From 2008 to 2016, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Nissan teamed up to offer a contest. Sony sought out the best players of Playstation’s Gran Turismo racing game and sent them to the GT Academy. At the academy, they would try translating their virtual skill into a real-life professional racing career with Nissan Motor Sports. Over that time, GT Academy produced 22 total winners, many of whom went on to win championships and podium spots in numerous famous races worldwide.
To tell this story in a relatable way, screenwriters Jason Hall, Zach Baylin, and Alex Tse took the eight years of the contest with all the contestants, managers, engineers, and races. They put it all together into one coherent story, starring one of the more spectacular success stories from the program, Welsh driver Jann Mardenborough. The 2023 movie Grand Turismo is the product of their labor, starring Orlando Bloom, David Harbour, Archie Madekwe, and Djimon Hounsou.
Gran Turismo is a fairytale-like story with all the traditional elements. Jann is an underprivileged young man with seemingly unachievable dreams, yet he achieves them through the magic of an influential yet unexpected mentor. Eventually, though, Jann must come to terms with the real-world consequences of those dreams, which he does with the help of an unwilling grizzled old veteran. In the end, Jann comes to terms with his new reality and wins the admiration of his peers, the veteran, and his mentor.
The score is thanks to a collaboration between Lorne Balfe and Andrew Kawczynski. It’s spot-on with energy and intent and melds nicely with the movie’s various scenes.
First Impressions
Gran Turismo is a bit lopsided in ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie had a remarkable 98% audience score at our recording time but only a 65% critic’s “tomatometer.” Eve and I both lean toward the audience score, apparently more forgiving than many critics to the departures from fact and the mixing and matching of events, racers, and timelines.
While fans of the game might get more out of the movie than non-fans, Gran Turismo is a solid underdog racing movie and wholly enjoyable, even without knowing anything about the game.
Orlando Bloom plays the character of Danny Moore, the advertising executive who pitches the GT Academy idea. He brings tremendous talent and not a small amount of maturity to the role. While he doesn’t have much screen time, he delivers when he is on screen.
Likewise, David Harbour does an excellent job. While he doesn’t demonstrate the same range as Orlando Bloom, Harbour makes Jack Salter feel real and likable. He shows character growth right alongside Jann and helps make their relationship work.
The framing of the Gran Turismo story allows the movie to use an intriguing device: gamification. It helps to remind the audience that Jann comes from the gaming world and frequently sees real racing through that lens. It’s a device that they could have easily overused but MOSTLY didn’t. Once scene, early in the movie, an “achievement” pops up: “Cop Avoidance.” This annoyed me. First, I don’t like that aspect of many of the popular games out there, like Grand Theft Auto and Payday, but second, and more importantly, it is not part of GT, the game that all the other pop-up simulations reference.
Like Episode 143’s Devotion, the “based on a true story” part of Gran Turismo requires many compositing characters and rearranging events to address pacing and energy. The movie does an excellent job of compressing a tremendous deal of data and condensing it into characters, events, and a story we care about.
Parenting a Child with Impossible or Unrealistic Dreams
A significant portion of the story of Gran Turismo hinges on Jann’s relationship with his father, which is strained because of Jann’s unrealistic dreams. Steve and Lesley Mardenborough are rightfully worried about Jann. He’s graduated high school and dropped out of college to pursue his racing dreams, but he doesn’t know how to make it happen. Steve, a professional European football player in his youth, knows well what happens when you don’t have a plan. When he could no longer play football, he worked at a coal mining railyard. He doesn’t want Jann’s unrealistic dreams to lead him into an unskilled job when he knows Jann could do so much more if he had a plan.
Jann bristles at his parents’ attitude, taking it as a personal affront. He sees it as a sign that his parents don’t support his dreams. When Jann suddenly becomes a racer through the most unbelievable circumstances, his relationship with his father is further strained.
Steve and Lesley believe that the best path forward for Jann is college, which certainly is a path forward, but there are others. We often see this attitude today; many believe you need a college degree for the best jobs and positions. It’s just not true any longer. Many college graduates have a more challenging time finding work now than skilled vocational workers and make less money.
The amount of faith a dream deserves is tied to the maturity of the dreamer. Steve and Lesley see Jann’s vision as less realistic because they have decades of experience in “the real world” to inform their assessment. Like almost all parents, they see Jann as their little boy (and always will), so they want to protect him from the potential consequences of not being prepared to fail.
From a theological perspective, this raises some tough questions. For God, nothing is impossible:
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
An entire theology called the prosperity gospel is built around this and other verses to suggest that even the most outlandish dreams are achievable, so long as you do the right things to encourage God to grant your desire. It’s true that, for God, nothing is impossible. God CAN make me an instant gazillionaire, but the likelihood of him doing so is, let’s say, very low. Yet, faithfully drawing the line between the unrealistic and the realistic and critically evaluating your goal honors God. This kind of critical evaluation requires prayer and meditation, the study of scripture, and seeking the help of your peers and mentors, all to examine how your desire compares to the expressed will of God in scripture. If you desire to glorify God and do His will, and it is God’s will, God will make it happen. Yet part of that is your expression of faith through works.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. (James 2:14-17)
Work Ethic
or, Doing What You Love Takes Hard Work
No one can earn salvation through work. Christ completed the work of salvation about 2,000 years ago on a hill just outside of Jerusalem. It does not matter how often you work in a soup kitchen or how much money you give to charity. Salvation is a result of Christ’s work, not yours. PRAISE GOD, salvation is a gift freely offered.
Eve’s Christian high school motto was “work, study, worship.” Isn’t that the wrong order, though? Shouldn’t worship be first? But one of the things that the school was most famous for was imparting a strong work ethic in its students. Those who survived the several years of school to reach graduation benefited from this instilled ethic. In a society where so many want a paycheck but don’t want to work, learning a work ethic is crucial to success.
Confucius said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” While this isn’t strictly true–everyone has a slog of a day here and there–this saying correctly implies a big difference between doing a job you enjoy versus laboring for a paycheck.
There is a scene after Jann takes the blame for stealing and damaging his Dad’s car, where Steve brings Jann to his job in the railyard to get a taste of the kind of unskilled, tedious manual labor that his future might hold should Jann’s plans fail. Steve means it as a “don’t touch the hot stove” lesson. But the timing is such that Jann has to storm out to make the online qualifying race for the GT Academy.
The movie shows the physical stresses that race car drivers undergo: incredible g-forces, extended high temperatures, and endurance tests. Driving a race car is no joke, and Gran Turismo drives home (heh) the point that the drivers must be dedicated athletes. This required work ethic rightfully led to the disqualification of many of the GT Academy attendees.
The word of God is not quiet when it comes to work. The theme of work is second only to that of the Gospel in scripture.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. … Slaves, obey your human masters in everything. Don’t work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:17, 22-24)
The work we do, regardless of what kind of work it is, is pleasing to Him when done for the glory of God.
Commit your activities to the Lord, and your plans will be established. (Proverbs 16:3)
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
The critical part here is, “Commit your activities to the Lord.” When you are working towards God’s glory and in His will, He will enable you.
While you can not earn your salvation, work is an integral part of redemption. When you work towards God’s glory, it is a manifestation of your changed heart.
Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. (Ephesians 4:28)
In his letter to the church Thessalonica, Paul links the importance of work and charity and shows the perspective of work for the early church.
Now we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from every brother or sister who is idle and does not live according to the tradition received from us. For you yourselves know how you should imitate us: We were not idle among you; we did not eat anyone’s food free of charge; instead, we labored and toiled, working night and day, so that we would not be a burden to any of you. It is not that we don’t have the right to support, but we did it to make ourselves an example to you so that you would imitate us. In fact, when we were with you, this is what we commanded you: “If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat.” For we hear that there are some among you who are idle. They are not busy but busybodies. Now we command and exhort such people by the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and provide for themselves. But as for you, brothers and sisters, do not grow weary in doing good. (2 Thessalonians 3:6–13)
Christians must be careful not to fall into the Hollywood mantra of “follow your heart.” Through God’s expressed will, we know we can’t trust our hearts. We have fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ to build each other up and sharpen each other. We collectively study the Word of God and advise each other on interpreting God’s will through the Word.
Overcoming Trauma
Racing is among the safest sports for participants and spectators, especially recently. The engineering that goes into safety features is a billion-dollar business, and it shows. NASCAR is currently among the safest spectator sports out there.
What’s more, every time there is an accident, engineers and scientists study every aspect of the event and learn anything and everything they can to make the sport safer for everyone involved–athletes and spectators alike.
After establishing himself as a race car driver, Jann suffers a freak accident that results in a spectator’s death. Jann was injured, but his recovery was as much mental as physical. Jack recognized this and gave one of the better “back in the saddle” speeches to build Jann up. It was good not as much for what Jack said but for the build-up to what Jack said and how Harbour delivered the lines. He wraps the speech with an important concept that ties in well with Paul’s admonition to believers to run their race well:
That crash is not gonna define who you are. But how you respond to it will. Finish your lap.
The Believer’s Hope versus the Unbeliever’s Loss
Finally, I want to comment on two types of trauma: Believers and Unbelievers.
When a believer suffers a traumatic event, we can call on God and demand answers. We can ask, “Why?” We can pin the blame on the sovereign Creator of the Universe. We can get angry with God. Eventually, most believers will understand two truths from Paul’s epistle to the Romans. First, just because we can’t put our grief into words, it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t hear our prayers:
In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. (Romans 8:26)
The second truth is only two verses later, but it easily took me a decade to come to terms with it:
We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
It’s not a sin to be angry, but anger makes it easy to sin:
Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity. (Ephesians 4:26–27)
Aaron’s death is a central theme when my wife and I present our testimony. It focuses on trauma, healing, and God’s faithfulness. God always delivers on his promises. It’s often not on our timetable, which can make it hard, but His timetable is perfect.
Consider the unbeliever’s trauma. When they suffer a trauma, like the death of their child, who do they blame? Who can they cling to, yell at, or desperately pray?
Therefore, since we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your consciences…For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised. (2 Corinthians 11, 13–15)
Consider this verse when your unbelieving friend. Let the love of Christ—the love that carries the believer through denial, anger, and bargaining- compel you to share the comfort that a sovereign Lord brings even the worst sufferer.
Are You Just Watching? is listener supported. Special thanks to our current patrons: Isaias Santillano, Craig Hardee, Stephen Brown II, David Lefton, and Peter Chapman for their generous support. We can't continue to share critical thinking for the entertained Christian without your financial help, so please head on over to our Patreon page and become one of our supporting patrons! What did you think of Gran Turismo? We would like to know, even if just your reactions to the trailer or the topics we shared in this episode. Or what general critical-thinking and entertainment thoughts or questions do you have? Would you like to suggest a movie or TV show for us to give a Christian movie review with critical thinking?Please support the podcast!
Share your feedback!
Please connect with us
