Samuel Davis – Through the Shattered Lens

In 2012’s Abel’s Field, Kevin Sorbo plays the role of Abel. He’s the new groundskeeper at a small town high school, one of those places where football is king. No one in town really seems to know much about Abel and that’s fine with Abel. He keeps to himself and he prefers not have long conversations with people. He works hard, he tries to stay out of trouble, and he spends a lot time writing in a notebook on which he keeps a very close eye.

And let’s give credit where credit is due. Kevin Sorbo actually gives a very good performance as Abel. I know that some people will snicker when they read that. At this point, Kevin Sorbo is so associated with a certain type of politics and a certain type of religion and a certain type of movie that merely mentioning his name will send some self-appointed cultural critics into a frothing rage. That said, Sorbo is one of the better actors to have found a niche in the faith-based film industry and he does a good job playing the role of Abel. He’s convincing as a man who doesn’t want to get close to anyone but who is still kind enough to reach out to people who need help.

Seth McArdle (Samuel Davis) is someone who could definitely use some help. A 17 year-old high school senior, Seth has had to step up and take on an enormous amount of responsibility. With his father having vanished and his mother having died, Seth is taking care of his two younger sisters. He attends high school, he works two jobs, and then when he finally returns home, he just hopes that he has enough money to pay the babysitter.

When Seth yells at the arrogant high school quarterback after the latter runs a stop sign and nearly hits Seth’s sisters, the entire football team starts to target Seth. The team is struggling on the field this season so they decide to take their frustrations out on Seth. Seth can’t even walk down the school hallway without the team attacking him. Because Seth fights back, he’s the one who ends up getting in trouble. Seth is told that he has two options. He can either help Abel install a new sprinkler system for the football field or he can just drop out of school.

(Wow, that’s harsh.)

You can guess where this is going. After an awkward beginning, Abel eventually becomes a mentor to Seth. Abel and Seth discover they have something in common. They’re both down-on-their luck and their both kind of miserable. When the bank threatens to foreclose on Seth’s house, Abel is there to try to keep Seth from breaking the law in order to pay. They share a lot of pain but they also share a common faith and, eventually, Abel even shares the dark secret from his past. How much that secret surprises you will depend on how much you know about the stories of the Biblical Cain and Abel and Seth.

Abel’s Field is a surprisingly effective film. Yes, it’s a religious film but it’s nowhere near as preachy as some of the other films of the genre that I’ve seen. The characters are portrayed as being flawed individuals who are trying to do their best in difficult situations. Both Davis and Sorbo give good strong performances. Believe it or not, it’s a good movie.

The 2012 film, New Hope, is narrated by Michael Evans (Samuel Davis).

Michael is a seventeen year-old preacher’s kid whose father, Alex (Will Schwab), has just gotten a job in the small town of New Hope. As a result, Michael has to move in the middle of his senior year. (Yikes, not fun!) He’s not happy about that and, to make things even worse, Michael’s father has talked the high school basketball coach, Tom Miller (Reg Rob), into putting Michael on the team.

(Is it normal for coaches to put someone on a team without having them first try out? The basketball team is in the playoffs, after all.)

Michael tries to explain to Coach Miller that he’s not that good of a basketball player. Coach Miller replies that he doesn’t really care whether or not Michael is a good player. Instead, he wants Michael on the team so that Michael can be a role model for the younger players. Coach Miller assumes that, as a preacher’s kid, Michael will automatically be a good influence.

Uhmm …. has the coach ever met any preacher’s kids before?

Seriously, I live in Texas and, when I was growing up, my family moved all over the Southwest. I have known a lot of preacher’s kids and, for the most part, almost all of them were wild. Even the ones who were religious and planning on going into the family business were wild. When you’re a teenager, your natural instinct is to rebel against whatever it is that your parents are about and, as a result, preacher’s kids usually have a lot to rebel against. There’s a reason why everyone automatically understands what that Sweet Talkin’ Son Of A Preacher Man song is about.

And even if Michael isn’t wild (and, because this is a faith-based film, Michael is a surprisingly well-behaved high school student), how is it fair to tell anyone that they have to be a role model for a bunch of people that they barely know? Michael’s only been a student at his new school for a day.

Michael quickly finds himself in conflict with the team’s star player, Lucas Green (Ben Davies, giving the closest thing that the film has to a good performance). Lucas’s brother also played for the team until he committed suicide. Lucas, with his unresolved issues of anger, feels that Michael tying to take his brother’s place. Lucas gets even angrier when Michael starts to date his dead brother’s girlfriend, Jasmine (Perry Frost). Meanwhile, Michael’s parents get upset when they discover a condom wrapper in his jacket. Oh, you silly parents! Michael isn’t a typical preacher’s kid. The only reason he took the condom out of the wrapper was so he could throw it away.

(Seriously, Lucas seems more like a preacher’s kid than Michael.)

There’s a whole genre of faith-based films that use sports as a metaphor for having faith and not questioning authority figures and New Hope is definitely a part of that genre. Michael has no real desire to be on the basketball team but both his father and his coach want him on the team so Michael goes with it. It’s hard not to feel that Michael really needs to stand up for himself. The film is all a bit too long (the film clocks in at over two hours) and unrealistic. It’s a film that tries to tackle all of the important issues of growing up but it does so in far too ham-fisted a manner. Personally, I think Michael should have quit the team, bought a beret and a pack of Clove cigarettes, and taken a creative writing class. He would have been much happier and no one would have expected him to be a role model. There’s nothing wrong with trying different things and making your own decisions. There’s nothing wrong with being a rebel. That’s what being a teenager is supposed to be all about.