Gerard Butler: Mother Teresa Award to Real Life ‘Machine Gun Preacher’

INDIA WEST
By A Staff Reporter
Oct 27, 2013

Activist Sam Childers (l), seen with Gerard Butler, the actor who played him in “Machine Gun Preacher,” will travel to Mumbai Oct. 27 to accept a humanitarian award from the Harmony Foundation.

SAN LEANDRO, Calif., United States

The Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice will be presented to Sam Childers, the so-called “Machine Gun Preacher” whose life was made into a Hollywood film starring Gerard Butler.

Childers will travel to Mumbai to receive the award Oct. 27, according to a press release.



“Machine Gun Preacher” (2011) is an action-filled biopic about Childers, a former gang biker turned preacher and defender of African orphans. The movie, released in 2011 by Relativity Media, was based on Childers’ book “Another Man’s War.”

A letter from Dr. Abraham Mathai, president of the Harmony Foundation, reads: “The award is to be bestowed for Mr. Childers’ devotion, commitment and dedication to lead armed rescue missions directly into the territory of the atrocious Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda, which has resulted in the rescue of over 1,000 abducted children.


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Gerard Butler: Machine Gun Preacher

Quick review: Machine Gun Preacher ***

Barry Ronge | 23 January, 2012 07:33

Gerard Butler (R) poses with Sam Childers at the premiere of 'Machine Gun Preacher' in Beverly Hills
Image by: MARIO ANZUONI / REUTERS

Set in America and Uganda, but shot largely in South Africa, this is the true story of Sam Childers (Gerard Butler), who lived a life of violent crime.

The death of a buddy led Childers to undergo a Christian conversion and he became a solid citizen for a few years.

After hearing a sermon from a missionary, he decided to travel to the Sudan, with a team of helpers, to re-build villages, schools and churches for victims who had suffered under the brutality of the Lord's Resistance Army, a ruthless militia. But as soon as Childers built them, the rebels burned them down.

To read more:http://www.timeslive.co.za/entertainment/movies/2012/01/23/quick-review-machine-gun-preacher 

Gerard Butler: Machine Gun Preacher: Movie Review

Renuka VyavahareRenuka Vyavahare, TNN | Dec 8, 2011, 09.50PM IST

Cast: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Shannon Director: Marc Forster Genre: Biopic/ war

Machine Gun Preacher showcases one man's journey from hooliganism to humanitarianism.

Machine Gun Preacher is a biopic on Sam Childers, an outlaw biker who amended his errant lifestyle and eventually became the gun bearing messiah for the children of war-torn South Sudan, Africa.

Sam (Gerard Butler) an outlaw biker, drowns himself in drugs and alcohol when he's not in prison serving for drug dealing and other criminal charges. He prefers his wife do the striptease for better income than take up some low paying dignified job.

The hooliganism however comes to a sudden standstill when he realizes he's gone way too far. He takes to Jesus and the church lands him in Sudan where he finds himself staring at the loss of innocent lives in the war-torn barren land of Africa.

Finding redemption in the process of saving innocent lives, Sam not only lets go of his indecent ways but also takes an active part in the Sudan People's Liberation movement.

From a white supremacist who beats up the blacks, to the father who devotes his life for the well being of the Sudanese orphans over his own, the film takes you on an emotional roller coaster ride.

You end up asking yourself, how far can you go to help someone who may not survive to see another day!

Directed by Mark Forster, Machine Gun Preacher is uplifting and depressing at the same time. War, bloodshed, poverty, apathetic society turning a blind eye to those in dire need...the film leaves you with a heavy heart. It makes you want to google Sam Childers and tell him how ashamed you are for not knowing about his fight in Africa, for not thinking beyond your regular petty worries.

The cinematic depiction of the bloody atrocities committed on the Sudanese kids by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is brutally real. It makes you cringe in horror. The film will also remind you a lot of Edward Norton's American History X.

Gerard Butler bares absolutely no physical resemblance to Sam but nevertheless gets into the skin of his character with aplomb. The film revolves around him and just like Sam he single-handedly takes control and holds our attention in the otherwise long docudrama. His body language, mannerisms, glance, psychological unrest speaks volumes of how talented an actor he is. One wonders why someone would waste him in moronic romcoms like The Bounty Hunter! Michael Shannon as Sam's best friend and fellow druggie Donnie impresses too.

Machine Gun Preacher is about preaching and practicing philanthropy. Intense and disturbing, it's a must watch provided you are not too faint hearted.

Verdict: Very Good

Times of India

Gerard Butler rises from the celluloid ashes as real-life Rambo Sam Childers

News Shopper

4:24pm Wednesday 2nd November 2011

• By Matthew Jenkin »

WITH more flops under his belt than the Easter bunny, Gerard Butler isn’t quite celluloid poison yet, but his last few films left many critics rubbing their stomachs and requiring a dose of milk of magnesia before bed.

The Scottish beefcake hasn’t had a solid box office hit since 300 and that was five years ago now.
A string of limp rom-coms followed the comic strip blockbuster but Butler is at his best when ripped, unshaven and yelling cocky one-liners at bad guys, before blowing them to kingdom come in an explosive fireball of retribution.



Fortunately, his latest outing sees him resume his role as an action hero and it’s possibly his best performance yet.

He plays Sam Childers, an ex-con and junkie who after finding “Jaay-sus”, turns his life around and travels to deepest, darkest Africa to do his bit for the Lord, leaving his long-suffering wife Lynn (Michelle Monaghan) and young daughter behind.

After an excursion into war-torn south Sudan, Sam is outraged to find the region’s vulnerable populace terrorised by a renegade militia group which forces children to become soldiers and commit unspeakable atrocities.



Shocked and moved he ignores the warnings of local government officials and builds an orphanage smack bang in the middle of the danger zone.

But providing a shelter and refuge isn’t enough for the gung ho biker and he leads armed forces into the lion’s den to retrieve kidnapped children.

Machine Gun Preacher does exactly what it says on the tin, but thankfully with The Kite Runner and Monster’s Ball director Marc Forster at the directing helm, the action is reined back in favour of exploring the more human aspects of this real-life Rambo story.



It’s an inspirational and often emotionally stirring true story about redemption, with Butler fitting the role of rebel-with-a-cause Childers like a glove, giving an impassioned and believable performance.
However, writer Jason Keller misses a trick by failing to explore the obvious paradoxes surrounding violence in the name of religion and the role of aid and charity work in impoverished countries.
Nevertheless, it’s a gripping, entertaining and eye-opening film which sets out to prove anyone with big enough balls can make a difference if they really want to and just about gets away with it.

Machine Gun Preacher (15) is out today