I hate this. We've seen it too many times. And WORSE, the times where we do see the depravity of man, is in HOLLYWOOD movies. And they do a better job of conveying this than most CHRISTIAN Movies do! Why are we allowing pagan organizations to explain to us the truth of right and wrong, when we are the ones who need to show THEM the truth that we have in the Gospel? That all men are cruel and desperately wicked and need the blood of Christ to save our souls? See we have this in I Heard the Bells, but only the second part, and barely that. It seems Longfellow equates his remedy of being able to right again to the fact that his wife is alive through his works. Hmmmm.
In short, S&S Films need to explore more deeply into the truths of the world and the art of His Creation and not stick exclusively to making feel good Christian movies. They're too many of those.
6/10. I'm hopeful for S&S Films, but scriptural if it's future.