The Fighting Temptations

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about The Fighting Temptations' classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of The Fighting Temptations completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 15 March 2004.

Overall comments and recommendations

The Fighting Temptations is a very simplistic story of a small town church choir transforming from being woefully inadequate into a professional outfit ready to compete in the ‘Gospel Explosion’. It does have its funny moments and addresses issues such as compassion, forgiveness and women’s rights. Also the gospel music is worth listening to.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie The Fighting Temptations contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Darrin Hill is just a young boy when his mother Mary Anne is banned from the local Beulah Baptist Church Choir for singing in a nightclub. Darrin and his mother move several times before Darrin ends up twenty years later in New York as a promising advertising executive. His mother had died some years earlier as a result of a hit and run accident, when he is notified about his Aunt Sally’s death. He is summoned back to Montecarlo, Georgia, to her funeral and reading of the will.

He returns to find not much has changed since he left, except the once thriving Beulah Baptist Church has now diminished to few members. In her will, Aunt Sally requests that Darrin lead the choir and take it to the Gospel Explosion, a competition for gospel music. On doing so, he will receive the total amount of her shares, supposedly worth $150,000. As Darrin has recently been fired from his job for lying about his credentials, he’s keen to take on the task. However he is dismayed to find the choir now only has a handful of members who are woefully inadequate. His attempts to recruit new members also fail until he opens the membership up to non church members. He also persuades his childhood friend Lilly, now also a nightclub singer, to be the lead vocalist.

As Darrin goes on to direct the choir, with much opposition from Paulini, the church treasurer, he also rekindles his friendship with Lilly. However all is nearly lost when he discovers his Aunt’s shares are only worth about $3000 and he is offered his advertising job back.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is no violence in this movie.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

There is nothing particularly scary in this movie, although some children might be disturbed by a scene at the beginning of the movie when, during a lively gospel music session in the church, one of the women is “slain in the spirit” and falls down.

Also Aunt Sally is shown dead in her coffin but looks more comic than scary.

Sexual references

• Darrin and his mate discuss the various types of “boody” and where you can get the best (Louisiana apparently has the best).
• Darrin’s mate says he’s just sowing his wild oats and then wants to find himself a virgin and settle down.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity but there is some very brief clothing and Lilly (Beyonce) dances seductively.

Use of substances

There is quite a lot of drinking and smoking in this movie:

• Darrin smokes cigars frequently.
• Darrin’s job is to advertise alcohol and he proposes to market malt alcohol to the African American population.
• Daniel drinks at a restaurant and at home.
• A DJ smokes and drinks from a bottle
• The pianist drinks from a bottle wrapped in a paper bag.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie including the following:

• friggin’
• arse
• pissed off
• bastard
• shit
• a rapper sings about smoking marijuana, crack addicts and getting a slug in the lung.

The movie's message

The take home message from this movie is that there is no place for bigotry in a Christian church.

Values parents may wish to encourage include:

• forgiveness
• compassion
• tolerance
• loyalty.

Values parents may wish to discourage include:

• lying
• hypocrisy
• spitefulness.