Fighting the Temptation to Ignore the Lyrics



Stan Williams, Ph.D. is Executive Producer of SWC Films of Northville, MI. You may reach him by e-mail at [email protected] or on the web at www.StanWilliams.com.



Perhaps the most entertaining and explicitly Christian movie with a major release in 2003, with apologies to any biblical epics that I missed, was The Fighting Temptations. I make that claim unabashedly after dancing and crying tears of joy in my seat through the screening last fall, and now after watching it on DVD.

In The Fighting Temptations, Darrin Hill (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a debt-ridden con artist who travels back to his small hometown of Monte Carlo, Georgia to claim the inheritance left for him by his late Aunt Sally. Upon arrival, Darrin finds that he must fulfill Aunt Sally’s last wish before he can collect: He must lead the local church gospel choir to success at a national competition. Accepting the challenge, Darrin must now turn a choir of lackluster parishioners into gospel gold, a task that almost defeats him until he learns to tell the truth and let the truth into his heart.

One of his re-discoveries is the beautiful Lilly (Beyoncé Knowles), a church friend from his childhood who, along with her mother, was chased out of the church by do-gooders. Now a nightclub singer with a voice that could rock the competition at the annual Gospel Explosion, Darrin needs a miracle (and a change in his heart) to persuade Lilly to return to church and sing.

In a totally entertaining, foot-stomping way this ironic MTV production proclaims what it means to be forgiven, saved, and sanctified while living in a world (and sometimes a church) full of sinners. And it's that last part that got some Christian movie reviewers bent out of shape. One well-known Evangelical movie reviewer described The Fighting Temptations with these words: “It denies the power of God and the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to change lives; the Christian church is full of hypocrites and nobody really repents….” For this and other “sins” he rated the film one slight step above “Abhorrent.”

It is true that The Fighting Temptations, rated PG-13 for sexual references, bares the hypocrisy that exists in some churches. But the movie also graphically reveals that God's salvation is available to all people, from the prison felon to the slick con artist, to the greedy, to the alcoholic, to the womanizer, to the unwed mother, to the wishy-washy pastor, and to the church hypocrite. Although the confessions and subsequent forgiveness do not occur in Act 1 or 2 where the previously-mentioned reviewer might have liked them, they do occur in Act 3 along with an unpopular Fundamentalist theme — God still loves all of us, even if we're not good enough and especially when we're not worthy.

Like all good musicals, the emotional and spiritual heart of the story are expressed in the lyrics of the songs, not in dialogue. Here are excerpts of the lyrics from one song.

Time to Come Home

It doesn't matter where you been

Or what you did wrong

It doesn't matter who you are – You're always welcome

It only matters what your heart believes

and you confess

If you committed any sin you'll be forgiven

Callin' on all of our children

Time to come home

If you want to be delivered

Time to come home

I've been rescued by the Savior

Time to come home

If you wanna be in His favor

Time to come home

In His everlasting arms.

The movie is exceptional, too, for the variety of musical styles, from blues to barbershop to gospel to hip-hop to rap. In that latter category is Christian rapper T-Bone. Todd Hertz writes in the on-line edition of Christianity Today, “T-Bone said that for the three months he was on the Fighting Temptations set, the cast grew into a family and he saw God work among them. 'I was able to pray with Cuba Gooding almost every day. I was able to pray with Beyoncé Knowles and Rue McClanahan,' he says. 'I was able to lead Lil' Zane to the Lord. It's incredible to see what God has done and will do through this movie.'”

Baptism is central to many branches of Christianity, and it plays a powerful role in The Fighting Temptations, although it's not of the sacramental variety. Introducing the pivotal baptism scene down in the local river, are two musical numbers slammed back-to-back. The first is a barbershop rendition of the gospel favorite Down by the Riverside performed by The O'Jays. About the time they get rolling, they're interrupted by an updated version titled To Da River performed by rappers Lil' Zane and T-Bone with augmentation by Montell Jordan.

Watching the theatrical version, it's tough to catch 30% of the words. Listening to the music-CD gets you another 50%, but T-Bone is so fast and clever that it took the subtitle option on the DVD to get the words all down. Here are excerpts from the rap and chorus:

To Da River

[Zane] And I thank God that I can

I stay focused

Keepin' him in my plan

Never losing my fate

Hate is going to try to be great

Gotta be in my state of mind and relate

Gotta to know this is the end, it ain't no time to wait

Time to face your fate.

I pray you don't end up in the lake

Do whatever it takes

So many mistakes we make

But we all gonna to get it right

Once we all down by the River side.

[T-Bone] Never been lickin' that, none of my burdens

Because I don't wanna be left and burnin'

Flirtin' with death

And they promise my last breath

Dressed in prison blues

Holy Spirit got me under arrest

Headed down to the River side

so I can let the old man die

When I come out of the water a new man, feel it come alive

Revived with the Holy Ghost with tears in my eyes.

[Chorus] We going down, down to the river

We takin' it to the river

Going down to the river

Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Com'on.

The DVD, released February 3, is better than the movie, with the extended music scenes, deleted scenes, and most importantly the Subtitle Option so if you're like me and not the hippest, you can read the lyrics as they flash by.

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