This month, Eve and I tackle a rare movie for us. Not only is it not a family-friendly Disney-superhero-space-opera type of movie, but it is also a movie made by Christians, with Christian themes and values. At least, that’s what it is on the surface. But, turns out, not all Christians see it that way. There are many Christians out there who refuse to see it at all.
Redeeming Love is directed by D.J. Caruso and stars Abigail Cowen, Tom Lewis, and Eric Dane. It also features music by Brian Tyler and Breton Vivian. The music is all original and is hauntingly beautiful and heavy on strings. It is a fitting sound for the message of the movie. There is a scene near the middle of the film where Willie Watson, playing new neighbor John Altman, sings his song “Dry Bones” while around a bonfire with the Hoseas. I particularly liked that song —I even added it to my playlist!
Redeeming Love, based on the book of the same name by Francine Rivers, tells the love story of Michael Hosea and Angel. Michael is a prosperous farmer in gold-rush era California who longs for a godly woman to share his life. Since Redeeming Love is based on the story of the prophet Hosea, Michael believes he is called by God to wed one particularly beautiful woman by the name of Angel. The difficult part is that she has been a prostitute since she was sold into sexual slavery as a young girl and is possessed of the spiritually numbed and jaded attitude towards life that you might expect. Worse, she has come to truly and deeply believe that she can never be redeemed. She doesn’t count on Michael’s patience or God’s almighty love.
Initial Impressions
This is another movie where we come into it with different levels of expectation. As mentioned earlier, Redeeming Love is based on a book, and Eve has read this book multiple times—and cried every time she read it. Me? I’ve read the book of Hosea. That’s about as much as I knew about this movie coming it. It turns out that even that was less than I expected, but not significantly so. In the case of Redeeming Love, however, the author was heavily involved with the production on the movie and had a fair amount of creative control. As a result, the movie is more true to the source material than many such movies. It does suffer in many of the ways that page-to-screen efforts do; missing character development and elements that many feel are critical to the story.
It is worth noting that there is dichotomy here that many (particularly those unfamiliar with the Bible) might consider strange. Even though the movie is arguably targeted at Christian audiences, it earns its PG13 rating with quite a few instances of partial nudity and a couple steamy sex scenes. The use of these scenes, and what has to happen in the filming of the movie, fuels quite a number of objections, but we’ll talk about that in a bit.
There are also complaints that Redeeming Love does not specifically preach the gospel. Eve and I disagree with this assessment. The gospel message underlies the entire story of Redeeming Love. It is a bit like gasoline—when you see a car driving down the road, you don’t see the gasoline that is making it go, but you can hear the engine and see the care moving, so you can believe that the gasoline is there. (Sorry to electric car owners—my metaphor falls a bit apart for them!)
Redeeming Love was well done. The production quality seemed pretty high to me. Costuming and cinematography stood out to me as being a higher quality that you might see in many nominally Christian films. (Not to say that Christian films are not of good quality, just that Redeeming Love was exceptional in this regard.) The acting is fairly good, and the casting had some bigger names, like Eric Dane. I was a bit put off by the first impressions of Tom Lewis’s portrayal of Michael Hosea. As first impressions do, that tended to influence my reception of his performance through the rest of the movie.
I was a little frustrated by the storytelling shortcuts that Redeeming Love took in presentation. They were likely considered necessary, since the final product’s running time was 134 minutes. Still, things like Michael’s piety and Angel’s beauty are wielded early in the movie like hammers rather than brushes, and the overall story suffers just a hair for it.
My last comment for our initial impression is an interesting observation regarding the production houses behind Redeeming Love. It seems like more and more movies of faith are being produced by foreign production houses. I can’t help but to wonder if this trend might not reflect the United States’ shifting further and further away from faith in Christ. The United States is a superpower, sure, but we used to be one in the catholic (little “c”) church as well. More and more, this is no longer the case. The United States is not the leader in the faith it once was.
A Note on Changes
There are a few changes to the movie from the book that may be important to our themes, and we want to highlight them here before we go into our theme discussions:
- In the book, Michael refuses to call Angel by that name. Instead, he declares that he will call her Amanda. This helps to draw a stark differentiation between her time as a prostitute and as Michael’s wife. By leaving these important naming references out of the movie, the two persons of Angel and Amanda blur a bit. This is somewhat to the movie’s (and message’s) detriment.
- There is a scene near the end of the movie where Angel is recaptured by her original pimp, Duke. In the movie, when she is forced on stage to perform, she instead outs Duke as a predator and pedophile. In the book, however, she instead sings a hymn that draws a savior into the club. More importantly, the hymn shares Angel’s true redemption with the reader—this is the moment where she realizes the true redeeming power of Christ’s love. By leaving this out of the movie, they weaken the message of Redeeming Love a bit.
Not Appropriate for Christian Audiences?
Child prostitution
It seems like the majority of Christian blogs that we’d read, or posts that we’ve seen, are speaking out against this movie. Christian reviewers and pundits are calling out the movie on several issues. First, the female protagonist is sold into sexual slavery at eight years of age. It is a very difficult thing to see on the screen, and many seem to feel that it has no business being represented in a Christian movie. The truth is, though, that human trafficking, particularly for sexual reasons, is a very real, very pressing problem in our world. If we allow this kind of attitude, however well-meaning, to pervade the church, we do an injustice to the men and women, boys and girls, who are caught in this horrific life.
Nudity
Redeeming Love has several scenes where there are inappropriate amounts of skin shown; the actress is nude for all intents and purposes. All that stands between the viewer and total nudity is some strategically placed hair or positioned limb. These instances are all appropriate to the story and consistent with the character, but not always necessary for the message. There are a few scenes where we feel a reasonable assessment is that it went too far. Further, as Cap Stewart expresses in his ‘Redeeming Love’ Irredeemably Exploits Actors and Viewers article on The Gospel Coalition website, “Never mind that two actors who aren’t married to one other were required to spend hours on a film set in various stages of nakedness while simulating sexual acts with each other—acts which Scripture confines to the covenant of marriage (with no exception clause for performers pretending to be married).” There is much to be said for “fade to black” and implications. Loving sex between man and wife is not only a good thing, and should always be thought of that way, it is required in scripture. We just don’t necessarily need to portray it in graphic detail.
It is important to note that the nature of sex for Angel is an important part of her character and development. When the filmmakers linger on the consumption of Michael and Angel’s marriage, they seek to show how the act is utterly different from her work as a prostitute. She is not working, she is not detached; she is a loving wife who is enjoying intimacy with her husband.
Temptation
With this kind of thing, it is important to self-police. If you are weak to sexual temptation, educate yourself ahead of time and avoid any on-screen depiction likely to trigger that temptation. Be conscious of what you can and cannot handle when it comes to temptation. For men, that is likely to be sexual imagery. For women, that is more likely to be emotional intimacy. In both cases, Hollywood generates unrealistic expectations, but they introduce a sin that can enslave you.
A righteous person who yields to the wicked is like a muddied spring or a polluted well. (Proverbs 25:26)
It’s been a while since we’ve pitched PluggedIn here at Are You Just Watching, but I wanted to call them out for how good a job they do breaking down the specific content of concern for each of the movies they review. Their Redeeming Love review is no exception. PluggedIn is a great resource for identifying content that you might find troublesome.
For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. (1 John 2:16)
It’s also important to remember to hold yourself to the same standards for faith-based movies as you do with secular movies. If you call out Redeeming Love for its nudity and sexual content and then happily catch up on Game of Thrones on HBO, you are being hypocritical.
Not the Bible
Redeeming Love was marketed as being “based on the book of Hosea.” There are a few problems with this. First, watching Redeeming Love is not a substitute for reading your bible. In reality, it is inspired by the book of Hosea. In Hosea, God demonstrates his faithfulness to his covenant with Israel through the marriage of Hosea and Gomer. That faithfulness to his promises is a little lost in the telling of Redeeming Love. Not entirely, but you might only understand it if you are watching for it.
Redeeming Love still has a great deal of useful metaphorical and allegorical content that can be used to help explain the Christian life, but it requires thinking critically and discussion.
Weaker Brother
An argument can and has been made that promoting this movie risks violating the “weaker brother argument.”
So the weak person, the brother or sister for whom Christ died, is ruined by your knowledge. Now when you sin like this against brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother or sister to fall, I will never again eat meat, so that I won’t cause my brother or sister to fall. (1 Corinthians 8:11-13)
We cannot always know what will and will not be a weakness for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We may know, however, that some of the content of this book or the movie could help a brother or sister. The sin is not in the act of presenting the potentially weakening material but in if we do it to honor something or someone other than God.
Hard-to-Watch
We’d already discussed it a bit before, but Redeeming Love has several scenes that are very hard to watch. The movie portrays an eight-year-old Angel forced into sexual slavery and indicates that she becomes the victim of more than a decade of repeated sexual abuse. It’s hard not to feel nauseated by the very idea.
In another scene, Angel becomes pregnant by one of her clients, and her abductor, Duke, and his henchman, hold her down while she is kicking and screaming, so the detestable “doctor” can perform a forced abortion. While it’s implied through the imagery of the medical tools, it’s clear that the method would be both horribly violating and incredibly painful.
A big part of storytelling is sympathetic characters. A big part of being a loving Christian is being empathetic to others. Empathy is essential to our witness:
Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15)
When we consider the past of those we witness, we must remember that Christ has already paid for their sins, should he draw them to him. Moreover, our sins are every bit as evil as theirs—praise be to God for their forgiveness!
The Trapped Mind
Redeeming Love demonstrated how the women’s minds forced into prostitution are trapped. They cannot hope for rescue and cannot allow their true feelings to show. For example, Angel does not want to know the names of the men that she takes to bed, lest she becomes attached. When Michael tells her, “You did not choose the life you had, but you can choose the life you want,” she responds with, “I chose to die.” When truly trapped, like in the depths of depression, it can often feel like death is not only a welcome release but the only one available.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:20–23)
This rescue from the trapped mind is what we seek when we witness. We want these trapped minds to experience the redeeming love of Christ and the freedom from the slavery of sin.
All That Glitters is not Gold
Despite Angel’s legendary beauty, despite the lavish trappings of the brothel that she and the girls work, the truth under the service is rotten and evil. There is a vibrant beauty on the outside but a dead soul behind Angel’s eyes. That is what slavery to sin does. Unfortunately, this is how the men and women of today are as well—slaves to sin, despite how beautiful, successful, rich, or influential they may appear. Also, sin tempts through its false glitter. It would not be a temptation if it wasn’t outwardly desirable. But the tempting appearance hides an awful reality.
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasure of sin. (Hebrews 11:24-25)
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him. (Judges 21:25)
A Note About Us
Eve and I are very serious about our responsibility as hosts of Are You Just Watching. In this capacity, we are not church leaders in a traditional sense, but we pray that we do not lead anyone astray.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:19)
We are accountable to God, of course, but we also hold ourselves accountable to you. If you feel that we have misled you or anyone else, intentionally or not, we want you to call us out on it.
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