DVD Review: SOUTHERN GOSPEL

Home » DVD Review: SOUTHERN GOSPEL

Jun 27, 2023 Posted by Kyle Nolan in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

In the late 1950s, a young Samuel Allen is being raised by his father Joe (Gary Weeks), the pastor for the GCO (God’s Church Organization) church in Sayre, Alabama. Samuel’s mother had recently passed away due to complications during her second pregnancy, but Joe assures his son that it was not God punishing him for anything bad he may have done. Like his father, Samuel also has a strong faith, and wants to follow in his father’s footsteps one day, opening his own church and becoming a pastor himself. The GCO is very strict about its rules, especially regarding things like what type of music people should be listening to, that boys and girls should never swim together, and so on—basically anything that could lead to temptation and the devil’s work. However, Joe doesn’t quite believe that everything has to be so strict, and he delves into this in his sermons, which are loved by his congregation. The GCO’s state overseer, T.L. Whittmore (Justice Leak), doesn’t appreciate this, and is a bit jealous of the way that Joe is able to connect with the people. He’s always looking for some way/excuse to replace Joe.

In the mid 1960s, as Samuel gets into his teenage years, he’s really gotten into music, especially rock ‘n’ roll, thanks to his best friend/neighbor Barry (J. Alphonse Nicholson). He sings and plays guitar at church youth events—though T.L. Whittmore insists that he stick to gospel standards. He and chorus singer Julie Ledbetter (Katelyn Nacon) have been childhood sweethearts for a long time, and she often tells her friends that she’s going to marry Samuel some day. It looks like everything in Samuel’s life is going well. However, when there’s a devastating tragedy in the community, and Samuel is unjustly blamed for it, it sends him down a dark path. He heads off on the road, joining a band with Barry, living a life of sex, drugs and partying. But ultimately this life of excess leads to a another tragedy and a new perspective on life, and so the prodigal son returns back home. Preaching about his cautionary tale starts to rekindle Samuel’s childhood dream of becoming a pastor. But as Samuel tries to turn his life around, he finds himself tested over and over again, like Job from the bible, facing new hardships and challenges. Can Samuel’s faith help him weather the storm, repair the relationships he had broken, and help him forgive those who did him wrong?

Southern Gospel is inspired by actual events, based on the true story of Samuel and Julie Allen, who founded Dream Church in Florida in 1986. The film spans multiple decades, though it makes many rapid time jumps, almost feeling like a Cliff’s Notes version of this tale as it quickly jumps from one big melodramatic event to the next. We never really see Samuel in his partying stage, we just hear about it through Samuel’s preaching. We only get a glimpse of him riding in a car with long hair and seemingly high, and then the next moment he’s sitting in a jail cell where the cops have given him a surprisingly perfect haircut making him look clean-cut again (I’m pretty sure the police aren’t allowed to do this). At times the film can be a bit predictable and clichéd, but it’s pretty standard faith-based fare, and the performances are pretty solid overall.

The film is a tale of second changes, redemption and forgiveness, and an inspirational story overall of Samuel rediscovering his faith and childhood dream of becoming a pastor. However, the film can be downright depressing at times, seeing Samuel facing this constant barrage of loss and tragedy, or discovering horrific things about loved ones’ pasts along the way. And if this drama wasn’t enough, there’s also the mustache-twirling villain T.L. Whitmore, who seems to always be working behind-the-scenes, manipulating things and trying to take down the Allens. While I wasn’t a huge fan of the movie, it has a surprisingly near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score. I would probably attribute this in large part to the film’s major highlight, all of its great original music—whether it be Samuel and his more rock ‘n’ roll style, or Julie leading the choir in some big gospel performance. These catchy musical performances are peppered throughout the film, and serve to both compliment the drama of the story as well as to just provide some fun and uplifting moments.

Southern Gospel arrives only on DVD from Mill Creek Entertainment, but is also available digitally in HD. The SD picture is generally clean and sufficient, but noticeably lacks the extra level of clarity and sharpness that you would get from a Blu-ray. However, I quickly got used to the picture as the film went along. Despite the packaging listing this film as being in Dolby 5.1 Audio, the disc only plays back in Dolby 2.0. While the dialogue remains clear throughout, and the musical performances sound really good, the presentation lacks that fullness and immersive feeling of a surround track.

The DVD disc comes packed in a standard DVD keepcase with a cardboard slipcover. The disc is barebones, with just Subtitles On/Off and Play menu items.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:48:44)

480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English 2.0 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

No bonus material included.

Final Thoughts:

My Rating

Film:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Worth a Look
for Faith-Based Fans

Southern Gospel is pretty standard faith-based fare, though it moves a little too quickly, making rapid time jumps as it throws so many tragedies and hurdles at its lead character. The film can be a bit clichéd and overly melodramatic at times, but at the core is an inspirational story of redemption. The film is also filled with some amazing musical performances—this was the real highlight for me. Mill Creek’s DVD provides decent picture and sound, but lacks any kind of bonus material. Fans of faith-based fair will probably enjoy this movie, but may want to go with the increased picture quality of the HD digital release.