''God's Army'' is a 2000 American

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

film

written Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

directed Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), a ...

by and features

Richard Dutcher Richard Alan Dutcher (born 1964)Click "Biography" in the bottom-left of this web site: is an American independent filmmaker who produces, writes, directs, edits, and frequently stars in his films. After making '' God's Army'', a successful 2000 ...

Plot

''God's Army'' is about

LDS LDS may refer to: Organizations Religion * Latter Day Saint movement (LDS movement), a collection of independent church groups **The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest group within the Latter Day Saint movement * Latvijas ...

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

as they struggle with their work and, almost inevitably, their

faith Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, inc ...

. The movie focuses on a pair of missionaries, Elder Allen (Brown) and Elder Dalton (Dutcher) serving as missionaries in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

(" elder" is an office in the priesthood and a title male LDS missionaries use while serving missions). Dalton is a seasoned missionary and Allen is a new recruit paired with Dalton to be trained. Allen questions his reason for being on a mission. He is a somewhat faithful member of the church, but his father was

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the con ...

from the church and his mother doesn't attend anymore. Dalton proves to be a demanding taskmaster and he demands much of Allen—almost too much in Allen's eyes. Allen teeters on the brink of leaving his two-year mission almost as soon as it begins. Allen witnesses another missionary lose his faith and abandon his own mission. Allen changes his mind as he finds the sacrifices others have made to be on a mission, such as ostricization from family. His own companion, Elder Dalton, dropped out of medical school to serve a mission and is fighting a losing battle with

brain cancer A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign (non-cance ...

. After a trial of his faith and some earnest soul searching, Allen finds untapped courage and embraces his work as a messenger of

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

Main cast

*Matthew A. Brown as Elder Allen *

as Elder Dalton *Jacque Gray as Sister Fronk *

Desean Terry Desean Kevin Terry is an American actor, acting coach and theatre director. He is best known for his recurring role in the television series '' The Morning Show'' (2019–2021). Filmography Film Television Video games Producer Reference ...

as Elder Banks *Michael Buster as Elder Kinegar *Luis Robledo as Elder Sandoval "the

Lamanite In the Book of Mormon, the Lamanites () are one of the four peoples (along with the Jaredites, the Mulekites, and the Nephites) described as having settled in the ancient Americas. The Lamanites also play a role in the prophecies and reve ...

" *Jeff Kelly as Elder Mangum *John Pentecost as President Beecroft *Lynne Carr as Sister Beecroft

Production

It was financed by private investors.

Reception

This movie was taken on a tour of North America for special engagements. It was primarily intended for members of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

(LDS Church) audiences, but non-LDS viewers were also welcome to showings. The film was well received by its target LDS audience but was met with some confusion by non-LDS viewers. Many professional critics were pleased at Dutcher's willingness to address some of the more sensitive issues of the LDS Church, such as its past policy that restricted most black members from ordination to priesthood offices. They also enjoyed the look into missionaries' struggles and the work they face. Despite this, some felt the film was too

apologetic Apologetics (from Greek ) is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their beliefs against critics and recommended their fai ...

. It currently has a

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

score of 38/100, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews, and holds a score of 54% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

based on 13 reviews. the film's box office sales ranked 67th all-time among Christian films.

References

External links