Last Ounce of Courage

“Last Ounce of Courage” is a timely message about religious liberty and the duty of keeping it. Should the American church investigate the early encroachments on American liberty, they are not so violent, not so extreme. The church slept through Darwin’s early days, so much she was given over to his doctrines and the recovery has been a strange hustle ever since; sadly, the basic knowledge needed to refute the most fundamentally flawed evolutionary concepts is not present among the average Christian’s understanding. Fourteen years are spanned within this film. That’s just long enough to take us from Bill Clinton’s days of “don’t ask, don’t tell,’ to a world where we are daily bombarded with an alphabet soup of boldly promiscuous letters, each designating some deviation from God’s plan for sex and the marital relationship.

“Last Ounce of Courage” is about sleeping Christians and waking Christians. It excuses no one. In the main character, Marshall Teague—playing Mayor Bob Revere—it calls out to a man who bears the guilt of an old war situation gone awry, and again speaks to the same man who lost a son in a later war and says “who told you that it was time to sleep?” I am not worthy to call a man who has been through so much to fight stateside, as well, but who can be so bold as those who have witnessed the cost of freedom first hand? “Patriots, we need you”, this film cries out, “for this other kind of war, fought stateside, in your homes, your neighborhoods and your cities”.

1st Thessalonians 5:6 says “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”

Bathed in apathy, sadness and guilt, Bob buries his son in a graveyard and his shiny hog [motorcycle] in the garage, all in one breath. He is awakened fourteen years later by his grandson, who in a moment of contemplation takes the respectful liberty to ask, challengingly, what his father fought and died for. As the mayor awakes, he begins an almost immediate mission to rectify his country’s past. It’s Christmas time, and he is going to make the most of resurrecting shepherds, angels and other symbols of the nativity, as well as a cross, to let his city know that it is time to wake up and stand for the freedoms so readily allotted in the past and taken for granted, as benign, in the present. As the rest of the story goes, who knows what price a man, a woman, a policeman, a child who stands for what is right will be? And who does know? How far and how quickly are our freedoms eroding? God forgive those who are asleep and awake us lest this beacon go out. That is the heart of this movie.

PROS and CONS

The message of this film is not something to miss. If you are not yet awake, run to the theater as one on fire running to water. If you are awake, how much so? This is a touching film about a man who gave his all more than once. What immense rewards are built upon that caliber of stamina?

For me, the trailer left some to be desired. For instance, Bob’s monologue in the trailer is direct and flat. In the movie, it is by far my favorite scene. I want to see that monologue again. It is sincerely inspiring.

This movie carries a good amount of experienced actors for such a low budget film. I can’t say that I believe the actors are put to their best use or that the camera shots are worthy of them or that the edit is worthy of the work that went into it, though I can’t presume to know what the uncut film looked like.

The camera work is sporadic. The film is not on par with Christian films of late. However, I must come back to the message, which is sure. People are inspired, God is glorified in a new song, and the drama is effective, if lacking quality in many aspects.

CONS (other)

The wife of the soldier who dies in the beginning of the film falls for her late husband’s friend fourteen years later. While this is not in itself a bad theme, this same friend of the late husband has children, as well, and we hear of a separation that we never come to know more about. Divorce should not be used as a placeholder in a story, as a segue to giving a broken heart, or two, a gap to fill. Not desiring to make the story in my image, but only to give you an example of how this could have been done differently, what if the late soldier’s friend were still married and this story were fashioned to show a national audience an idea they are yet to know in a modern context — the care for widows. There is nothing unbiblical about a widow remarrying. There is a problem, however when one of society’s great ills (divorce) is injected into story in order to make it more interesting or give someone a familial place to fall in love.

I did not make note of this while watching it, but in one dramatic scene, an American flag is placed in front of the Christian symbols on a stage. This was a great disappointment to a friend of mine at the theater. Her sentiment was that this was reflective of the rest of the film and that the gospel message could have been more fully delivered in a few easy lines. For my part, I see this film truly as more about religious liberty and the duty of keeping that, than the Christian story itself. While I am sure my friend will not be alone in her opinion, I see this movie as a wake up call. God Bless America.

Violence: Moderate / Profanity: None / Sex/Nudity: Mild

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

• Positive
• Negative
• Young people