5/16/2015

ENTERTAINMENT! - LITTLE BOY MOVIE

Little Boy ~ Big Faith
 
Learn How to Believe Once Again!
 
ROMA DOWNEY, MARK BURNETT & EDUARDO VERASTEGUI
 
EXCEL IN JOINT VENTURE
 
 
One of the most heartwarming, and inspiring movies of early 2015, was the joint venture between Roma Downey and Mark Burnett (The Bible, and A.D. the miniseries) along with Eduardo Verastegui in the production of the “Little Boy” movie.  
 
 
Verastequi, who plays the youthful Father Crispin, in his own film, is best known for his anti-abortion film “Bella” (2006) and "The Butterfly Circus" (2009).  All his movies have strong faith and family themes, messages, and undertones.
 
“Little Boy” had a tremendous amount of humor as well! Set in the 1940’s, World War II era, in Southern California, Little Boy is the younger child of two boys fathered by an "All-American Man". With a white picket fence around his beautifully-kept middle-class home, and lovely wife, he works very hard with his hands at his own auto-mechanic shop.   He is drafted and called off to War, during the time in California, when President Franklin Roosevelt had interned over 110,000 Japanese-Americans into camps. This fact will be significant as the storyline of “Little Boy” progresses.
 
The amazingly stunning fishing village where this story unfolds was actually filmed in Baja California, Mexico, an area untouched by all the crazy stuff we now associate with most of California.  My friend Twinas Latinas Cheri, was associated with the making of this movie (filmed in 2011) and had communicated her excitement about working on this Christian film, and the long-anticipated movie-theater premier. I remarked it sure would be a beautiful community in which to live right now! 
 
The idyllic setting of this "American" ocean-front hometown (filmed at Baja Studios) belies the intense interplay between a lively 8 year old Pepper Busbee (Jakob Salvati) who is apparently doomed to be vertically challenged, as are nearly one third of the adults and other kids in the town. Pepper and his dad James Busbee (Michael Rapaport) spend a huge amount of quality father/son time together, which was a purposeful statement about the times when men were men, and family meant community; a time when life was more meaningful, and less complicated.
 
 
 
 
That simple existence actually covered up some of the dark nature of the soul of men, such as hatred, racism, bullying, greed, adultery, and more. The latter came in the form of the town's medic, Dr. Fox (played by Mall Cop himself, Kevin James).  However Dr. Fox used the occasion of James Busbee going off to war to commence intentional flirtation with Mrs. Busbee (Emily Watson) to seek her feminine favor. 
 
Pepper was bullied by the grossly overweight, only son of Dr. Fox, about everything, but especially for being short. Hatred was the soft underbelly of those who hated others for being different.  And violent racism broke out when Pepper and his mother reached out to the hard-crusted, unlovable Japanese-American Hashimoto (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) at the time of Pearl Harbor and internment camps, which landed the older Busbee boy (David Henrie) in jail.
 
The "Little Boy" movie, with its beautiful settings, period-piece wardrobe and props, was a quality production with a $20 million dollar budget, showing the perfect dichotomy between God’s Creation of perfection, and man’s sinful nature. This is where Verastegui shines in all of his films, by introducing faith.
 
Not just any faith, but faith in the only God of Heaven, the God of Christians, known as Jesus Christ.  Faith is the only bridge between man’s depraved human nature and the immaculate perfection of God, which was fulfilled at the Cross, where Jesus gave His life for us all.  
 
To read more  of his compelling "Little Boy" movie review, make sure to visit Bernie's website, and ask him to help lead you to the Lord.  Learn to believe, all over again, and please receive God's free gift of Salvation in these final days. You'll be glad you did! 
 
 
Also see Bernie's review of Hollywood's version of Exodus (from the truth?)  
 
 
 
Bernie Lutchman's Family Ministry site - be a part of his outreach ministry Businessmen in Christ, and watch his weekly Christian TV program Plumbline.
 
Pick up a copy of his book "Danger Zone", then follow +BernieLutchman on Google+, on Facebook he's under Bernie Lutchman Jr., and on Twitter @BernieLutchman