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Naive pastor Reverend Michael Hill takes the helm of the North Avenue Presbyterian church in the town of New Camden. He is outraged when a drunk idiot parish volunteer bets the church's $1200 sinking fund on a horse which loses.
Instead of placing blame where it belongs - on the volunteer and on himself for entrusting the money to the imbecile's wife, Hill chooses to take it personally and wage a moral crusade against organized gambling in the town.
There really isn't a way to excuse the directing of bored, compliant people to crusade against perceived vice any more than there is a way to excuse organized crime gaming rackets.
Hill correctly points out that gambling drains wealth from communities. But multiple people also point out to him that different channels are available for him to fight vice rather than organizing a bunch of busybodies to follow people around putting themselves and innocent people in harm's way.
Many a clergyman has used grandstanding against vice as an ego trip and a way to fill his collection plate. The one depicted here appears obsessed with a single moment in which he allowed himself to be victimized by an incompetent - the same kind of which he utilizes to follow around criminal bagmen. We are evidently meant to see him as a well-meaning true believer. But it really is ego bordering on narcissism.
Church is separate from state and from law in modern countries mainly because of the excesses it has displayed in dabbling in each in the past with horrific results.
A film like this is clearly intended for kids but not to educate them.
score /10
JasonDanielBaker 5 March 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2974545/ |
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6-3-2021 12:08:09