Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30739 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-04-04
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, PAL
• Original language: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 122 minutes

Customer Reviews

An Eloquent Christian
Whether or not you believe in God, this DVD provides a very thought provoking view of one of America's most famous preachers and a master of the spoken word. Although it has a bias towards the man, you can see why as Billy Graham has been the confidante of every single US president since Truman and has had a profound and enduring impact on American, if not World affairs.

The DVD starts off with the usual selection of 'best of' moments. Although David Frost makes the point that no other man could pack as many stadiums as Billy Graham, one does get the impression that he is just another Southern preacher who talks the talk but probably doesn't walk the walk.

As the DVD begins going through his life it starts to turn interesting. His rise, for its time, was meteoric with him starting off as a lowly farm boy and quickly rising (once in the church) to State-wide, region-wide and nationwide preacher. On the way he seems to be in the forefront of inventions that later evangelists adopted, such as radio evangelism, 'crusades' in major cities as well as the much imitated set of rules he created, setting him apart from previous corrupt preachers.

After showing some of Billy Graham's crusades in America, he then proceeds to travel abroad to places such the UK, and eventually the Soviet Union. Although his job seems easy in retrospect, it is amazing to see him let into so many anti-Christian and even Atheistic states (like North Korea and China) and see that it is not just places like America that attract mass crowds to Christian gatherings, but also places like Britain and the Eastern Bloc.

The documentary ends with current events, his family and more words of praise from various acquaintances of the man. In the extras there is an interview with David Frost (who I noticed is clearly a cynic about the whole idea of religion, but does a good job anyway), and there are snippets of crusades and interviews with the director etc.

To conclude, I would say the documentary was a bit too long and was formulaic in its structure by showing too many sycophants and not enough criticism. However, if you research on the internet, you will find that people are either in Zombie like esteem or irrationally hateful of him, and this DVD seems to strike the right balance. This doesn't mean it is a good documentary as a result (hence not 5*), but its content and delivery do make it worthwhile watching.