Okay this was something truly special. And something that actually really resonated with me, personally for a variety of reasons.
But first off, and before I get into any of that, bravo to everyone involved. Especially you, Chandler. This was absolutely phenomenal in every sense of the word. Cannot wait to order the Blu Ray of this in the coming weeks.
I live in South Carolina, unfortunately. Although there’s a lot of wonderful things (and immense beauty) about cities like Charleston and Greenville, there’s obviously a lot of troublesome things about southern states that, without even saying of what the majority are, you already know.
But one of the biggest things you experience growing up in the south is an intense exposure to Christianity. Almost everywhere you look, at every road to seemingly nowhere - you’ll find a church pretty much preaching the same (or close to the same) things.
My father was actually a pastor growing up, so right from the start, I was surrounded by faith and the church. I was also surrounded and indoctrinated into a lot of problematic views and felt like, in many ways, my own personal views were instantly shattered or didn’t matter when it came to what I was told. Every different opinion I had was shot down almost instantaneously solely based on the “fact” that it wasn’t “what the Church believes” (whether it’s actually written in The Bible or not).
So it took me an incredibly long time to separate my personal views and outlook on the concept of faith. And once I treated faith more personally, it finally allowed me to break free and find myself in a way I never had before. Christianity became synonymous with life/political views I felt were wrong. But accepted anyways, sadly, until around 2017-2018.
I may not have been hunted by a religious cult like Luke, but I most certainly warped my outlook on life to fit that of the church’s. Which is a horrific and outright dangerous thing to do. So metaphorically, I related to this big time. I know this is a lot of words and could just be seen more of a personal reflection, but it just goes to show how films can affect us all in various always, and can tackle themes and concepts that are very much real in fictionalized ways.
This was seriously really good, it’s an absolutely gorgeous film that I’m beyond happy to see on streaming. Again, a massive hats off to every single person involved. This was amazing! Glad it was one of my first watches of the New Year!
Might even boost my rating later, but this was so good. And, most importantly, organized religion is the worst.
