Jesus Revolution (2023)
Chuck Smith’s church is dying. Everyone’s bored. He’s bored. His congregation is bored. On the other hand, they feel somehow in the right because they’re not bowing to the hippie culture. Chuck’s daughter, Janette, issues a challenge to her dad: “Have you ever talked to a hippie?”
Enter Lonnie Frisbee, who was in the thick of the drug scene at Haight-Ashbury before becoming a Christian and preaching the Good News. His methods of ministry are different and he’s willing to share them if Chuck is game. Chuck is initially annoyed, but is won over after a jam session with some of Lonnie’s friends.
Meanwhile, high school student Greg Laurie is living with his mom in a trailer by the ocean; well, more like he goes about his business while waiting for his mom to sleep off her latest bender. Greg drops out of military school when he meets beautiful blonde Cathe, and he’s not shy about saying so. They dip into the drug culture together, but Cathe’s scared straight when her sister almost dies one night.
Greg has his own wake-up call when the high-as-a-kite driver of the van he’s riding in almost crashes. Suddenly Greg is out of there. He doesn’t want any part of the rootlessness he’s always known and knows there have to be absolute truths somewhere.
Where these two stories converge is when things get really exciting, but they also get real. These characters are suddenly at the center of a movement that sweeps the country and sees them baptizing almost a thousand people a week at Pirate’s Cove. Egos and insecurities rear their warty heads as time goes on, with people questioning Lonnie’s methods because they’re too dramatic, and Greg’s inexperience a supposed barrier to preaching. And still the people keep coming.
It’s hard to know where to start talking about Jesus Revolution because it surprised me on so many levels. Since I was born in the San Francisco East Bay during the afterburn of the Jesus Movement, I have a lot of vivid memories and thoughts about the time period. A lot of what I saw, such as One Way signs, ratty secondhand shoes, long hair, love beads, not to mention the ubiquitous “Smile! God Loves You.” emblazoned on literally everything, is in Jesus Revolution, and it felt like heady, comforting time travel.
Jesus Revolution is a standout among Christian films. It’s not only made well and acted well, but it doesn’t do awkward humor or ramrod an entire sermon into the narrative at one go. Its presentation of the Gospel is shown, not just told, and it’s done in a very balanced way, such as when one of Chuck’s older congregants joins the hippies on their side of the church instead of keeping his distance with the rest of the suits.
There’s no way the movie could tell everything. For one thing, the sole Jesus Movement band featured in the film is Love Song, which is great because they were pioneers, but they weren’t the only ones. A whole other movie could be made just about Jesus Movement music—that’s how big it was. One of my friends fronted a prominent Christian band during that time and he has plenty of stories.
For another, the movie doesn’t go into a lot of detail about why Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee parted company. Frisbee was not only criticized for being overly dramatic, and some nowadays would even say New Age-y, but a really common complaint was that he put more emphasis on winning converts and having experiences than on teaching the Bible.
They weren’t wrong. The late, great apologist Dr. Francis Schaeffer used to say that if one’s Christianity was based on having an experience, what would be left when the experience was gone?
For what it is, though, Jesus Revolution does an excellent job of balancing Frisbee’s charismatic style with the solid Bible teaching given by Chuck Smith and later Greg Laurie. Smith makes it clear that those who come to Jesus will find liberty from what traps them. Not acceptance, but liberty. In other words, the old life is gone and the new begun. Drugs are not the answer. Free love is not the answer. Jesus is the answer. We even get to hear the Sinner’s Prayer from start to finish when Lonnie baptizes Greg, who finally finds the absolute truths he’s been searching for.
The late sixties and early seventies were a time of upheaval in the United States and around the world, with people searching for anything that would make their lives make sense. We see the same thing in our world today, with people searching for something, anything, that would make their lives make sense. Nothing has changed. The time is right for Jesus Revolution, and judging by the way audiences and critics alike are responding to this film, a second revival is long overdue.
Jesus Revolution is currently in theaters. Rated PG-13.
My grade: A+
Principal cast: Kelsey Grammer, Joel Courtney, Jonathan Roumie, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Anna Grace Barlow, Ally Ionnides, Julia Campbell, Nick Bishop
Directed by Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle
Written by Jon Erwin, Jon Gunn, and Greg Laurie (book)