Finally, a movie that gets the church right. You only get one night to see it in a theater. This Thursday.
Justin Skeesuck and Patrick Gray take up a journey that represents the length of their friendship. Along the way, they find out they have more friends than just each other.
Billed as, A Camino Journey of 500 Miles, Two Best Friends and One Wheelchair, I’ll Push You is more than that.
A Breastplate of Presence
After pre-viewing I’ll Push You, thanks to Ryan Parker and his team, I could not help but think of St. Patrick’s Breastplate. Particularly these words,
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in the hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
No doubt you will be taken by the story of these two friends. I dare not diminish the power of their friendship. What I mean by drawing out that the story about more than these two who travel the El Camino de Santiago is that they experience others as friends as they never thought possible.
Patrick, the Pusher in the film, took up the challenge thinking he could provide all that Justin needed to make the trek across the likes of the Pyrenees. None of us could do that alone. He did not have to.
Real Faith, Not Scripted
One of my friends pre-viewed the film and later discovered the two men are men of faith, Christian faith. I suspected but could not be sure. It did not matter. The story evokes any number of themes that are worthwhile, particularly for the day in which we live.
Many get excited when explicitly Christian films hit the mainstream.
Maybe it should generate more excitement when the stuff of real life is captured and by the sheer force of the lived life, the message of friendship and faith needs no special advocacy. It is apparent. These are the sorts of pieces that stir everyone. Or so they should.
Don’t Delay
I did.
Ryan sent the link over for the preview. My schedule left me waiting for enough time to get to it. Eventually, I had to play it in the office.
Todd wept.
Sure there were places along the way of the film, in the form of a documentary, stirred lots of emotions. For me, that last 30-45 minutes proved climactic for its expansion of the central plotline about two people.
It is about more than that.
Just like our own stories.
We are all about more than just what we see in front of us.
Remember Patrick’s Breastplate.
See It
Thursday, November 2, at 7:30 p.m. your local time across the Country.
If you miss it, maybe because I posted late, it will be out digitally in 2018. But, as with most movies, this one would be great on the big screen. Up close. Personal.
