Review of Billy: The Early Years (2008) by Warren S — 09 Oct 2008

The main reason to see this film is for the lead actor, Armie Hammer. What a find! A good looking and charismatic actor who really made me feel that I was looking at the young Billy Graham. Stefanie Butler as Ruth was also very good, and I didn't even recognize Lindsay Wagner as Billy's mother, another good performance.

The fault with this film I'm afraid lies with the director, Robby Benson. I always liked him as a young actor, but this seems to be his first venture into directing films and I wasn't sure that some of his choices here were the best ones for this movie.

(he's been directing TV shows since the early 90's) It had the feel of a low budget Christian Film, though I don't think it was a Christian film at all. The story focuses on how Billy came to Christ and then felt the call into the ministry and how he met and fell in love with Ruth.

The side story was about his best friend, Charles Templeton, who was also an evangelist, but later denounced his faith and walked away from it forever...as played by Martin Landau in his aging years. I thought these scenes with Landau weakened the film, although he is a great actor and was really acting up a storm as the crazy old man.

(He actually died of Alzheimer's, so that could be why he played him like that) He plays the narrator telling about Billy in an interview, though this was an interesting side story that I never knew about, I found it dragging the main story.

I just wanted to watch Hammer play Billy and learn how this all happened for him. This wasn't as good as I had wanted it to be, and I think it may end up being nothing more than a kicking off point for Hammer's career.

It was also fun learning some stuff about Billy Graham that I didn't know.