After dinner today Barbara & I watched a film called "Gridiron Gang" starring The Rock.Gridiron Gang tells the of juvenile detention camp probation officer Sean Porter (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), who, along with another officer, Malcolm Moore (Xzibit), turns a group of hard core teenage felons into a high school football team in four weeks.
Confronted with gang rivalries and bitter hatred between his teammates, Porter teaches some hard lessons (and learns a few himself) as the kids gain a sense of self-respect and responsibility. Porter becomes a sort of father figure to these youths that they never had, he disciplines, shows love and as he kicks their backsides for wrong doing he channels their energies toward something else. At one point the script actually says about how the detention centre is failing because it leaves a void in their lives which they had been filling with the gang stuff.
Some truth is prominent in this film which unashamedly points the finger at fathers who were not proper fathers in many ways to their children, a strong visual illustration to us of how our kids can turn out if we neglect our God given rolls as 'head' of our families.
Touching the 'void' issue I would say that often we tell people to stop sinning but fail to give direction along with the kick up the ass. A lesson for us not only to call people from sin but to clearly direct and lead them to Christ and to pour themselves out for Him who alone can truly fill the void.
Another prominent issue that stood out was the masculine, male leadership of Porter; let me just say he was anything but a weak, indisicive man that is so often the portait of todays man in our films, comedies and tv shows, and though he was good and kind and loving to these boys you would not describe him as 'the nice guy' that so often we send to our bible colleges to become pastors etc.
I'd highly reckommend this film although I would warn that there are some curse words in it. and to sum up i'd use this film to illustrate the calling for men, fathers and husbands to be just that...MEN!
