The newly released movie “Jesus Revolution” brings to life the awakening that saw hippies come to Jesus Christ in the 1960s and ’70s. The movie stokes a sense of promise for each of our lives, no matter who may have rejected us or whom we may have offended, while telling the true and inspiring love story at the founding of Harvest Christian Fellowship and Virtue Ministry.
In an interview, “Jesus Revolution” producer Kevin Downes (“Courageous”) extolled the film crew’s unity of purpose in helping viewers come away with an authentic experience of God’s love. “From conversations we had with the real-life characters, to depictions of clothes people wore,” said Downes, the team collected memories in order to share a story. Its message is that “there’s nothing fake about the experience of coming to Christ. And that’s what we are seeing in the heartfelt, massive audience response.”
In the shadow of the Vietnam War and the carnage of drafted friends, the ’60s stirred in many an urgency for greater truth that sought “love in all the wrong places,” Downes said. He aims to “present stories showing people genuine love, as it is defined in the Bible.”
A sign that sacrificial, redemptive love is more in demand than ever, today, drug overdose deaths are multiple times those of the ’60s and ’70s, and deaths of despair have doubled since then.
Roots of the Film
Film co-director Jon Erwin (“I Can Only Imagine,” “American Underdog”) came across a 1966 Time cover asking, “Is
