Faith-Based Family Film
Believer and Doubting Thomas Bond En Route to Vietnam War Memorial
Two GIs, Stephen George, played by Sean McGowan and Edward Adams, played by Scott Whyte, served together in Vietnam behind enemy lines. Despite the fact that George is a devout Christian and Adams is a doubting Thomas they became best friends.
Sadly, both men were killed in battle in 1969. Each left behind a child that he never got to know.
Fast forward 25 years and we discover the paths of the two children, now adults. Stephen’s son John, played by Kevin Downes, has inherited his father’s strong faith. Edward’s son Wayne, played by David David A.R. White also gained something from his father, a disdain for organized religion. Two apples didn’t fall far from their parental trees.
There is a wide gulf between the attitudes of the two men, and apparently it has had a profound effect on their fortunes. John, the strong believer, is stable and successful, and he is preparing to marry the love of his life, Cynthia, played by Candace Cameron Bure. In complete contrast, Wayne is definitely an underachiever who has had more than his fair share of run-ins with the law.
The two men live far apart, John in California and Wayne in Mississippi, so they have never met. As John prepares to marry his fiancee, he decides before he marries her, that he needs to repair a hole in his soul by learning about his beloved father. His quest leads him to Wayne, who just happens to have the letters his father mailed home from the Southeast Asian jungles.
After the two men meet, they decide to read the letters while making a pilgrimage to the Vietnam war memorial in Washington DC. They travel by road, and the trip is eventful, as Christ and the devil battle for Wayne’s heathen soul.
This is a flashback drama, which alternates between the spiritually oriented discussion of the sons and recreation of their fathers’ similar discussions of the virtues of Christianity. The sons discuss this throughout the road trip as their fathers had discussed it on their fateful tour of duty.
Modern Parable
This is Faith of Our Fathers, a modern faith-based parable directed and co-written by Corey Scott, known for Hidden Secrets.
Fair warning: this movie features wholesome family interactions, but there is occasional proselytizing. (“Know that Jesus loves you and that you can trust Him.”) This is distracting, but not so overpowering as to spoil the experience.
Watch out for Born Again Baldwin Brother, Stephen. He appears in a scene-stealing performance as Sergeant Mansfield, the only character to appear both in the past and in the present scenes. In 1969, he was chastising Steven for preparing the men in his unit to die. But 25 years later, it is a different story when he conveniently intervenes in a deus ex machina moment.
Faith of our Fathers is a latter-day variation on the Prodigal Son parable from the bible, proving once more that God still works in mysterious ways.
Faith of Our Fathers
Very Good (3 stars)
Rated PG-13 for brief violence
Running time: 95 minutes
Distributor: Pure Flix Entertainment
Watch the Faith of Our Fathers trailer:
