Sadly, Just Another Xian Film
After the introductions, as the opening scene of Holy Ghost begins to take shape, I couldn’t help but feel like this film was going to be about the Christian David Blaine, a street magician telling people that his power is from the Holy Spirit. Almost immediately after I started having this feeling, the narrator told me that I’d probably be having this feeling… but… then… the film continued to feel like I was watching a Christian street magician.
With each segment of the film, with each new story, it was a new litany of parlor tricks. There were some solid interviews mixed in through the story, including compelling words from Lenny Kravitz and Brian “Head” Welch, but a film that starts out with a claim that it will prove the existence of the Holy Spirit shouldn’t be a few compelling interviews set in between magic tricks. I believe in the Holy Spirit but I sure hope the Spirit does a whole lot more than cheap tricks. The first two portions of the film, however, leave little hope that the Spirit is going to move in any more real way.
In the next section of the film, Fieldy and Head (of Korn) share their stories, which are powerful stories of delivery from addiction through Christ. These stories hit hard, but no sooner are you thinking this film has found its stride than the dudes from Korn go walking around a concert venue with a dreadlocked healer. In the name of the Holy Spirit, just please stop!
So, then the “courageous” filmmakers go to pray in the streets where militant Hindus live. Nevermind how horribly offensive it is to act as if devout Hindu people are Godless heathens, but as the melodrama of this finale of the film begins to grow, it is becomes nothing more than an awful propaganda film.
The experience of watching this film was much like the experience of attending chapel in college. I stopped going to chapel because I felt like I was being too judgmental. In watching this film, I felt like I was judging everyone in the film, throughout. As someone who wants to lessen the amount of arrogance and elitism in me, watching this film really didn’t help.
