Plot Summary
When Bob Revere’s son is killed overseas while in the military, he leaves behind a wife and son, along with grieving grandparents. Bob is the mayor of a small town and he feels like the religious freedom his son fought for is slowly being eroded away as outside legal groups try to remove everything Christmas from the town. That’s why Bob, along with his grandson and friends, have to fight against the onslaught by taking a stand for religious freedom in their town—even if it means going to the extremes.
Production Quality (0 points)
It’s clear that, in keeping with a jillion other films like it, Last Ounce of Courage was forced to happen with no regard for quality. The production team gave no care to any details—not camera work, not video quality, not audio quality. There was some effort, however, put into the sets, but they are full of Christmas overload and have that cheesy small town feel. The editing is fairly choppy and leaves the viewer confused. Basically, this was a slap-together effort with a clear agenda behind it, as will be discussed next.
Plot and Storyline Quality (-2 points)
Last Ounce of Courage can effectively be rated as total propaganda. In an attempt to ‘stand up’ for religious freedom supposedly being attacked in a small town, a giant strawman is created. The issue is portrayed as very one-sided and extreme, even suggesting that perceived attacks on religious freedom are responsible for an insane amount of things, such as societal decay. Unrealistic situations are posed that force upon the audience the notion that America is in the midst of all-out persecution (it’s not). Besides this, the plot has an overall zany and off-the-wall feel to it, including bizarre elements that cannot be explained. Dialogue is mostly contrived and other times eccentric. There are too many subplots shoved into the storyline, most of which are beyond-Hallmark absurd. Also, the only African-American characters in the film are the villains. The ending is forced to be perfect in every possible way, like a child’s movie. In short, this is an offensive plot deserving of negative points.
Acting Quality (0 points)
The acting is overall mindless and empty, while at times awkward and in-your-face. Cast members mostly recite their lines as if from a cue card. Emotions come off as programmed and forced. Like the production, little care was taken in this area as the propaganda-ridden plot was forced to happen.
Conclusion
Some Christian film makers seem to have a fetish for crafting an us-against-the-world plot themed with religious freedom overtures. Religious freedom is definitely important, but we find it very hard to believe that the events portrayed in this film have actually occurred in reality. Crafting this sort of false dichotomy only further deepens the divide between Christians and non-Christians, especially when the latter are portrayed in such offensive ways. This is not the purpose of Christian film and we hope to never see something like this one again.
Final Rating: -2 out of 10 points
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I thought that this film touched on all the right areas where Christians have been persecuted during the Christmas season, why did you not like it? The guy was just trying to bring closure to his grieving process by fixing small-town America problems.
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