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Back in July, John D. Payne and Patrick McKay made their first big spec sale when Relativity Media acquired their script, Goliath.  My first thought was that this was going to be more TBN original made-for-TV movie than Book of Eli, but from all accounts, I seem to pleasantly and excitedly wrong.

First of all, let’s start with the premise.

When the Mycenaean army surrounds Jerusalem, a young shepherd must accept his divine destiny as king if he wants to save not only his family, but the nation of Judah. But first, he must defeat the elemental force of violence known as Goliath.

Now, I’ve probably read the story a hundred times, but that log line makes it seem fresh and truly excites me to see more.  Well played, sirs.

But what about the script itself?  Well, immediately the writers establish that this isn’t your mama’s Christian film.  This thing boldly opens. It feels like a movie with no credits. Just the sickening crunch of bone and a body hitting the ground and being dragged to a mass grave full of dead gladiators. There’s a scarred behemoth responsible for all these deaths, and we meet this war machine as he makes quick work of three of the ancient world’s most bloodthirsty combatants.

Having the title, Goliath means that much of the perspective is going to be on and through, well, Goliath.  This, I think, was a smart move.  Films like The Dark Knight and No Country For Old Men made the inwardly complex, but outwardly singular-purposed villain very, very cool with the Joker and Anton Chigurh respectively.  They are personifications of violence that we can’t stop watching and end up stealing the show from the protagonists.  It seems as if the writers of Goliath have done just that.  By making Goliath a monstrous giant whose flesh is marred with tally marks of all his worthy kills (singular-purposed villain) as well as archaicly philosophical (inwardly complex), I believe they’ve made this Biblical villain much more interesting.

Here’s the tough part of adapting Biblical text: the lack of back stories forces the writers to fill in the blanks, which typically is a minefield of trouble.  On one hand, you don’t want to distort the Bible or the truth, but then again, no one knows exactly what the truth is so in order keep the script from being superficial, they are forced to take some sort of creative license.  Carefully done, this can be a nice vehicle for revelatory truth.  Recklessly done, it can be blasphemous.  So there you go.

In Goliath, it seems that this came into play when developing Goliath’s backstory.  Where did he come from?  Why is he so violent?  What motivates and drives him to destruction?  Is it just because he’s a big, ugly Philistine (which is where most Christian films would have stopped) or is it something more.  Well, here’s the twisted, mythic, supernatural, revenge-driven backstory, these writers gave Goliath:

“Goliath is more a curse than a man. One created by our people.  During the Judean conquest of Canaan, a rogue regiment of soldiers defiled the sole survivor, a beautiful woman. Eight months later, she died in child birth, bearing a son three times the size of a normal child.  Goliath had not one father, but a hundred. He was forged with their hatred in his mother’s womb, and he lives his life as an honorable killer, preparing.

Preparing to exact justice for her dishonor.

And the ultimate target for his revenge?

The future king of Judah.

David.”

Holy slingshot that sounds awesome, but at the same time, weird and too off-base.

Is it true?  Probably not.  Could it be?  Technically, yes.  Will it be interesting to see it play out?  I think so.

The plot, as a whole, deviates from the Biblical text in order to build action and character development, but at the end of the day, it’s obvious these guys can write.  Here’s the thing, though.  The more you deviate from the Word, the less powerful the film is going to be.  Sure, it may be fun.  Sure, it may be interesting.  But how much are you distorting the Truth?  Will this intrigue people to learn the real story?  Will it give people the impression that this is, in fact, the real story?  If so, that’s not a good place to be in as a writer.  These are the questions that you encounter when endeavoring to write a Biblical/historical film.

Here’s what I like about it:

• It uses the Bible as a source text.
• It’s building interest in Biblical stories.
• The plot seems fun, and dark, and crazy and exciting.
• It gives this story a fresh face by shifting perspectives.
• At the end of the day, it tells the same core message of the original David and Goliath story: “God can use the least likely of heroes to triumph over evil.”

Here’s what I don’t like:

• Too much deviation from the source text.  Couldn’t you use what you do know to be true in the Bible as the fence posts for the film and then fill in the blanks rather than actually changing the fence posts?

Ultimately, this film would be really cool if it were about a young, chosen king who is being hunted by a malevolent giant who is stalking the land looking for revenge.  But, the fact that this is altering the Biblical story too much probably ruins an otherwise cool film.