Faith up to bat

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, August 25th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: faith-based films at the theater.

2023 has turned out to be a big year for movies with religious themes. The films titled Jesus Revolution and His Only Son posted better than expected box-office sales in the spring, and Sound of Freedom positively exploded this summer.

EICHER: And now, actor Dennis Quaid is back with his second faith-based drama of the year, called The Hill. Arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino didn’t care much for Quaid’s first effort. But what about this second one?

COLLIN GARBARINO: The new faith-based sports biopic The Hill, starring Dennis Quaid, arrives in theaters today. It tells the story of Rickey Hill and his brave attempt to beat the odds to play professional baseball.

JAMES: We receive your bounty, Lord, to better fortify our bodies and minds, so that we may serve you. We pray in the name of your son Jesus. Amen.

ALL: Amen.

Quaid plays James Hill, a small-town pastor in Texas who has plenty of zeal for the Lord. He has a son named Rickey who has plenty of zeal for baseball. The movie begins in the 1960s when Rickey is just a boy and the Hill family faces difficulties. James fights with less-pious members of the congregation, and he and his uncomplaining wife struggle to keep food on the table.

But problems don’t bother young Rickey who spends his hours batting rocks with a stick—a skill for which he shows much talent.

RAY: You telling me that you hit this rock over them trees and into my windshield with that lousy stick? That’s a couple of hundred feet, easy.

Rickey can’t play baseball with the other boys because a debilitating health condition has left him in leg braces. The first half of the movie showcases Rickey’s determination to overcome his physical limitations to pursue the sport he loves.

RAY: You know what a prodigy is?

YOUNG RICKEY: No, sir.

RAY: Well, look it up. When you get them legs healed up. I’ma be the first guy at the gate to buy a ticket.

The second half of the movie jumps forward to 1975. Colin Ford plays an older Rickey. He’s finishing up high school and he’s proved to be a slugging sensation. But his childhood struggles come back to haunt him as he takes his shot at the big leagues.

The determination to overcome physical obstacles is only part of the story. Rickey’s father refuses to countenance his son’s desire to play baseball. This conflict between Rickey and James becomes the heart of the film. Rickey has a quick mind and easily memorizes scripture. His uncompromising father wants him to become a preacher, thinking baseball wastes Rickey’s gifts.

NED: I don’t mean any disrespect, but certainly you can see whenever he plays, he’s a phenom.

JIM: I’ve never seen him play.

NED: You’ve never seen him play?

JIM: No.

The Hill has much to recommend it, and it’s a much better movie than Quaid’s somewhat cringey On a Wing and a Prayer that came out earlier this year. The story hits the familiar beats of the coming-of-age films and sports dramas that many of us grew up on. That shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the guy who wrote Hoosiers and Rudy, had a hand in the script. The movie also contains less objectionable content than most sports dramas. The PG film contains smoking, a depiction of drunkenness, and one hastily covered vulgarity.

The production values are better than the typical faith-based movie, and the acting is solid, though Quaid seems about 20 years too old for the role.

However, The Hill suffers from some of the same theological problems that plague many faith-based movies, including Quaid’s On a Wing and a Prayer.

JIM: And no matter how he does in that game tonight, he has overcome that terrible burden that he has had to carry his whole life.

The movie uses David and Goliath as its guiding motif. Little Rickey is David, and he’s flinging stones at his Goliath-like adversity. The message is clear: You too can be a David if you have enough faith. A more faithful interpretation of the story puts Jesus in the place of David with the rest of us as Israelites cowering back at the camp. By merging metaphor with the reality of victory in Jesus, The Hill slips into the familiar trap of promoting a prosperity gospel.

The movie trots out the usual list of motivational Bible verses taken out of context. And it misconstrues them as promising faithful Christians might have material and temporal success.

RICKEY: But tomorrow, Lord, be at my side. I cannot do this alone.

The movie bills itself as an inspirational story that teaches us to never let go of our dreams. After all, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. With enough faith, I can even make it to the big leagues.

True to the genre, we see the underdog struggle and then prevail in the end. Rickey makes the most of his shot. Roll the credits. Except the movie ends the story of Rickey Hill much too soon.

The real-life Rickey Hill never made it to the majors. He gutted it out for a few years in the minor leagues before his debilitating condition forced him to quit. In interviews, Hill said he fell into suicidal despair after poor health robbed him of baseball. That’s the story we needed to see—how faith responds to failure. When our world crumbles and everything’s been taken away, it’s then that the Christian faith offers its most powerful testimony.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

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