Monumental: A Movie Review

What is wrong with our country?  Tolerance is advocated for everyone except for the intolerant, the lie of separation of church and state is propogated to the extreme, and America is headed, in Kirk Cameron’s words, “to hell in a handbasket.”  Out to tackle this very subject is Kirk Cameron’s new documentary Monumental, which I was able to see on Tuesday with Mama, Mikaela, and Sarah.  We drove an hour to to attend a thrillingly sold-out showing, and it was so worth it. 

Once we were settled down in the only remaining seats—the front row—and the movie began, I wondered what we were in for.  In the first few minutes, Kirk drove the point home that something is “sick in the soul of our nation.”  It was a bleak first few minutes. 

But then he delved into the heart of the movie: a quest to go back in time, to search out like buried treasure the lives of the Pilgrims and the Founding Fathers, to discern what truly motivated them, and to discover what their vision for our country was.

Kirk Cameron journeyed to England, and I was able to see the beach where the sea captain betrayed the Separatists, the prison where they were held, and even the location where they lived in Holland.  As the best storyteller I have ever heard, a British historian, wove the story of the Pilgrim’s journey from just your average peasant to visionary country-founders, I got chills.  And I suddenly realized that the Pilgrim’s position in England bears many similarities with our position as Christians in America today.  This movie had my full attention. 

Kirk Cameron interviewed Marshall Foster, Paul Jehle, David Barton, and others.  He travelled across the ocean and across our nation.  In my favorite scene of the movie, he expressed to Marshall Foster his wish that the Pilgrims had left some sort of instructions for us on how they founded this country and what we should do if we ever found ourselves straying from their model.  In Kirk Cameron’s words, “Did they leave us the secret sauce recipe?”  “Oh, they did!”  Marshall Foster replied.  “But no one knows about it!”  Indeed, the largest solid-granite monument in the United States is “hidden” in a residential area, but I had no idea such a thing existed, even though I have been to Plymouth. 

Joshua 4:6-7 describes a very similar memorial:

"That this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?' Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever."

When the documentary ended, it was with hope, as Kirk Cameron rose from the chair he had been sitting in at the beginning and pledged, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  He put the challenge to us in unequivocal terms, and I left not inspired, but compelled to do something, and to ensure the lies of revisionist historians never win out over the true history of our country. 

The documentary was professional, with a contemporary style of cinematography, and it was easy to follow and understand.  The only thing that belied the professionalism was the soundtrack.  Its repetition, lack of subtlety, and overuse of the electric guitar annoyed me as a musician, to say the least.  But it wouldn’t keep me from seeing the movie. 

At first, as Kirk Cameron was recounting the story of the Pilgrims (much of which I already knew) and how he never learned any of it in public school, I began to worry that the whole movie would be only a review of what I already knew.  But he quickly proved my fears groundless as the documentary took off and I began to see even what I thought I already knew in a new light! 

Every Christian American needs to see this movie.  Go here to watch the trailer and find out if it is opening tonight in a theater near you.  If not, click on “demand the movie” on the sidebar of the Monumental website, and enter your zipcode.  With enough votes, the movie will come to your city!  (In fact, my zipcode only needs four more votes, so please vote, friends that live near me!) 

"Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. ... Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us."

 --John Hancock, History of the United States of America, Vol. II, p. 229.