They had me at hello, to borrow the phrase from another football-related movie, Jerry Maguire. I’m a sucker for football movies. Rudy, Radio, Remember the Titans, Friday Night Lights (the show is better than movie, to me), The Longest Yard, Brian’s Song, All the Right Moves, We Are Marshall, The Blind Side, The Waterboy, Invincible, Wildcats, The Replacements… I could go on. Few things boil down the struggles of life like the microcosm of football. As a backdrop for a movie, it’s just a no-brainer. In the end, football gets down to the struggle to never give in, never give up, and keep fighting. Facing the Giants takes that backdrop and adds purpose.
Coach Taylor finds himself as low as a man can get in life, and like Job, he turns to God for relief. Ultimately, he puts God back in the center of his life, puts it into his team’s philosophy, and begins to live every day for His glory. The blessings he and his team reap are staggering. A great, feel-good family movie with a substantive underlying truth: God is worthy to be praised, and mighty to save.
