I CAN ONLY IMAGINE

US, 2018, 110 minutes, Colour.
J.Michael Finley, Dennis Quaid, Brody Rose, Trace Adkins, Taegen Burns, Madeleine Carroll, Nicole Du Port, Tanya Clarke.
Directed by Andrew Erwin, Jon Erwin.

In the United States, I Can Only Imagine went immediately into the box office Top 10 and, in its second week, was number three, after Pacific Rim and Black Panther. The audience which responded are the numerous Christian audiences, especially in the more evangelical communities and congregations.

To see the film in Australia, one has to search out cinemas in the so-called Bible areas of our cities.

This is a faith-based film, based on the story of the song, triple platinum in the US, the most popular religious song of recent decades, I Can Only Imagine. At the opening of the film, the composer of lyrics and music, Bart Mallard, is being interviewed by the popular singer, Amy Grant. He tells her that it took only 10 minutes to write the lyrics and to compose the music. Her response is that he did not create it so rapidly but the song is the result of a lifetime.

And so it is.

The film goes back to Bart has a 10-year-old, in 1985. He comes from Texas, lives with his mother and father, his father a violent and sometimes brutal man, his mother a victim of this brutality. Bart develops a hatred for his father, especially when his mother walks out on her family after taking Bart to a Baptist camp where he meets friends, is encouraged to journal, has religious experiences – and he writes “the best week of my life�.

Bart’s father is played by Dennis Quaid, giving a strength of performance to the film. The young Bart is played by Brody Rose. The older Bart is played by J. Michael Stickley in his first film. As we hear him sing, especially when he is persuaded by a teacher, very much against his intentions, to play Curly in Oklahoma and he sings ‘Oh, what a beautiful morning’, we hear a very fine singing voice. (And learn that Michael Stickley has appeared in many Broadway productions.)

When Bart escapes from his father and from the town, he works as a technician which leads him to contact with an aspiring band who are lamenting that they have no singer. And, when Bart joins them as the singer, they begin to have great success, travelling around Texas, drawing youth audiences, responding to the ‘secular’ style of the performance but also to the tone of religious lyrics.

As is often the case in these stories about music, the connection is with Nashville, to an agent (Tracy Adkins rough and ponytailed) who is taken by the performance and organises concerts – but record company representatives feel that Bart is not good enough and the suggestion is that he go deeply into himself and discover what emerges.

This requires him to go back home, leave the band for a time, meet up with his father again and, disbelieving, finds that his father has discovered God. The challenge is for him to forgive his father – something which he had written in his camp journal when he was little. And, so a transformation begins, in Bart, in his father. And, always in the background is the young girl that he always cared for, Shannon (Madeleine Carroll) who goes to college rather than joining him on the road.

And, forced back into himself, and religiously inspired, Bart writes his significant song. The agents are impressed, they contact Amy Grant who is prepared to launch the song but, with Bart in the audience, she invites him up to sing – and, it would seem, he has never looked back after the success of the song and testimonies to its inspiration in people’s lives, marrying Shannon, reunited with his mother, rejoining his band, Mercy Me, 21 hits – and his performing at a White House Breakfast in 2017.

Critics are wary of the word “inspirational� in descriptions of films because they think/fear that this actually means “manipulative�. But there are many audiences who respond to the inspirational, who want to be moved, and find Bart Mallard’s story does this for them quite powerfully. Because the American evangelical tradition is quite extrovert, more introverted individuals and more introverted religious communities might find it a bit much even while they admire what it is doing.

1. The title? The song? Music, creative, religious?

2. The impact of the film as faith-based? The target audience? American Christians? The Baptist background? Texas?

3. The title, Bart Mallard and his song? His life, reputation, success, faith?

4. The American musical background, the secular music, traditions and rock, blues and country? Nashville? The home of producers, record companies, this settings for concerts? The impact for the United States? The world?

5. A hard American story? Dysfunctional family, brutal father, victim mother, victim son? Abuse and violence, beatings? The mother abandoning her family? Brutal father as a single parent? Issues of dreams and reality? The father and his emphasis on reality, destroying dreams? The child absorbing this? Hatred for his father? Ultimate escape? Success but the deep wounds? Discovering love and forgiveness? Going deeply into the experience? Producing a song from this experience, authenticity?

6. Bart’s telling his story, the presence of Amy Grant, her career and reputation? The effect? His delight in first meeting her?

7. Bart, as a boy, hard work, for his grandmother, her payment, going to the store, music? His imagination, creative? Love for his mother, her hard life? Her taking him to the camp, the disappearance? Later trying to contact her, his father taking him back? His father’s brutality? Playing football, the years with his father, the physical and psychological damage?

8. The experience of the camp, meeting Shannon, his other friends there, keeping the journal, loving and sharing, the pastor, the singing, on the radio?

9. Playing football, the accident, hospital, never playing again? At school, the clubs, Shannon himself, going to the Glee Club? In the wheelchair? The sardonic teacher? Becoming the assistant technical help? The teacher hearing him sing? Refusing to be in Oklahoma? His performance on stage, the acclaim, the photo in the paper?

10. Leaving home, on his bike, going to the boss, Shannon not responding to Bart’s invitation?

11. Meeting the band, Oklahoma, six months later, technician, becoming the singer? The collage of the concerts?

12. The decision to go home, the first visit and his father smashing the plate on him? The second visit and his father and change, but not believing it, his angers, finding it impossible to forgive his father? Finding his journal, the statements when he was a boy, the happiness of the camp, wanting to forgive his father? The memories, God in his father’s life, transformation, his father reading the Bible, questions about Leviticus? His father’s illness, working with his father, present at his death? The impact of the funeral?

13. The consequence, writing the song? The group waiting for him? His agent listening to it, making the contact, offering it to Amy Grant? The interview, the preparation for the concert, her preparing to sing?

14. Bart at the concert, Amy Grant calling him to the stage, his singing, the reaction? The enormous success, the impact of the spiritual message?

15. The aftermath, marrying Shannon? Bonding again with his mother? Mercy Me and the range of hits? Singing at the White House at the Breakfast?

16. The impact for religious audiences? Non-religious audiences?