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Jesus Camp
Magnolia Pictures


6.6

based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 25 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

The Boys of Baraka

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some discussions of mature subject matter

Starring Becky Fischer, and Mike Papantonio

A growing number of Evangelical Christians believe there is a revival underway in America that requires Christian youth to assume leadership roles in advocating the causes of their religious movement. This documentary, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, directors of the critically acclaimed "The Boys of Baraka," follows Levi, Rachael, and Tory to Pastor Becky Fischer's "Kids on Fire" summer camp in Devil's Lake, North Dakota, where kids as young as 6 years-old are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in "God's army." (Magnolia Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Documentary
DIRECTED BY:	Heidi Ewing Rachel Grady
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 23, 2007 Theatrical: September 22, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	84 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

TV Guide Ken Fox

The fact that Pastor Fischer would probably consider the film an accurate portrayal of her mission may be the most terrifying thing of all.

Entertainment Weekly Scott Brown

As a documentary, Jesus Camp could lose its haunted-house score and contrapuntal Air America refrains and still deliver its message: that, here and elsewhere, fundamentalism is no longer content with a separate peace. It wants the meat.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It makes an unsettling case that America is fast becoming the thing it professes to hate.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

This team has succeeded at making a film that opens a subculture without programming our responses to it.

Empire Owen Williams

Funny, sad and horrifying. Anti-fundamentalist rather than anti-Christian, this deserves to preach to more than just the converted.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

It's a call to arms, a call to pick sides in the deepening cultural, political, and spiritual schism between the two Americas of the 21st century.

San Francisco Chronicle Neva Chonin

At heart, all documentaries aim to be important films. Few actually pull it off. Minor flaws and all, Jesus Camp is among the year's most important films, if only because it forces us to learn about an America we seldom see and seldom want to see.

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

What Ewing and Grady have accomplished here is remarkable--capturing the visceral humanity, desire and unflagging political will of a religious movement.

Premiere Sara Brady

Doesn't function particularly well as a documentary; it lacks a strong editorial point of view and doesn't really comment on the evangelical movement so much as it just portrays a selection of people and their views.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

What most interests the directors is the way young minds are shaped by adults with clear moral and political agendas.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Jesus Camp is not a "hatchet job." The filmmakers did not go in with an anti-Christian agenda and use selective editing to prove their point.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

I felt depressed when I realized all 87 minutes had passed without one word about forgiving sin or reaching out to the image of God in neighbors who don't think as you do.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

It's almost impossible not to respond emotionally to this fascinating, sobering and all-too-brief exploration of the politicized religious right and its hopes, dreams and power.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Cinematic dynamite.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Jesus Camp doesn't pretend to be a comprehensive survey of the charismatic-evangelical phenomenon. It offers no history or sociology and only scattered statistics about its growth. It analyzes the political agenda only glancingly, centering on abortion but not on homosexuality or other items.

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

A fascinating glimpse of kids' role in the evangelical movement's political agenda.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Whether you are a religious, churchgoing person or not, if you are the least bit liberal or tolerant in your world view, this has got to be one of the most unnerving films of the year.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

If we are in the midst of a culture war, as many people proclaim in Jesus Camp, then the left should be concerned. The right's Christian soldiers appear to be extremely well trained.

Film Threat KJ Doughton

Jesus Camp works nicely as a time-capsule document confirming the impact -- and popularity -- of American evangelism.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Often funny (just listen to Becky fulminate against Harry Potter), but it's also a scary.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

A frightening, infuriating, yet profoundly compassionate documentary about the indoctrination of children by the Evangelical right.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Why do Ewing and Grady feel the need to tip their hand by underscoring it all with creepy ambient music or by using Air America host Mike Papantonio as a Greek Chorus expressing the voice of reason?

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

By gilding the lily so shamelessly, Ewing and Grady guarantee they'll preach only to the converted.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

It's a glimpse into a world most secular, metropolitan liberals never see, and it's likely to induce howls of both terror and hilarity from big-city audiences.

Variety Ronnie Scheib

May shock many viewers, especially political liberals.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Hamstrung by its polemics.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A snapshot, to be sure, but scattershot as well.

Village Voice Rob Nelson

The doc these kids would make with flea market camcorders couldn't possibly be as ugly as this absurdly hypocritical critique of the far right's role in escalating the culture war. The classier indoctrination to which Gap-shopping urban Democrats subject their kids might look damn spooky, too, but it probably wouldn't sell.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.6 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Susan B. gave it a10:
I think it is a wonderful program and I would like to get involved.

Peter J. gave it an8:
Great documentary of a clan of brain washing morons. Child abuse at it's finest.

Joe B. gave it a6:
Its spooky music and tepid attempt at counterpoint unnecessarily undercuts an otherwise compelling film. Jesus Camp's value lies in its power as a socio/psychological document. It is one of the best public records we have of cult dynamics and mind control. One of the best public records of cult dynamics and

M. S gave it a10:
It's so difficult to watch this as a Christian and wonder where these people went wrong. What message are these people listening to? If the Christian God does indeed exist he has to be shaking his head in disgust at the people who twist the moral teachings of the Bible to corrupt children and breed hatred. This documentary is a real eye opener about a hypocritical religious and cultural crisis we face here at home. Before we fight terrorism we need to take a look at ourselves in the mirror.

Ben D gave it an8:
I liked it and will make sure my son who is 7 watches it again and again. God bless you all the kids in the movie

Adam L gave it a4:
The fact that one of the comments below compares twenty-first century Evangelicals with members of the Taliban shows just how uninformed most Americans are about Christianity. Disagreeing with a religion that preaches peace and love over all else is one thing; likening the more enthusiastic members of its parish to woman-hating mass murderers is another, and pretty abominable.

Andie B. gave it a9:
A chilling and accurate depiction of how children are manipulated and brainwashed by a cult leader.

Jesus Camp Magnolia Pictures

Jesus Camp
Magnolia Pictures