Cast: Kirk Cameron, Brad Johnson, Janaya Stephens, Chelsea Noble, Clarence Gilyard Jr., Gordon Currie
Director: Vic Sarin
Producers: Paul Lalonde, Peter Lalonde, Joe Goodman, Ralph Winter
Screenplay: John Bishop and Alan B. McElroy, based on the novel by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye
Cinematography: George Tirl
U.S. Distributor: Cloud 10
Cheesy. Silly. Moronic. Dull. Plodding. Torturous. All of those words can easily and accurately be used to describe Left Behind, an exceedingly poorly made motion picture that purports to offer a Biblically influenced approximation of what the so-called "End Times" might be like. In fact, Left Behind is less interested in telling a compelling story than it is in preaching. I really can't see anyone who isn't an evangelical Christian finding anything the least bit engaging about this motion picture. Left Behind will probably gain some support from its core target group, but the average movie-goer will likely find the experience of sitting through Left Behind to be tedious at best. As propaganda, Left Behind probably works; as a feature film, it's an abject failure.
As mapped out by Biblical scholars who use the Book of Revelation as their primary source material, the End Times are supposed to go something like this... First comes the Rapture, the event during which all of the true believers in Christ will be bodily assumed into heaven, leaving Earth to the unsaved. Next comes the Tribulation, in which mankind will be forced to endure a kind of purification by fire: the grueling and torturous seven-year reign of the Anti-Christ. Finally, Christ will return to judge the world, and life on Earth as we know it will cease to exist. (People have been predicting the end of the world since the dawn of man; why should it be any different in the twenty-first century?) Left Behind concentrates on the beginning of the End Times, detailing the Rapture and the rise of the Anti-Christ. Then, running out of time, it abruptly ends, stopping right in the middle with no sense of closure.
Investigative reporter Buck Williams (Kirk Cameron), pilot Rayford Steele (Brad Johnson), and his daughter, Chloe (Janaya Stephens), are among those left behind when their friends and family members mysteriously disappear one night. As they try to discover what happened to their loved ones, the world's political system is thrown into chaos. Eventually, one figure - U.N. Secretary General Nicolae Carpathia (Gordon Currie) - emerges to offer peace and unity to the troubled planet. In addition to possessing a seemingly limitless wellspring of charisma, he can manipulate people's minds. Despite seeing through Nicolae, however, Buck unwittingly helps him in his quest for domination.
Left Behind's problems are almost too numerous to catalog, and they have nothing to do with its religious underpinning. The direction, by TV veteran Vic Sarin, is pedestrian at best - there isn't a single dynamic shot in the entire picture. The story is hopelessly contrived and simplistic. No degree of suspension of disbelief will make the most outlandish events seem remotely plausible (such as the U.S. ceding control to the U.N. because the President and other government heads died or disappeared, or people accepting "radiation" as the official explanation for all of the disappearances). The public reaction to the Rapture, which could represent fascinating material, is sketched out in broad, unimaginative terms: mass hysteria with no psychological depth. The protagonists are almost cartoonish. Not only are they weakly written, but the actors portraying them are ill-equipped to give compelling performances. Top billing for Kirk Cameron?? Cameron wasn't that good as the smart-alecky Mike Seaver in TV's long-running "Growing Pains" - his past baggage combined with a limited wellspring of talent effectively sinks any chance we have of accepting Buck as an interesting or believable lead.
Left Behind makes no bones about having been produced by Christian filmmakers for a Christian audience. That's it's hook. No profanity. No sex. Virtually no violence. And to fill the vacuum left by the extraction of those motion picture staples, we have...lots of running around and bad dialogue. (Someone actually says, "Never wait for opportunity to knock. Yank open the door and drag it inside screaming and kicking.") Not to mention people who act like they know they're pawns in a writer's predictable script. And there are the shoddy production values that make the movie seem like it was originally designed to premiere on PAX-TV.
There's actually some confusion about whether the film was ever intended to be released in theaters. Despite being based on a best-selling novel (this is, by the way, the first time I have ever seen the phrase "based on the best-selling novel" in the opening credits), Left Behind has been on video store shelves for several months now, which makes the decision to try a theatrical run rather odd - presumably, most of the book's fans have already seen the screen adaptation. And, while it's conceivable that a well-made Christian-themed movie could find a wide audience, this particular effort is too inept to be seen by most viewers as anything other than an unintentional comedy. Left Behind is an appropriate title in more than one way, because that's exactly what's going to happen to this movie at the box office.
© 2001 James Berardinelli