Review of Freetown (2015) by Rock E — 11 Apr 2015

"Freetown" is a low-budget Christian film about a group of missionaries in war-torn Liberia in the early 1990's who become refugees and seek to flee the country. They are seeking asylum in Freetown, Sierra Leone to avoid becoming entangled between the rebels and the nationalists.

The missionaries are caught in the middle of the fray and are only seeking to spread God's word without becoming targets themselves. I was able to sit through this entire film, but I found the pacing rather uneven, and parts of the film are very heavy-handed.

As many heavy-handed Christian films before it, this movie makes the missionaries out to be the saviors and the indigenous African people to be unconverted pagans who need spiritual liberation. While I respect what they were trying to do, it may not be the best decision to enter a country in the middle of a civil war to spread your message, as these young men find out the hard way.

Parts of this film were a drag, as the pacing gets slow in certain points. I don't think the direction was extremely high-quality, and some of the cinematography is off also. This is basically a humanitarian film that is indistinguishable from other film about refugees caught in countries at war in Africa.

It may be worth a peek on Red Box for the message, but this film is awkwardly paced and was not my favorite ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C+.