Uncommon (2015) Reviews

• An Uncommonly Bad Christian Movie

  peterwkzupan2015-10-21

  TLDR of the plot: the Liberty Counsel picked two well established student religious rights (bible studies and religious plays) and decided to pretend they were bigger issues than they are so that they could win in their movie and actually be right about it. So what about the actual laws then? Students can, in fact, have extracurricular gatherings before or after instructional time (and even in the middle of the day, in some cases). This is written into the Equal Access Act, a Reagan administration law designed to protect the rights of religious students. Basically, any secondary school (public or charter) that receives federal funding and opened a limited public forum (other extracurricular groups) cannot discriminate against religious extracurricular student initiated groups, period. The play is a bit more complicated however. Uncommon fashions the theater club to have been student formed, getting around that hoop of losing funds to have a curriculum related theater club. However, the principals concerns were justified by the Hazelwood standard and perhaps one of the few cases regarding religious plays, Stratechuk v Orange-Maplewood SD. The Hazelwood standard concerns the schools discretion where it can censor student speech with a legitimate pedagogical (definition: educational. I didn't know that word at first either) reason if that speech could be viewed as the schools. In this case, the principal decided correctly (or at least rationally) as a religious play at the school with its facilities could be seen as promoting Christianity. A play on the Bible could be thought of as being educational as a historical work of stories, but to most outside observers it would probably have been seen as anything but secular, especially considering lyrics such as "knowing that the Bibles word is cause for stepping out", "trust God for everything", and the chorus "have faith" during the musical number. The issue of religious plays are still an ambiguous matter on the whole though. Certainly it is not a requirement that plays be devoid of religious content entirely, especially considering most have it as a motif in some form or fashion. There were two blatant SOCAS problems which seemed to me to be bigger deals than these issues. These were Marc's active promotion of Christianity to the students as their staff chaperone, and Mr. Stevens tirades about organized religion during class time. The Mr. Stevens has to be a bad guy, that's just how these movies work, and therefore also has to be an atheist and a dick. There's no way you could pull this kind of movie off by having a reasonable, calm, professional, law abiding teacher that just doesn't want the school to become a mini- theocracy. So what must they have him do? Not just shut down the clubs, but go off on how organized religion destroys everything and that Christians are judgmental and stupid (which Aaron, needing to be highlighted as smarter than him, points out that it's judgmental to be so judgmental). Public school teachers are representatives of the state. They are there to teach, not preach, including atheist preaching. Can teachers have an opinion, and can they make those opinions known? Yes and no. Certainly no one can be stopped from having an opinion, and it's okay to tell students what they believe if asked. However, it has been repeatedly ruled that they cannot endorse, condone, or condemn a religious belief, which Mr. Stevens clearly does. This issue wasn't brought up in any legal way during the movie, but easily could have been. It would have been yet another way to condemn the atheist teacher, but considering how it's much more common to find religious teachers making such violations, they only alluded to it rather than highlighting. The biggest SOCAS violation by far though was Erik Estrada's character promoting Christianity to the students. The EAA clearly states under the Fair Opportunity Criteria at US Code 4071.c.3 and 4072.2 that government staff and faculty can't encourage religious activities, this includes janitors. So guess what it was exactly that the janitor, serving as a staff custodian at a student initiated club, did? Encouraged them base their play off the Bible when they couldn't agree on what to put on, and preached to them using the David and Goliath story. Being there as the students themselves decided to have a religious play would have been fine, as was cleared up in Daughtry v Vanguard in regards to staff being present at a flagpole prayer. However, he didn't do that, he got right in there and not only got his hands dirty but stirred the pot. The administration easily could have taken issue with this, but because it's a Christian movie and they're always the good guys, obviously they weren't going to touch that. Some final things I'd like to clear up. First, the faculty chaperone wasn't required, as the principal had made it seem. Pope v East Brunswick stopped faculty hostility from preventing a groups formation if other noncircular groups existed on campus. Secondly, there is a scene where Mr. Stevens becomes livid at the thought of students using public facilities, because that must be a SOCAS violation. Well, it's not. In conjunction with the EAA, Widmar v Vincent clarified that the simple use of public facilities isn't an endorsement of religion, rather the organizations benefit is incidental to the use of the facility. Thirdly, the principals stating that the group can't materially interfere or disrupt with the school's normal proceedings is legitimate. This is known as the Tinker Test, which outlines when schools can impose speech restrictions, the only other criteria being if the speech can be shown to be an invasion of others. Finally, STUDENT PRAYER IN SCHOOL IS LEGAL. Students can pray all they want! What isn't allowed, however, is compulsory school led prayer. It ostracizes nonbelievers or students of other religions in classes and serves no secular or pedagogical purpose.

• Those secular meanies

  bkoganbing2016-05-29

  What can you say about a film that's bad in its technique and breathtaking in its chutzpah. Uncommon is the story of a persecuted group of Christian kids who sing and dance and hold bible study in their school. They in fact want to produce a musical extravaganza based on the Bible. But the school district, those secular meanies and those afraid of the evil American Civil Liberties Union have told them no can do because of the separation of church and state. Fortunately the Christian kids have a most extraordinary janitor in their school played by Erik Estrada. In fact in the past several years Estrada has returned to his roots so to speak. Before he became Officer Frank Poncherello on CHIPS, Estrada got his start in the Christian film The Cross And The Switchblade playing Nicky Cruz who was a gang member turned evangelist. Cruz is still with us by the way. Estrada is a janitor who had to drop out of law school for family reasons. But he's got contacts and he brings in Christian attorney Matt Staver to the rescue. Staver plays himself and is our hero as he and the American Liberty Council go to court on the Lord's behalf and by God and a court order these kids are affirmed in their right to use the school facility to put on their show in the best tradition of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. The acting is barely adequate for college theater. But it has to be nice to be Matt Staver and be the hero of your own life and have the money to produce a film showing the good works of you and your organization. Staver does not summon up enough conviction to be Matt Staver. Sad to say the best comparison in acting I can make is with a real hero, Jackie Robinson who starred in a cheap biographical film about himself produced by Branch Rickey. Robinson whatever else he was, was no actor. But I think he'll be better remembered than Matt Staver will be in history. Ironically Staver himself realizes that the ruling by the lower court judge will be overturned once they leave their little Bible Belt cocoon and go into the real world. But for now the kids can put on their show. Matt Staver has been most active in the real world. Currently his activity has been drafting those religious freedom statutes that are springing up in red states. Religious freedom for his kind is the reassertion of fundamentalist Christian primacy which is now being threatened by all kinds of new immigrants and the growing repudiation of religion of all kinds. These same people who believe fervently in their religious freedom are also working to prevent gay/straight alliances from forming in these same schools. What must it be like to be a gay kid in the Bible belt school Estrada mucks out the toilets in? I'm sure Uncommon will do well on the fundamentalist Christian church circuit. It certainly portrays their world.

• Good movie - pertinent and to the point!

  digiteum2018-08-31

  At times a bit difficult to follow, but the plot is there, in education especially in the UK teachers are very against students sharing their Christian faith. They will not allow prayer in the school. So it point of fact this film takes it on this very difficult subject. ! I do not watch many Christian films, and have only been watching them through this free trail on Pure Flix.

• One of the best Christian movies I have have seen in awhile.

  lightofcal2018-06-19

  Finally, a well written Christian movie. We show Christian movies every month in our youth group and it is getting harder and harder to find one. My teens beg me no more sad movies. I will have to tell them that's not all of about a school shooting. The only reason I couldn't give it a 10 is because the acting isn't really up to a 10.