The Blind Succeeds Because Character, Not Plot, Drives the Story
The Blind is that rare example of a center-right themed film that accomplishes exactly what it set out to do and succeeds where so many other Christian movies fail.
The recent Daily Wire-produced film, Lady Ballers, meanwhile, proves that the political right still has a long way to go if it wants to not only win the culture war…but actually tell good stories.
Both films are newly available to stream.
The Blind, a filmography of Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson, does not preach and does not try to cram Christianity down the audience’s throat. None of the dialogue sounds contrived. The characters don’t speak stilted and awkward dialogue and don’t say things that people in real life just don’t say.
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The film shows a man who struggled with childhood neglect and, later in life, alcoholism. The Blind implies Robertson inherited mental illness from his mother. Real people connect to this subject. People in contemporary society suffer record rates of anxiety. Dysfunctional families are now the norm rather than the exception.
A religious conversion snapped Robertson out of his bad behavior. The Blind doesn’t portray Robertson’s conversion as anything that just happened overnight. Phil stumbled. He picked himself up. He worked hard to get to where he is now but get there he did.
Lady Ballers, meanwhile, tries to lampoon men who identify as women and compete in women’s sports. A once glorified high school basketball coach who’s had a long losing streak desires another win. He rounds up his old championship team, and…you know the rest.
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Aside from one scene, the jokes in Lady Ballers fall flat, and the pacing suffers from what feels like a first-draft script.
The filmmakers would have made a more compelling movie if they had told this story from the point of view of the real victims, not as a comedy, but as a drama. The real victims, of course, are the female athletes who lost awards, scholarships, and possibly even corporate sponsorships due to this insanity.
The fact that the political right has entered the moviemaking business is encouraging. But from here on out, let’s put on our right-of-center goggles and focus less on the message and more on good storytelling. The goal is to influence more mainstream audiences, correct? The right can’t do that if they keep putting out subpar entertainment.
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Let’s tell more character-driven stories and fewer plot-driven stories. And, please, let’s stop releasing movies where all Christians are oppressed and/or always victims, usually at the hands of an atheist professor or a vindictive legal system. That’s not only one-dimensional storytelling….it makes us look whiny.
Let’s show the world that Christians and conservatives are four-dimensional. Maybe we can help people who are spiritually or politically lost.
Maybe we can plant seeds that sprout and, ultimately, help the world balance itself out.
Special thanks to Warhammer’s Wife for proofreading this story before publication. Follow Warhammer on Twitter @Real_Warhammer
