So I watched Unplanned last night, and while the overall plot was quite good and even educational, I pretty much hated every technical aspect of the film. The casting and acting was horrible, the music was straight from Christian music hits and a 1980’s synth, but the dialogue writing was probably the worst – just bad and cheesy.
The film’s story starts out okay, complete with the full-fledged reality of what an abortion procedure looks like, but after that, I felt like I was being slowly preached to. And because of that, I’m curious to know who this film is for. Is it for the right leaning pro-lifer who already has a negative opinion on abortion? Because if it’s for anyone else, you’ll probably be hard-pressed to find a pro-choice advocate walking out of the movie with a different opinion. Maybe a Christian libertarian that’s riding the fence might be swayed, but I fear that pumping Christian hit music tracks and praying over a bucket of fetus parts is going to sway your typical non-Christian liberal. What a missed opportunity!
I feel like Pureflix and other Christianese film companies have a tendency to “jump the shark.” There’s little to no mystery in the writing and it’s so painfully obvious what they’re trying to do with their motive by hitting you in the face with it, that I can feel and hear the cringe-induced eye rolls from those that can see right through the facade (if you can even call it that – it can come across as a sermon).
So what can they do? Is it worthless to attempt such endeavors? Should they just give up an incredible opportunity to share the Gospel in the medium of film?
No, but the writers/producers/directors really need to evaluate the dialogue-writing – you can write real dialogue without changing the message or even the larger plot points.
As Christian filmmakers, they have an opportunity (and I daresay responsibility) to ask the questions of what the film’s goal is and who the audience is. I can appreciate a film by Christians for Christians, but if proving God’s existence (A Case for Christ/God’s Not Dead) or proving the horrendous homicidal harm of abortion (Unplanned), then writing in a ton of Christian themes and tropes isn’t going to benefit an outsider of the Christian world. It would really benefit their writing, plot, etc. to run these scripts by any agnostic/liberal/atheistic screenwriter. Without changing the plot, you’d be surprised how much more real/non-preachy the dialogue could be transformed.
Some might claim I’m advocating for lukewarm Gospel preaching, but I’m not. My theory is that a lot of the change we see in social norms is not by bombastic hit-you-over-the-head aggression, but by subtle, warm conversations and non-judgmental communication.
For Christian filmmakers to be effective in swaying public opinion, I would argue this is how you win people over to your side.