Sam Childers is a former motorcycle driver, he seems to want to make a completely different and exciting trip. Here Sam's trip is to go to East Africa to help repair homes devastated by the civil war in a hideous way. In the end, that journey turns into another turning point when Sam becomes a crusade man for hundreds of Sudanese children forced to become soldiers in that resistance.
In telling a true story, ambiguity can be an asset; but instead of mapping a middle course, director Marc Foster veers between two kinds of falsehoods.
It's an uncomfortable marriage of sentimental genre conventions and real-life tragedy shown with graphic detail. It does bring you inside the main character's internal struggle, but doesn't seem focused enough as it sways into action film territory.
Despite a competent performance from Butler, Machine Gun Preacher tackles way too much material to present a cohesive onscreen telling of the Sam Childers story.
What looks on the surface to be yet another inspiring story of one man's salvation turns out to be instead both an examination of modern atrocity and a rethinking of the burden/beauty of belief.
With all the talk of "Kony/KONY 2012" wending its way into the culture, this movie gives a vivid picture of who this villain is and why the world should be doing something about him.
With an exploitation-friendly title like Machine Gun Preacher you'd think this movie would be the soul brother of Hobo With A Shotgun. Unfortunately, that is not so.
