Viewers gathered for a free early screening of Jesus Revolution last Monday at Cinemark in Abilene. Following the screening was a Q&A with John Puckett, editor of the film and 2018 ACU alum and Brent McCorkle, co-director and film scorer.
Jesus Revolution is based on a true story taking place during the height of the counterculture hippie movement of the 1970s. On the fringes of this movement were hippies converting to Christianity. Brent McCorkle was the primary conductor of the historical research for the film.
“There were all these different ideas of what the world was, what it could be,” McCorkle said. “It was this crazy polytheistic soup of ideas, and in all that, mixed, was Christianity.”
One of the most notable hippies who turned to Christianity was Lonnie Frisbee, played by Jonathan Roumie. The film follows Frisbee as he befriends conservative pastor Chuck Smith, played by Kelsey Grammer. Together, they open the doors of Smith’s Calvary Chapel church to hippies searching for faith. One of these newcomers was teenager Greg Laurie, played by Joel Courtney, whose narrative is intertwined with Frisbee and Smith’s.
“It was a movement of these disenfranchised youths that didn’t really want to go home necessarily, but also had gone to the end of free love,” McCorkle said. “They were still looking for something to make them feel better about life. Christianity offered some answers.”
‘Jesus Revolution’ and the recent box office success of ‘The Chosen’ suggest that the audience for the Christian film genre is expanding. People like recent ACU alum John Puckett are at the forefront of this new era. He encourages everyone – religious or nonreligious – to go see ‘Jesus Revolution.’
“I want people to watch this and think, ‘Who are the hippies of our generation that we need to open the door to?’,” Puckett said.
This ushering in of high-production value Christian entertainment has caught the attention of Hollywood, especially Lionsgate, which will release ‘Jesus Revolution’ in theaters next February. Puckett values the approach the film takes on the Christian film genre – one of flawed characters and detailed attention to the film’s quality.
“It’s a very human story – it’s hard, it’s complicated, it’s not, ‘God will solve all your problems if you believe in Him,’” Puckett said. “Christian films can be great without being cheesy. Make it about people dealing with problems in a Christian lens.”
For more information, visit @jesusrevolutionmovie on Instagram and the website, https://jesusrevolution.movie/, where you can request free tickets to see the film’s national preview next February.
