As with any film based on true events, it really doesn't matter if what we're seeing on the screen is what actually happened, or whether it's a composite or hyped-up version of the real story. If it feels real, I'm into it, and if it feels false, my issues will be many. Director Marc Forster (THE KITE RUNNER, MONSTER'S BALL, FINDING NEVERLAND) has taken the life Sam Childers (played nicely by Gerard Butler) and turned it into an inspirational tale about a guy who turned his very bad, drug-fueled life into one dedicated to saving orphans in Africa and building a church in his native Pennsylvania where he can preach an aggressive sermon every so often. Childers' real story is pretty remarkable, and many parts of MACHINE GUN PREACHER absolutely work. But when Butler pulls out an automatic weapon and starts mowing down those who would hurt his precious orphans, that feeling of disbelief started creeping in, and my attachment to this film lessened substantially.
An ex-biker, Childers was released from jail and immediately dives back into the life with his best friend and drug buddy (the great Michael Shannon), much to the dismay of his loving wife (Michelle Monaghan) and family. The specific factors that went into Childers finding God are skimmed over somewhat, but in the end that doesn't really matter. What he decides to do with his charitable ways is go to the Civil War-ravaged Sudan and build an orphanage to save as many children as he can—certainly a noble effort, and at this point in the film, I was still with it for the most part. The scenes with Butler and Shannon are especially troubling, especially when they nearly kill a man together. And even the scenes of Childers attempting to figure out how he's going to do God's bidding are good.
But the film begins to lose focus and crumble at its moral core when Sam starts taking a position in the brutal Lord's Resistance Army in the Sudan, and he becomes a vigilante. I wasn't so much bothered by his violent ways—I always like seeing Butler be a badass; it's better than when he makes romantic comedies—but the film is trying so hard to paint Childers as a good man doing a just thing that I felt like I was being preached to.
Even outside of the violence, Childers is not an easy man (or character) to like. He neglects his family and drains their bank account to buy supplies for his Africa trips, and he's a rage-aholic even when he's asking for people to do good work. Maybe the best scene in the film has Childers nearly ripping the throat out of a banker who refuses to let him open up a third mortgage on his home so he can have cash to take with him on his next trip. But something about the final third of MACHINE GUN PREACHER doesn't come together, and the story spends too much time as an action film and less about characters.
MACHINE GUN PREACHER is easily Butler best work as an actor, and I hope he continues to make more serious works like this. The reason for the film ultimately failing have little to do with his performance, which, admittedly, has him stuck in overdrive for most of the film. And while I see the need to provide some old-fashioned Hollywood action entertainment in a film like this, I think the movie would have been just fine (perhaps, even better) if the filmmakers had stuck to a more down-to-earth, realistic approach to Childers' fascinating world. I guess I'm calling this a mixed review, but tilting toward no recommending it.
