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Relativity Media is up with a trailer for Machine Gun Preacher, the Marc Forster-directed drama that’s based on the true story of Sam Childers, a rough guy who changed his life and found purpose in establishing a haven for Sudanese children. Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan and Michael Shannon star in the film that will be released Sept. 23.
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This looks fantastic! Nice to see a hero without a cape.
OMG that’s so funny because I was just thinking that Hollywood totally needs ANOTHER movie about a white person saving black people!
Thank you Hollywood for having the guts to bravely tell these stories of white saviors. Awesome!
Why dont you take your white racism elsewhere?
I know you’re probably too busy attending Tea Party rallies to both cracking a dictionary, but racism means attributing a set of characteristics on a group of people based on their skin color.
Saying people with white skin are evil is racist, pointing out Hollywood’s atrocious track record of making White Savior films means you just pointed out Hollywood’s atrocious track record of making White Savior films.
Ditto. HW, your comment is kind of ridiculous.
The truth will set you free, HW.
HW has a point. I’m a working Asian writer in this town. I’m sick of seeing Asians and Indians made to be the butt of jokes. These are written by smart white folks who count as friends. We’re not comic relief.
Cut the crap.
I stand by your not wanting Asians & Indians to be the butt of jokes, but what did you mean by, “These are written by smart white folks who count as friends. We’re not comic relief.” Why would they “count as friends” if they are writing “crap” or whatever your trying to say – I just don’t get what you’re trying to say, and I’m not trying to be funny.
I believe HW was being sarcastic. And being a white person, I completely agree. I mean the poster is too funny. Gerard Butler standing with a gun next to a little black kid. White people are the heros for other races way too much. I bet this will get a Best Picture nom just like The Blind Side did.
Just like Hotel Rwanda.
Idiot.
No, just like THE BLIND SIDE and GRAN TORINO and CONSTANT GARDNER and MISSISSIPPI BURNING and DANCES WITH WOLVES and GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI and GLORY ROAD and AVATAR and LAST SAMURAI and POWER OF ONE and GLORY and FREEDOM WRITERS and jesus christ I’m already tired of typing and I haven’t even scratched the surface.
Go buy a clue about Hollywood’s track record in this area.
Idiot.
Except this is based on a true story. It’s still a good story.
Avatar?
Maybe outsider coming in and helping strikes a chord with people.
Jake Sully wasn’t white?
s
HW, take a note or even better, a history lesson…I’ll sum everyone’s argument against you – it’s called many things but I’ll put the terms in simplest form – ‘Life’ ‘Reality’…it’s sad to see, probably will never see the real problems that are going on…worst of all it’s people like you who are ‘Delusional.’
Wow — that I allow myself to be surprised by the level of ignorance on these forums is my own fault I suppose.
I am simply positing that Hollywood broaches “topical” issues of racism/oppression/struggle/whatever you want to call it, they do it through the White Savior. This fact is pretty self-evident to anyone with a clue. To support this position I cited a very non-exhaustive list of White Savior films and could have listed many more.
So, to kdm and CAS and little soldier and everyone unleashing ad hominem attacks, please, enlighten me: what are the Hollywood films that address these issues and star people who aren’t white? For fvck’s sake even Gandhi starred Ben Kingsley.
I’ll go ahead and spot you HOTEL RWANDA and the inspirational teacher sub-genre of films from the 80s. But please, enlighten me. List the films…
*CRICKETS*
Oh, you can’t? Because there aren’t any? STFU.
Hahaha! Let me guess, HW, you are of color descent…right? HW, why don’t you go out there and change the world or make some sort of life risking sacrifice and then we will make a story about you! How ’bout dem apples?!
I try to stay away from insults, but having seen this trailer that moved me as emotionally as it did, and then to read a comment like this — you, HW, are an absolute fucking idiot and should stick to TMZ or some other Hollywood site that welcomes brainless nonsense.
Maaaaan, I’d love to smack you in the mouth…
So a trailer with pretty music and stirring images can stir you emotionally, therefore people who point out that Hollywood has been making White Savior movies for the past eighty years deserve to be smacked in the mouth?
You’re obviously a bright guy Indrid.
Apparently you are unaware that there are church groups that travel to Africa and other foreign territories to help people in need. Color isn’t an issue in human compassion. But you must work in the industry, and your headset doesn’t stretch out that far.
Absolutely color isn’t an issue in human compassion — unfortunately it’s a BIG issue in what movies get made and who gets the starring roles.
Exactly. These supremacists are never going to understand let alone accept the institutional racism that still permeates this culture in general & this industry particularly. They have too much to gain from everything remaining the same.
I think we all need movies about people fighting for the downtrodden regardless of race.
I’m all for movies about people fighting for the downtrodden, but the whole point is they’re NOT making them regardless of race, they only make them with white heroes. Over and over and over again.
Oh yeah. Nothin’ more original than a-white-guy-saves-those-poor-black/latin/indian/asian/arab/whatever-people movie.
It ain’t no Billy Jack that’s for sure.
And whoa! Gerard’s American accent is awful.
M.O.W. for guys. Too bad there’s not a Lifetime channel for dudes.
There is. It’s called ESPN.
A white man goes into Africa to help the poor black people who can’t help themselves.
Never seen that one before.
no, it hasn’t been done before.
and to insinuate that it falls into a LONG list of White Savior films makes you a racist!
the general rule: if you bring up a racism problem that clearly needs fixing, YOU are the racist. Never mind the problem itself. We wont even think about it. We’ll automatically judge you because we can’t be bothered to face the obvious.
oh, and get over it. lol
Because we when I think trailer park single moms who date biker dudes on parole I TOTALLY think Michelle Monaghan.
Nice casting guys.
Are you implying that Miss Monaghan is not talented enough to pull off a trailer park mom performance and that tough masculine biker dudes with charisma are incapable of attracting pretty girls?
Did you seee Michelle Monaghan in “North Country”. Good casting.
De white man saves Africa… Again!!! Whoopeeee!!!
Anyone on this page aware this is a true story? Has anybody checked on the current status of Sam Childers?
I personally know Sam Childers…traveled to Sudan on a mission trip with his family. He is real and his work is real. The movie is an accurate depiction of his life…as accurate as a hollywood movie can be with the time constraints. I have met children that he has saved. He is an unorthodox preacher that has made a difference in the world. I have seen and now I am responsible, Sudan 2010.
He sounds amazing. But not every amazing person’s life story makes an amazing movie. Especially when it’s a story that’s been told a zillion times fictionally and factually but with a few different details.
And Gerard’s terrible American accent is painful to my ears.
This looks like 2 hours of your life that you will never get back–
Was this putrid effort produced by PAX or the Trinity Network?
You do realize that this film could not be produced by the Trinity Network or PAX since the film is R-rated with a sex scene, drug dealing, drug taking, brutal violence, and sordid language. The trailer is “G’ rated but the movie isn’t.
Drat! This will completely reverse everything THE HELP has done!!!!!
hahahahah
Since it is a true story I suggest you go tell Sam face-to-face that he sucks. Let me know how it turns out.
Uh. Let me get this straight: so anytime that anyone who can beat you up has a hand in a movie, it means that movie is going to be awesome? Please share whatever other insights you have.
This looks like a great movie. So why don’t you take your white hating racism elsewhere?
Why is it white hating racism to point out the truth?
I’m confused as to who the audience for this movie is and how this marketing effort is supposed to reach them.
There’s bviously not enough action to attract the action fans, no romance to speak of (unless you count occasional pep talks via cell phone), the words “starving orphans in famine and war-stricken Africa” loses 75% of your audience right off the bat.
This does look something from the PAX network, maybe they’ll try a BLIND SIDE-style approach to churches in middle America, but the film’s pedigree (especially Forster) seems totally wrong for that.
Don’t get it. Wait and see I guess.
The Help with RPGS. Ugh. Please no more movies for at least a year where white people save the “helpless” black people.
Really!
They made this?
In 2011?
Please.
Execs feeling guilty is one thing but don’t drag poor Africans into it. Some INSPIRING TRUE STORIES don’t need to be MAJOR MOTION PICTURES.
I really can’t believe they made this!
It’s come to this? Scripts are secondary. Apparently, all that’s now required is a title. “Snakes on a Plane?” Sure. “Cowboys and Aliens?” Why not? “Fuel-Injected Nun?” Absolutely. Throw in some fast cuts and CG monsters and you have an opening weekend.
i had a chance to read this script and it’s an amazing true story.
Can I hire you?
Oh darn it’s a “true story”? Rats. When I saw the post title, I was hoping it was the sequel to “Hobo With A Shotgun”
Awesome. That’s exactly what I was thinking!
Wow! So many cynics here. Quit your bitching. It looks like a damn good film. By the way, it’s not about “another white dude saving Africans,” it’s about redemption. No wonder you fucks keep making more comic books into movies. Your cynicism overrides your story-telling abilities.
Who cares it’s about redemption. Every story is about redemption. Find your redemption somewhere else.
It’s not ‘us’ fucks making the cynical comments. We read the script and know that it’s good and know that Marc is good and know that Gerry is, well, the script is good.
And btw, to those cynics (not you, Scott) would you prefer that the movie not get made so Americans can continue to not pay attention to genocide and famine in Africa? You seem to imply that it would be better to not make the movie at all. If you care so much about the plight of Africans, that doesn’t really make a lot of sense, does it?
Oh yeah, because Americans don’t already know how terrible it is in Africa. This movie will make everyone get up and go help. Please.
From all I’ve heard, the guy this is based on is the real deal, so good on him.
But this trailer? GAH! It’s like someone watched “The Blind Side” and said “How can we make this even MORE of a big wet red-state ass-kiss?” and someone else said “What if we replace Sandra Bullock with ‘RENEGADE?’”
What makes this pure, 100% garbage, isn’t that it’s a story about redemption or a Rambo saving black people in Africa; it’s smug. Also, how does this work for Gerard Butler’s audience? It falls between the chairs. You might as well stamp BOMB across the screen in red letters with a trailer like this. Marketing, good luck to you.
I think the trailer to “Machine Gun Preacher” is fine. The movie may also be something of a marginal success. The trouble with it, as I can tell from the trailer — and what I know of the real story upon which it is based — is that yet again dark people from a darker continent are the foil against which the main white character gets his redemption.
And getting his redemption is far different than earning it. It appears from the trailer that once he makes the decision to go to Africa he has resolved himself to a course of action to do something and that something eventually escalates into taking up a gun. I’m sure the story would have been richer if the young people he encounters were the source of his redemption but it sure appears that this falls into the low-hanging fruit of “white protagonist swoops in and saves the day” — a tried and true formula on display, from “The Help” to “Dances With Wolves” to “Blind Side.”
And while I have voiced my nitpicks here I still found the trailer to be emotionally deft. I wish the writers, producers and actors luck with this one. (Additionally, it is nice to see the supremely talented African actor from “Goodbye Solo” get a co-starring nod here….)
“Dances with Wolves” and “The Help” were nothing like that and the kids do help the machine gun preacher find a different purpose
I think that once people actually go and see the movie they will realize that the film is a powerful piece of work that speaks to doing something in this world to make it a better place. The problem with forums like this is that most of the assholes talking are not doing anything at all in their life or to affects others lives in a positive way. Its funny because i have had the pleasure of meeting Sam and I am not sure I will call him a good guy and I am not sure that all the things he has done are right but he is trying to do something. He is trying to make the world a better place and save children. He doesn’t put others down with words he acts…He has done something right or wrong…What have you little fools done. Were is your story…We will never see it because you will never have a real voice loud enough to be heard…
… but, friend, this is a super-hero film too … without the tights and the fiends from space.
Cool story. What an amazing way for a guy to turn his life around and do some good in the world. “Monster’s Ball” was a great movie, and “The Kite Runner” was interesting too. Unusual talent, Mr. Forster…
Looks like an amazing story. Adding this one to the Wish List for movies to check out.
The movie looks good to me and I’m an LA-based liberal type so take that for what it’s worth. I think it’s great when a movie that appeals to mass audiences shines a light on global issues. Also, I am not a religious person but I certainly have great respect for religious people who actually practice what they preach and make a genuine effort to make the world a better place instead of people who march around with “God Hates Fags” posters. Also, Marc Forester is a reputable director with talent so I say we should give this one a shot…
Actually Reverend Phelps is a false prophet he preaches that people who do not believe the way he does will go to hell yet he holds a bible which tells a different way to get to heaven – that is a false prophet and a cult.
What has happened to this world?. Since when do people critize someone for changing their lives for the better and trying to help others. Get away from the computer and make a difference. This looks like a good movie. Finally Hollywood is making something that is worth seeing. Or I guess you can go watch Pirates of the Carribean 4,5, and 6 or Batman and Superman 4,5,and 6 or Incredible Hulk 4,5,and 6….or Ironman 3,4,5,and 6….. Indiana Jones, Star Wars…. etc,etc…. Enough already. This is a true story and an original one…and it doesn’t hurt that Gerard Butler is in it… Hoorah…
Kudos to your comment. I enjoyed the trailer and look forward to seeing this film. I have always been a fan of Gerry Butler. He has the guts to take on a variety of interesting roles. This is a great story about a brave man that acts on his beliefs rather than just look at pictures on the news. Those that do-do. Others just walk away and say “I hope someone does something”. to quote many civil rights leaders “You are either part of the solution or part of the problem” .
It’s da blood diamond, mon!
I’m confused — why is this called MACHINE GUN PREACHER and not MACHINE GUN BIKER DUDE or MACHINE GUN ROUGHNECK or MACHINE GUN NEOPHYTE HUMANITARIAN WORKER?
Didn’t see any evidence that Butler’s character is, you know, an actual PREACHER. Whatever.