Over 1,000 Southern Baptist pastors took part in a special screening of "Fireproof," a movie set to hit the big screens in September.
Fireproof chronicles the impact of selfishness, financial struggles, emotional adultery and Internet pornography on the seven-year marriage of firefighter Caleb Holt, played by Kirk Cameron, and his wife Catherine, a public relations executive.
When his wife tells him she wants a divorce, Holt realizes the contradiction between his commitment to run into a burning building to save a stranger but falling short in his marriage. With the help of his father, Holt takes up the challenging -– and often discouraging -- challenge of reviving his marriage.
It is the third film produced by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., after the release of "Facing The Giants" last year. Fireproof is set to release Sept. 26 in about 800 theaters nationwide. Christians are urged to visit the website, www.fireproofthemovie.com, to see if it will be showing in close locations as well as form action groups to try and get the film in their towns.
I have not seen this film and honestly it does sound interesting. What gets me every time these viral marketing campaigns are launched, is the audacity of Christians to seclude themselves in a different group. They make the movies seem to others as only being for Christians when it seems that they would have more of an effect on non-Christians.
I recently read an article in Hollywood reporter that said Hollywood was planning to give up on these type of word of mouth marketing campaigns because they weren't effective.
"From our experiences marketing to faith-based communities, we believe that moviegoers searching for appropriate entertainment don't exist independent from the mainstream," says Adam Fogelson, Universal's president of marketing and distribution to Hollywood Reporter. "In fact, they are the mainstream and depend on traditional marketing to inform decisions about which films seem right for themselves and their families."
From a personal standpoint, I think they are effective. Case in point, I can't tell you how many emails I get a week asking me to vote on this cause, support this person, go see this movie, read this book, etc. The emails are portrayed such as if I do not do what ever it is asking that I am not a "true Christian," so to speak.
Watching or supporting a movie doesn't make me a Christian-good or bad. To be honest, I think these Christian movies don't do as well because of their quality, not because of anything to do with theaters refusing to show them or people not supporting the Christian cause.
I think people are used to big blockbusters on the screens where millions have been spent on special effects, sound, writing, etc. Then these movies come out and they are slow, not as well-written, etc.
I am not bashing Christian movies, please don't leave nasty comments. I think the messages are good. I just think it gets lost because of the conditioning we are used to when watching movies. We are used to seeing fast-paced movies.
Let me explain further. I recently rented Mary Poppins for my kids. I remember loving that movie when I was a child. But something happened. The kids couldn't sit through it, I couldn't sit through it as well. It was nothing like what I remembered. It seemed very slow.
The reason? It is nothing like what my kids are used to watching with today's movies. Movies that portray themselves as these Christian movies seem like these old movies so in essence people have a hard time relating because of the movie itself, not the message.
I hope "Fireproof" is a big success for the sake of the message, but I am not sure I can sit through another bad quality movie.
The movie has also launched a marriage resource site as well: www.fireproofmymarriage.com
