Chances are good, if you’re not a Christian or don’t live in the Bible Belt, you’ve never heard of Facing The Giants. It’s a football film created by the Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. It’s chock full of tons of Christian life lessons, primarily the central one of a “David” type high school team taking on a “Goliath” team that’s been the reigning state champs for years. Your enjoyment of this will likely depend on how heavy you like your morality tales and/or how much you love football films.

But Facing The Giants is also one of the more intriguing independent film success stories in recent history. When it first premiered, it opened in a small number of theaters, yet opened in 12th place nationwide in box office sales. Ultimately, it went on to earn $10 million, incredibly impressive for a film with a budget of $100,000.

Setting aside faith and finances, how is it? Not too bad, actually. I’ll be honest; I went into this with very low expectations. As both a believer and someone who grew up in the Bible Belt, I’ve seen more than my fair share of cheesy Christian crap. And yes, there’s a certain amount of cheese present here. And there’s a large dose of faith and Bible. And some of the scenes look like they’ve been pulled straight out of a made-for-TV movie. And yet…this is a pretty decent film. The football game scenes look as sharp as any other I’ve seen, certainly on par with the Friday Night Lights TV series. The acting is fairly solid and the cinematography is strong as well.

QUALITY:
The clarity and detail are very good. Almost too good. It’s so good that the make-up on the actors is rather visible in quite a few of the scenes. The sound is also solid.

BONUS FEATURES:
There’s a nice little selection of special features, all presented in standard def. They include a commentary, outtakes and bloopers, deleted scenes, behind the scenes, an interview with Mark Richt (head coach of the University of Georgia), theatrical trailer, and a musical tribute to the film’s volunteers. The disc is also BD Live-enabled.

All in all, Facing The Giants isn’t for everyone, but those who are willing to give it a chance will probably enjoy it.