I just saw the movie The Sunset Limited, a made for TV movie produced by HBO. I was interested in it because I saw in the IMDB page that it only starred two actors, namely Samuel L. Jackson, and Tommy Lee Jones, and those two names were major league enough for me to want to see how they would carry a movie that seemed to be heavily made up of dialogue. Not wanting any spoilers, I didn’t read the rest of the page to see what the plot was about or anything else about it. That’s why I was delighted to realize, as I was watching it, that it was about faith and Christianity, with huge bits about the Bible and Jesus Christ in the dialogue.
This movie snuck up on me much like the movie To Save a Life did. I didn’t realize until a quarter of the way through that movie that it was about Christianity as well, and while it wasn’t perfect (it certainly didn’t make enough of an effect for me to write a review about it), it had its good points. But what delighted me about it was stumbling upon a movie like this when I least expected it. It caught me by surprise, but in a good way.
Also, I would not have considered Samuel L. Jackson to have the role that he did in this movie. As an actor, the role that I most strongly connect his name with is his gangster/killer role in Pulp Fiction. It’s not the latest of his movies, I know, but he has this attitude about him, this swearing, swaggering, tough guy attitude, that I think was really highlighted in that movie. Besides, he was the first actor for which I have seen the use of a soundboard, and I’m ashamed to admit it now, but I found his cursing to be very amusing.
Everything happens inside an apartment for the entirety of the movie, and these actors were of just the right caliber to pull it off. Like I said, I was interested to see how they would carry out the conversation, and I was not disappointed. The lines were so natural between the two, the words flowed between them so effortlessly, that it was hard to imagine that they needed more than one take for each segment.
It wasn’t only the delivery of the words, it was the acting behind them too. You really believed that they believed in what they were saying. One was a professor, and the other was a Christian, and the two of them made you believe that they were what they were down to their very soul.
But first, a spoiler alert. You might not want to read rest of what I have to say if you want to see the movie first.
The gist of it is that the Christian was trying to convince the professor that life was meant living after one pulled the other away from the train tracks from which he had planned to commit suicide. It wasn’t explicitly stated, but the professor was a staunch atheist who didn’t believe in God. The Christian was a train worker who is an ex-convict who found God in jail, and has since then committed his life to spreading His Word.
This movie is difficult to watch for those seeking to evangelize. It implies futility. It implies that difficult people will remain difficult no matter what we say or do. It implies that there will be nothing we can do and nothing we can say to convince anyone who has already convinced themselves otherwise. Stubborn people are stubborn, and that is that. Towards the end, as the Professor got out of the apartment, he did so with a knowing smirk, thinking that he had won some great argument.
Pfft.
It had me tearing up during the climax, all the way through to the ending, because of these words by the Christian:
(Shouted) Professor, I know you didn’t mean them words. I’m gonna be there in the morning. I’m going to be there you hear?! I’m gonna be there!
(To God) I don’t understand why you set me down there. I don’t understand. If you wanted me to help him, then how come you didn’t give me the words? You gave them to him, what about me? It’s all right. That’s all right. If you don’t ever speak again, you know I’ll keep the word, you know I will, you know I will, you know I’m good for it.
Is that ok?
During that last bit, it was implied that he was waiting for a response that didn’t come, at least not during the span of the movie. But it was also implied that he knew that answer might never come. But what struck me in his wordless state was that he managed to convey the following all at once, and without saying a word:
Lord, I am talking to You because I know You are there. But I also know that You do not answer people directly sometimes. I don’t understand You sometimes, and I know that you can also be stubborn, in your Godly way, but I believe in You. And I know that You are there, and the next time someone else comes down here in front of me, I’m still going to go right ahead and talk to them about You no matter what they say, no matter what that Professor said, because I believe in you. I just hope and pray that You give me the right words next time.
That’s some powerful acting right there.
I might be reading too much into it, God knows I can relate to so much of what both the actors are saying, but overall I think it’s a great movie. It might not resonate as well with unbelievers because of the underlying topics. I know it would reach more than a few people will watch it because of the two actors. But I hope they stay for the message as well.