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Billy Graham movie tells all
10/10/2008 14:00 - (SA)
Raleigh - Robby Benson knows how it sounds. But his reason for making a movie about the life of a young Billy Graham, the director says, is simple: "I wanted to make a movie about goodness".
Billy: The Early Years focuses on Graham's life as a teenager growing up on a dairy farm in Charlotte through his years as a young man, when he became a super-evangelist, drawing hundreds of thousands of people to his preaching tour "crusades".
The film premieres in theatres on Friday in more than a dozen Southern states.
"It's just a love story to Billy," said Benson, who despite a long career as a television and film director is still best known for his days as teen heartthrob in movies such as Ode to Billy Joe and Ice Castles.
"And it's also a love story to trying to do the right thing, just trying your best to be decent and not hurt others and add to the planet."
Decent human being
"I was attracted to this project for, I think, all the right reasons for me, and spiritually, the things I believe in," Benson said. "To me, young Billy is just such a good, decent human being.
"I wanted to make a movie - this sounds trite - but I wanted to make a movie about goodness."
He believes this film will not only appeal now to "anyone, any faith, any skin colour", but also has a decades-long shelf life.
Just as Peter Shaffer used Salieri to tell the composer's tale in Amadeus, Graham's story is told through the eyes of Charles Templeton, a former evangelist turned non-believer who was Graham's lifelong friend.
On his deathbed, Templeton tells how Graham held on to his faith in the face of the horrors such as the Holocaust, while Templeton walked away from God.
The 1949 Los Angeles crusade depicted in the film was scheduled to run for three weeks.
Leader in crusade ministry
It lasted eight, helping turn Graham into the leader of a worldwide crusade-based ministry that for six decades packed stadiums with believers, put him on the pulpit in front of millions, and led him to counsel every US president since Harry Truman.
The movie ends with that crusade, with Hammer's Graham at a lectern, superimposed over black-and-white footage of crowds - footage built specifically for the film by using an amalgam of crowds from various meetings.
"Most people know him as a counsellor to presidents and addressing the nation, a man with beautiful, silver hair," said Graham's daughter, Gigi, who endorses the movie and has spoken at churches where the movie is screened.
"They don't realise he was a tall, gangly fellow who just accepted a call to preach."
The ailing Graham today rarely leaves his home in rural Montreat, a small town in the Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina.
His wife, Ruth Bell Graham, died last year following a long illness, and the 89-year-old has a variety of health problems.
- AP
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South Africa
