Machine Gun Preacher is due for release September 23rd starring Gerard Butler as "Reverend Sam Childers", now Reverand Childers is not your ordinary missionary, known by his other name the The Machine Gun Preacher, Childers was born in 1962 and grew up into a life of drugs and violence.
Sam became a hells angel getting into fights, dealing drugs and eventually becoming a bodyguard to drug dealers, it was at this time that Sam remembered the words of his father who had said "Boy somebody's gonna kill you one of these days" and Sam addicted to booze and drugs decided to try and turn his life around.
Sam started to do construction work as he battled his addictions, his wife Lynn played by "Michelle Monaghan" after first choice for the role "Vera Farmiga" had to pull out, had returned to the church for guidance so Sam also took up God, in an attempt to help him with his inner demons. In 1998 sam joined a mission to the Sudan to help rebuild village huts destroyed by the conflict and it was here that Sam saw the real horrors that men inflict upon each other, one of these horrors was the remains of a child blown apart by a landmine.
He made up his mind to help the people any way he could returning to the Sudan some months later to help with a mobile clinic, on his travels he passed the village of Nimule in an area run by the LRA "The Lords Resistance Army" a brutal militia run by Joseph Kony that killed and tortured whole villages, responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent people, the LRA also kidnapp children for their militia.
It was here that Sam said God had spoken to him and told him to build an orphanage at the spot, Sam sold the construction business he had built up and used all the money he had in building the orphanage to house the children of the war, at night he began armed raids against the LRA to rescue the kidnapped children and bring them back to safety rescuing hundreds of children.
These raids earned him the nickname the The Machine Gun Preacher but it also earned him a bounty on his head from the LRA, The Machine Gun Preacher Childers said that one of his aims was to capture Kony but had been unsuccsessful.
The orphanage at Nimule is the largest in southern Sudan housing over 200 children and run by volunteers some victims of the LRA.
The film documents the exploits of the Machine Gun Preacher from violent biker to savour of children who would otherwise be trained to become soldiers in the LRA or worse.
My review is of the movie and how it shows the exploits of Sam Childers as he attempts to turn his life around, we all know films are made of half truths and that the reality of Sam Childers life may be totally different from that portrayed in the movie.
The trailer looks promising and Gerard Butler is a great actor who should play the part of The Machine Gun Preacher well, until the movie comes out we will not know but once I have seen it I will be back with an update.
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