Machine Gun Preacher (15)
Starring: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.In which Gerard Butler beefs up his status as one of cinema's most charmless leading men.
He plays Sam Childers, a real-life drug addict and jailbird who forswore the hell-raising ways of old and became a respected preacher in his Pennsylvania town. News from Africa leads him to up sticks and establish a church amid a war-ravaged village in Uganda, where his combative brand of Christianity soon proves handy in helping the Sudan People's Liberation Army fight back against the local militia. Marc Forster's film is based on Childers's own memoir, though how reliable that is remains moot: the SPLA claim to have no knowledge of this alleged hero. Whatever the truth, the film is a sorry mess of platitudes, utterly unable to reconcile the man of God with the gun-toting Rambo-in-Africa. Butler can do the standard machismo, but hasn't the chops to suggest the personal complexity that lay behind Childers's volte-face.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments