My thoughts on the movie, Courageous

In the last six months I’ve seen the movies Water for Elephants and The Help, both movies were suggested by my friend Brenda. Both were good movies, well worth my time and money.

Today, I suggested we see the movie, Courageous. As the movie scrolled through the credits, Brenda and I agreed that I am banned from picking movies for awhile. It wasn’t worth the time or the money, in my opinion.

It was my understanding that the movie was about four police officers who were working toward finding a balance between work and home life. It sounded like a somewhat interesting plot, and I always appreciate the good scenery of men in uniform.

The writers introduce four officers and their family situations. All were typical representations of today’s family units, a family of four with a wife, husband, young son and daughter. Another was a single dad who hadn’t yet met his 4-year-old daughter because he was running from the responsibility of being a father. The third man had a wife and three kids and was new to the department, trying to fit in with his new partners. Finally, the last was a divorced husband who saw his young son every other weekend and was struggling to survive paying child support and his own bills.

As I relaxed in my chair, popcorn in hand, I watched as the story line unfolded as the one officer was faced with the death of his 9-year-old daughter. The death brought led him to question what type of father he had been to his daughter, what type of husband he was to his wife and the role model he was for his son. In his time of sorrow he turned to God for help.

Over the next hour and a half the men decided to write a resolution proclaiming their wishes to be honorable men and honorable leaders in their homes. Here’s where I had an “issue” with the movie!

The writers went a little overboard drawing direct conclusions between each man and his quest to acknowledge God in his life. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in God and I understand the need for religion, but a little Bible lesson goes a long way. The repetitiveness of their message that God makes all possible was overkill. I was thinking that this two hour movie was the equivalent of six months of Sunday sermons. For a moment I flashed back to the bad after school specials that I hadn’t seen since I was in third grade.

I won’t go into more detail about the various sub plots in the movie for those of you who may still want to see the movie and make your own decision about whether the amount of God references was too much.  I’m curious to know what others think about the movie.

As for me, I believe the overall message of including God in one’s life and being a positive mentor for others is a great message. I just wish the writers would have illustrated the lesson rather than beating me over the head with it.