KANSAS CITY – As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, it’s difficult to ignore the bitter polarization and loud political strife that seem to tear us apart. Things weren’t always as rosy as we like to imagine, however, and it’s helpful to have a reminder that in times of turmoil and strife, unity, peace, and even revival are possible, at the hand of the one true God.
Enter A Great Awakening, the second feature film produced by Sight & Sound, the theater better known for their stage shows in Pennsylvania and Branson.
Based on a true story, the framing device is the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The United States’ continued existence is not a certainty. The states’ delegates were bitterly divided over the form of government the infant nation should adopt, and as an elderly Benjamin Franklin (played by John Paul Sneed) peers over tiny glasses perched on the end of his nose, it’s increasingly likely their efforts will collapse entirely.
While he searches for wisdom, the rational, scientifically minded Franklin recalls his unlikely and close friendship with George Whitefield (Johnathan Blair), a fiery methodist evangelist from decades earlier who rode thousands of miles through the colonies on horseback, preaching the gospel to anyone within earshot of his booming voice.
“Was Whitefield part of the Revolution?” Franklin’s grandson asks his elder. The reply: “He was the Revolution.” We flashback to see Whitefield’s own conversion at Oxford and conviction that instead of following his plans to become an actor, he is divinely called to preach. First he will go to the dregs of British society, then across the Atlantic. Back in 1787, can Whitefield’s influence help Franklin find the gentle words to help break the stalemate?
I won’t go into more detail of the plot, but spoiler alert: the United States got its Constitution.
Sight & Sound’s first film, I Heard the Bells, is better suited to the big screen, and A Great Awakening is not without its faults. I think the movie is trying to tie the Methodist evangelism of Whitefield and the Great Awakening directly burgeoning American Revolution, but it doesn’t quite connect all those dots. (I’m not an expert in colonial or church history, but the ties seem more likely than not).
Franklin’s lines read like they were cobbled together from every single one of his most famous sound bites (think, “A penny saved is a penny earned”). The man was witty and well-spoken, no doubt, but not this witty, not all the time. It’s also a little optimistic in the degree to which Whitefield had spiritual influence on the famously deist Franklin.
What does work, however, is the casting. Sneed looks so much like your mental image of Ben Franklin, it’s shocking. He brings warmth and gravitas to what could be a tiresome role, especially given the script’s reliance on those “Franklinisms.” I enjoyed every moment he’s on screen.
Jonathan Blair, an alum of I Heard the Bells, also succeeds as the charismatic, driven preacher. The real Whitefield had a lazy eye, which would be impossible to fake, so the movie compromises and makes Blair wear a cloudy contact lens to convey vision problems. It must have been a frustrating way go through a movie production, but Blair’s “good” eye conveys the weight of Whitefield’s gospel message.
I don’t know if the movie will change the hearts or minds of those not predisposed to its message, but I left encouraged. I also left wanting to learn more. I stopped at my local library seeking biographies on both men. I checked out one on Franklin; there’s a six-week wait to read one about Whitefield. This demand, too, is encouraging.
(Note that A Great Awakening is rated PG-13 for brief violence, though I would have zero reservations about screening the movie with younger viewers.)
