To save a life
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | To save a life |
| Original title | To save a life |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2009 |
| length | 115 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Brian Baugh |
| script | Jim Britts |
| production | Jim Britts, Steve Foster , Nicole Franco |
| music |
Christopher Lennertz , Timothy Michael Wynn |
| camera | C. Clifford Jones |
| cut |
Dan O'Brien , Sarah Sanders |
| occupation | |
| |
To Save a Life is an American film drama of 2009 . The Christian low-budget film of the director debutant Brian Baugh follows a popular student whose past life is called into question when a former friend commits suicide by him. The film deals then with the question, What would an individual, to save a life ( english to save a life ), is in this case with self-injurious behavior apart and goes back to the theme suicidality and friendship a closer.
action
No more than a dozen people attended 17-year-old Roger Dawson's funeral. Jake, a handsome young high school student, stands apart and recalls: They were best friends when they were children. Roger had saved Jake from being hit by a car, but was injured himself and suffered permanent damage; he has been limping ever since, becoming more and more of an outsider. While other students teased and bullied Roger , Jake became one of the most popular students as a successful basketball player with a handsome girlfriend, an athletic scholarship from his favorite Louisville university. Jake had long since forgotten his former best friend Roger. Everything seemed perfect to Jake until one day Roger hobbled into school and drew a gun. Jake wanted to hold him back. But Roger just said "Too late, Jake." And shot himself in the head.
After the funeral, Jake begins to doubt. As his friends go on living as they did before, he begins to wonder: Could he have prevented Roger's suicide? When he met the youth pastor Chris Vaughn, he spoke to him about these questions. He is invited to Christian events, is initially skeptical, but soon begins to change. His old circle of friends doesn't think much of his changes. But Jake still tries to make a difference and prevent further suicides. For example, he is setting up a help page for young people at risk of suicide on Roger's Myspace website. At school he makes contact with outsiders. He befriends Jonny Garcia, a friend of Rogers.
Because of his new contacts and Christian events, he also decides to become a Christian, but that doesn't make his life any easier. His girlfriend Amy is not enthusiastic about Jake's changes and eventually separates from him. His parents get into an argument, and when the mother learns of an affair with the father, the two separate. Then he also learns about the pregnancy of his ex-girlfriend, who wants to have an abortion. While his old life crumbles more and more, Jonny needs his help, but Jake lets him sit because he has enough problems himself. After talking to Chris, he decides to give up his scholarship and instead stay with Amy, who then decides to keep the baby.
Events roll over when a bomb threat was made on Jonny's cell phone . When Jake finds out that another student is trying to sign the bomb threat on Jonny, he stands up for Jonny despite the threat of punishment and can prove his innocence.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people reported on Roger's MySpace page that Roger's story had prevented them from suicide.
Finally, you see the future of the protagonists: Jake and Amy meet the future adoptive parents of the unborn child and graduate, their child is born healthy, Jake is going to Louisville, Amy plans to follow later. On the way to Louisville, Jake opens a letter he had previously received from Jonny. It says that Jonny had already decided to kill himself. It was only Jake's contact that dissuaded him and saved a life .
Film music and soundtrack
The score, composed by Timothy Michael Wynn , has been available on iTunes since January 29, 2010 under the title To Save A Life (Original Motion Picture Score) as an MP3 album.
The film's soundtrack consists of eleven tracks from various Christian bands and singers. The album was released as a download called To Save a Life (Official Movie Soundtrack) from the movie's official site and iTunes on January 20, 2010.
| Track list | |
|---|---|
|
|
background
The co-production of the film production companies Samuel Goldwyn Films , Outreach Films and New Song Pictures with a budget of 500,000 US dollars took its first weekend, 1,581,517 US dollars and a total of 3,823,025 US dollars.
Screenwriter and producer Jim Britts came up with the idea for the film as he observed the growing problem of self-harming behavior among teenagers. Britts , a Christian youth pastor from Southern California, and his wife, a teacher, linked several teenage fates to the script for the film. The debut director Brian Baugh was surprised by the script, which, unlike other Christian films, contains scenes in which teenagers drink alcohol, scratch themselves or involve sex. The lead actor Randy Wayne said that he did not want to play the role in the low-budget film at first, but ultimately agreed and offered to shoot the film without a salary.
To Save a Life was released in the US on August 3, 2010 on DVD and Blu-ray . The film was released in Germany on September 22, 2011 on DVD and Blu-ray. However, the German version stands out due to its poor synchronization .
The film was of Jim and Rachel Britts published a book, which in German under the title To Save a Life: Are you ready to save a life? was translated by Jokim Schnöbbe and published by Gerth Medien in 2012 under ISBN 3-86591-657-0 .
reception
In America, To Save a Live received consistently negative reviews, especially from renowned newspapers. While the acting was mostly perceived as positive, most of the reviews were negative about the religious message and the length of the film. Only the Los Angeles Times spoke positively about the film and said that despite some lengths it was skilfully acted and managed to be appealing, moving and inspiring. The special thing about the film is that it not only portrays religious engagement as something potentially healing and uplifting, but also somehow cool. This works because the Christian youth in the film are largely attractive, self-confident children who deal convincingly with a number of social and personal problems. The New York Times, on the other hand, suggested that the film would be just plain nuisance if it didn't shamelessly exploit school shootings to achieve its goals. The moralizing film does not only scare off young people with lame performance and suspense, even the pseudo- hip-hop and the fake alternative music would keep young people away. The judgment of Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel is somewhat milder : the film is not too shy, like other Christian films, to show the reality of life and the actors in the film are at least convincing. Nevertheless, the long film is on a long way to come to the predictable conclusion. Director Brian Baugh manages the picture and sound of the film, which also work if he loses the red thread and any sense of speed in pursuing his "message" or, in his case, his "messages". For people who are looking for such messages, the film is the right one.
The film received comparatively good reviews in Germany. Blickpunkt: The film describes the film as an “ambitious, entertaining youth drama with a Christian message”. The "growing up drama from Hollywood's second division" is well observed and played convincingly. In addition, Blickpunkt: Film writes : “For a film with a relatively clear Christian message, it behaves pleasantly normal over long stretches. Sex, drugs, teenage pregnancies are seriously discussed and not demonized, one also strives successfully for three-dimensional character drawing. "
Web links
- To Save a Life in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official website (English)
- To Save a Life at Metacritic (English)
- To Save a Life at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Certificate of Release for To Save a Life . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2011 (PDF; test number: 129 341 V).
- ↑ "To Save A Life (Original Motion Picture Score)" by Timothy Michael Wynn . In: itunes.apple.com . iTunes . January 29, 2010. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ^ "To Save A Life (Original Movie Soundtrack)" by Various Artists . In: itunes.apple.com . iTunes . January 20, 2010. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ↑ Ben Fritz: First look: 'Extraordinary Measures' has less than ordinary start, 'Avatar' not slowing . In: latimes.com . Los Angeles Times . January 24, 2010. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ^ To Save a Life . In: Box Office Mojo . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ↑ a b David Yonke: Christian movie offers hope for hurting teens . In: toledoblade.com . The Blade . January 16, 2010. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ↑ Nikki Patrick: 'To Save a Life' . In: morningsun.net . The Morning Sun. January 9, 2010. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 25, 2012.
- ↑ Carla Hinton: Film's 'heart' attracts actor Randy Wayne from Oklahoma . In: NewsOK.com . The Oklahoman . January 16, 2010. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ↑ Customer reviews: To save a life . In: amazon.de . amazon.de . Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ^ Gary Goldstein: Reviews: Parts are better than the whole of 'Drool' . In: latimes.com . Los Angeles Times . January 22, 2010. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ↑ Andy Webster: To Athlete in Search of Redemption . In: movies.nytimes.com . New York Times . January 22, 2010. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ^ Roger Moore: Movie review: To Save a Life . In: blog.orlandosentinel.com . Orlando Sentinel. January 22nd, 2010. Archived from the original on November 10th, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
- ^ To Save a Life . In: video.de . Focus: film . October 21, 2011. Archived from the original on June 6, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
