It's a Chick tract come to life. The unbelievers consist of a drunken, abusive father; an angry, frigid mother; and a confused, immature teen-aged girl. On the side of the Lord is a "good" young man with the occasional impure thought and his emotionally-constipated parents, who make Ozzie and Harriet look like degenerates.
The girl goes on a date with the boy after her hateful father berates the mother for spending money on a dress, and the boy sees this emotional downer as a great time to convert her to Christ. The father and mother continue to argue, with Dad stomping out of the house to go drink (after getting in a parting shot about Mom no longer wanting sex, and who could resist such a charmer?) Eventually, the young couple make out (totally G-rated) on the beach, fully-clothed, when the now-plastered Dad finds them and beats the boy enough to hospitalize him.
Dad gets arrested and gangbanged in prison and....no, actually, BOTH sets of parents blame the boy and Drunky-Dad suffers no ramifications at all. It all leads up to a suicide attempt, a fling in Mexico, and final acceptance of the Lord as personal savior, etc.
Watching this today, it's amazing that nobody had a problem with the drunken, abusive, violent father and that it was the girl who "needed saving." The performances are pretty perfunctory (although Evil Dad seems to get into his role more than the other players), and the script is everything you expect for a religious education film. The young girl, the pivotal character, is the weakest actor and does some incredibly bizarre things with her face--in some shots, she looks like Lucille Ball in high clown-gear. Watch it for the 50's-ness of it all, and relish the progress most of us have made since then.
The girl goes on a date with the boy after her hateful father berates the mother for spending money on a dress, and the boy sees this emotional downer as a great time to convert her to Christ. The father and mother continue to argue, with Dad stomping out of the house to go drink (after getting in a parting shot about Mom no longer wanting sex, and who could resist such a charmer?) Eventually, the young couple make out (totally G-rated) on the beach, fully-clothed, when the now-plastered Dad finds them and beats the boy enough to hospitalize him.
Dad gets arrested and gangbanged in prison and....no, actually, BOTH sets of parents blame the boy and Drunky-Dad suffers no ramifications at all. It all leads up to a suicide attempt, a fling in Mexico, and final acceptance of the Lord as personal savior, etc.
Watching this today, it's amazing that nobody had a problem with the drunken, abusive, violent father and that it was the girl who "needed saving." The performances are pretty perfunctory (although Evil Dad seems to get into his role more than the other players), and the script is everything you expect for a religious education film. The young girl, the pivotal character, is the weakest actor and does some incredibly bizarre things with her face--in some shots, she looks like Lucille Ball in high clown-gear. Watch it for the 50's-ness of it all, and relish the progress most of us have made since then.
