Film Analysis: Facing The Giants

1 Corinthians 9: 25-27 states “All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified” (NLT).
This these verses may have a different meaning to a variety of different people but one things is for certain that all athletes religious or not must respect these solemn words because they describe what it is that we as athletes or even former athletes must go through or have gone through in order to achieve certain goals and aspirations. Furthermore, after watching

the life changing movie Facing the Giants starring Alex Kendrick who plays high school football coach Grant Taylor who in his six years of coaching high school football has never led his Shiloh Eagles to a winning season but when seemingly insurmountable personal and professional crises, the idea of giving up has never come easier. It was only after an unexpected visitor challenged Coach Taylor to trust in the power of faith that he discovers the strength to persevere (2007).
After watching the movie I was reminded of several times in my life where I or people that I know were just like Coach Grant Taylor on the brink of giving up or “throwing in the towel” but someone came along and challenged us to put our faith into action.

The movie Facing the Giants truly is a symbolic of how we as athletes, coaches and individuals in fact do face off against “giants” (obstacles) in our lives and we must put or faith into effect in order to get out of the situation. The movie provides several strong points, some of those points have already been mentioned up above but, one aspect that the movie touches on that needs to be highlighted is how individuals are extremely different when it comes to how they view and value religion, family, sport, and winning. One example of how individuals are extremely different and how they have different views when it comes to religion and family is in the movie Facing the Giants, people in the community are more concerned about having a winning program and getting rid of Coach Grant Taylor than they are with how them getting rid of Coach Taylor will affect his family. Another powerful example of religion and how some people value religion and family over sports and winning is, during the early part of the movie how David’s father who is in a wheel chair explained to David how he believes God brought him to the team in order to use him and to show everyone that despite his size and strength God can still use him and receive the glory

(2007).
Furthermore, people can value their religion over sports, family and winning. One great example of that was during the course of the movie Mr. Bridges would pray for and touch the students lockers because he was believing God for a revival and how he quoted a verse from the book of Revelations to Coach Taylor and presented him with a parable about to farmers and how even though the two farmers prayed for rain only one farmer prepared his fields for rain. I found this to be extremely powerful because it showed that Mr. Bridges was just like one of those farmers he told Coach Taylor about that even though he hadn’t received his revival yet he was still believing and praying for one faithfully, regardless of the teams record over the years, regardless of the players and coaches family situations, and regardless of which sports were involved or not involved he continued to steadfast in prayer (2007).
Nevertheless, the movie Facing the Giants was a impactful and powerful movie that has principles and qualities that provided a revived picture of how individuals compare and contrast different values in regards to sports, religion, family, and winning.