To Save a Life
Encyclopedia
To Save a Life is a 2010 Christian
drama film
directed by Brian Baugh. The film was released theatrically in the United States on January 22, 2010, and was written by Jim Britts. It stars Randy Wayne
, Deja Kreutzberg, Robert Bailey Jr.
, Steven Crowder and Sean Michael Afable
. The United States rights were acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films
from New Song Pictures.
To Save a Life was produced on a budget of about $1 million, but nearly doubled that in its opening weekend. The film was released to 441 theaters on January 22, 2010, and has grossed $3,777,210 domestically. It was received with mixed to generally negative reviews from film critics.
The film was rated PG-13 for "mature thematic elements involving teen suicide, teen drinking, some drug content, disturbing images, and sexuality".
) attending the funeral of his ex-best friend Roger (Robert Bailey Jr.
). After Roger's mom comes and asks Jake if Roger had said anything to him, she walks away, and Jake remembers that this all started during their freshmen year of high school. After Jake had made the winning basket in a basketball game, a girl named Amy invited him to a party but didn't want Roger to come (as he's not cool to her) and in the years later Amy becomes his girlfriend, he gets a new crowd of friends, star of the basketball team, and grows further away from Roger and the problems he faces. Three years later when they're high school seniors, Roger comes in with a gun and shoots himself. Roger dies from his injuries and Jake wonders that if he had been a better friend could he have saved him. After the final basketball game of the season, Jake meets up with Chris, the pastor from Roger's funeral, and a youth pastor. Later, at a party, one of his friends, Doug, lets in a boy in a wizard outfit (Sean Michael Afable) as he gave him a fake invitation. While everyone is laughing at him, Jake feels sorry for him, but Amy is telling him it's funny and then to just forget about it. They then head up to the bedroom and have sex , only to have the police arrive minutes after they are done. Jake, being drunk, won't leave. When he gets a little bit of sense back, he gets dressed, and sneaks out of the house. When he gets to the curb, he realizes that Amy stole his truck. As all of his friends are either with the police, very drunk, or asleep, he calls Chris. They talk of Roger's death and Chris tells him that the Sunday before he killed himself, he came to church, but Chris didn't pay much attention to him, because someone else came up to him.
The next day Jake walks into church, and looks for Chris. With the help of Danny, one of the "not-so-nice" guys, and the pastor's son, he goes to the room in the back where there is a youth group called "Souled Out." He sits in the back and afterward, Chris takes him home where Amy is waiting for him with his truck, and also gives him a Bible and a Christian CD. Amy is upset because Jake isn't acting like himself and tells him to get over the shooting, but Jake can't, knowing that they were good friends. Later he goes back to church, but doesn't go in because he's confused about everything going on. He then goes on the web and looks up "teen suicides", then goes to Roger's MySpace
page and Jake reads his status and sees the things he was feeling. The next Sunday, he takes Amy to church with him, but she wants to leave immediately because she felt judged and said it was her or them. Jake asks to just wait a little while longer. Amy protests that she has something to say, but can't talk about it here. Jake goes back in, supposedly ending their relationship. Amy calls Doug and he comes and picks her up, as he had always had a crush on her. After Jake goes back into the back room, Chris calls for a 30 second period of silence to think about things but Jake sees people talking during this time. He curses a little and says that it was disrespectful and that Amy left because she felt judged and no one noticed at all. Chris asks for a solution, and a girl named Andrea suggests that they all have lunch together at school.
For the next few weeks they all meet at lunch everyday, and slowly, Jake becomes shunned from all of his old friends, including Amy. Jake sees the same boy from the party and he invites him over, but the boy says he has homework to do. He introduces himself as Jonny (Sean Michael Afable), and a couple days later joins the group. Jonny starts to have a whole new personality change from a dark side to a happier side of himself, especially after Jake gave him a ride home one day and hung out with him mostly because when Jonny went to open the door, he accidentally revealed long cutting scars on his wrist. Later on Doug approaches Jake and demands to know what is going on with him since he's not the same. He says he plans on having sex with Amy but Jake knows Amy won't do it and Doug becomes furious and they both get into a huge fight.
After some time, Jonny asks Jake if he has any experience in asking girls out. It turns out, he has a crush on Andrea and wants to go on a date with her. Jake helps him figure out a way to get Andrea to say yes. It ends up with Jonny putting a block of ice and a hammer by her front door. She breaks it revealing a vase of flowers. Then Jonny comes out of the bushes and since they've now "broken the ice," if she would go on a date with him. She happily agrees. They both get ice cream cones and Andrea reveals that she used to be a cutter as well. When Andrea takes his wrist, Jonny takes that as a "move", and tries to kiss her, but his nose goes into her ice cream, and his ice cream falls into her lap. Meanwhile, the once happy Jake after seeing Jonny off on his date, goes home and immediately his mood diminishes. His parents are getting a divorce after his mom caught his dad with another woman, and Amy is pregnant with Jake's baby. Amy doesn't want to keep the child; Jake wants to talk about it, but Amy isn't giving him a chance to talk about keeping their baby. The next day at school, Jonny wants help from Jake on what to do with Andrea after he blew his chance. Jake takes his anger out on Jonny by saying it doesn't matter what happens or if Andrea likes him or not, then mimics his cutting problem in front of everyone. Utterly humiliated, Jonny gets into Jake's face and says he was better off without Jake coming into his life.
Jake goes to youth group and talks to Andrea about what happened. She feels a little bad and asks Jake if he'd seen him lately. He says he's called a few times but Jonny never calls back. When Jake calls yet again, the scene goes to Jonny's house, where it is revealed that Jonny is cutting his wrists again.
Jake talks to Chris about Amy's pregnancy. Chris says that God is not punishing him but that he needs to let Amy know she's not alone in this, even though she wants to have an abortion. Danny overhears Jake and Chris talking about it and posts pictures all over the school about Amy being pregnant and Jake being the dad. After finding out about Amy's pregnancy, Doug makes fun of Amy and lashes out at her, calling her a slut. Infuriated, Jake tells Doug to not call Amy a slut again and punches him across the face. Despite his friend's warning, Doug claims that even though Jake is always sitting with the Bible group at lunch, he's "the biggest faker of all" and that he's not worth anything any more. He then turns and walks away, thus putting an end to his and Jake's friendship, while Jake wanders through the school, ripping down the pictures on the lockers and bulletin boards.
In the weeks that follow, Jake stops hanging out with his old friends for good, including Doug, and spends more time with his Christian friends. He gives up his dream about going to college, much to his father's disappointment, and persuades Amy to keep the baby, promising her that he will help her raise their child. Amy, having been shunned by all her old friends at school, starts spending time with Andrea and the other girls from church. Though he succeeds in this, Jake continues to call Jonny, but Jonny doesn't pick up his phone.
When Jonny bumps into Danny, Jonny accidentally drops his cell phone, which Danny picks up. After the students flood outside to the field, one of the security guards for the school tells the students that a bomb threat was issued at the school and if anyone tried to leave the premises, they would be expelled. He then says that if anyone has any information, to report it to him immediately. Danny steps forward and tells the police he thinks it was Jonny. The police search Jonny's locker and find horrific pictures of bombs exploding the school. They all walk outside and go and ask Jonny for his phone, but he doesn't have it, because Danny still does. The police handcuff Jonny, and walk him through the crowd of the entire student body. Jake knows Jonny could not possibly have done this and somehow gets the idea to call Jonny's phone. From across the field, he sees Danny answer the phone. Jake finds a way to prove his innocence, and gets all of his closest friends in on the plan. Amy goes up to the guards for the school, groaning in pain, pretending to feel ill because of her pregnancy. While the guards are distracted, Jake runs past them, unfortunately drawing the attention of one of the guards. He runs after Jake and catches him, but Jake manages to get out of his grip and step in front of the police car. Jonny had opened a bottle of pills preparing to take them, and therefore killing himself just like Roger did, but Jake successfully stops the vehicle just before Jonny ends up like Roger. Danny is then caught by the police, but could not call his father, and instead called Chris. Chris leaves Danny alone, which makes Danny very angry. He starts screaming at Chris, even though he is already gone, and starts crying in disappointment. Jake offers to stay with Danny. Seeing that Danny could not call him and now knowing that he did not even know his own son, the pastor takes a leave of absence to spend time with Danny and Chris becomes the new pastor in his place.
Jake's life soon returns to normal. His daughter is placed in open adoption
, and Amy gets back together with Jake. Jake heads to Louisville for college and everyone is there for their goodbye and even his dad comes along with him so they can talk. Jonny gives him a note to read on the way there where he states that he actually did feel like Roger and thought about taking his life too and that if Jake didn't invite him for lunch that one day, he didn't know where he'd be at the moment. The movie ends with the truck driving on the highway, supposedly with Jake keeping in touch with Amy and patching things up with his father.
(which released Fireproof
, Facing the Giants
, and Amazing Grace
), Outreach Films, and New Song Pictures. Writer and producer Jim Britts was inspired to make the movie after observing a simple problem: many teenagers are hurting. Britts, a Christian youth pastor in Southern California, and his wife, a schoolteacher, began taking the many stories of teens' struggles and molding them into a film. "Every day my wife and I talk to teens who are in some kind of pain," Britts said. "I wanted to make a film that would bring hope to hurting and lonely students."
Director Brian Baugh was surprised at the grittiness of the script, in stark contrast to many other Christian films. The movie includes scenes of teen drinking, cutting (inflicting self-injury), moderate profanity, and implications of sex. Actor Randy Wayne
, the star of the film, said he originally rejected the idea of starring because it was being made with a low budget, but he eventually accepted the offer and offered to do it for free. The film has being marketed in a grassroots fashion, a tactic that proved successful for low-budget Christian films like Fireproof
.
Over 80% of the cast and crew for To Save a Life consisted of Oceanside
and North County locals. Several Oceanside locations, including Oceanside High School
, Calvin Christian High School, MiraCosta College
, New Song Community Church, Eternal Hills Memorial Park, Harbor, Guajome Park Academy, and Beach are shown in the film.
Track listing
gave it a 35% rating based on 17 reviews. Metacritic
currently has its score listed as 19%. Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle
gave the film a negative review, saying, "To Save a Life is a well-meaning but ineptly made message movie..." Melissa Anderson of The Village Voice
said, "For all its initial attempts to soften its religiosity... To Save a Life is about as subtle as this closing credit: 'The producers would like to thank: GOD.'" Andy Webster of The New York Times said, "The film would be a mere nuisance if not for its shameless exploitation of school shootings to advance its agenda."
Other reviewers were more supportive of the film. Gary Goldstein of The Los Angeles Times said, "The teen drama 'To Save a Life,' nicely directed by Brian Baugh from a script by Jim Britts, manages to be appealing, poignant and inspiring in ways that are gentle and quite real." Dan Bennett of the North County Times
gave the film 3 of out 4 stars, saying, "Not pushy or intent on establishing an absolute doctrine, the film does well by throwing ideas out there, and letting the realistic characters define those." Bob Fischbach of the Omaha World-Herald
said, "[To Save a Lifes] messages are good ones for kids to hear. The characters' appeal and a sprinkling of humor should help draw a young audience."
, Oceanside, California
, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
, and Evans, Georgia
were the film's top grossers. The film was #3 on Fandango
's most requested tickets going into the weekend. The film fell 53.6% in its second weekend to $733,457, and −63.2% to $269,684 in its third, accumulating $3,777,210 to date.
and Blu-ray
on August 3, 2010. The DVD features an in-depth behind-the-scenes of the making of the film, deleted scene
s, a gag reel, and music video
s.
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Brian Baugh. The film was released theatrically in the United States on January 22, 2010, and was written by Jim Britts. It stars Randy Wayne
Randy Wayne
Randy Wayne is an American actor.Wayne was born and raised in Moore, Oklahoma. He appeared on the 2002 season of the British reality show Shipwrecked, which led to guest appearances on the television shows The Closer, Huff, NCIS, Jack & Bobby, and Numb3rs as well as a series regular role as the...
, Deja Kreutzberg, Robert Bailey Jr.
Robert Bailey Jr.
Robert Bailey, Jr. is an American actor , who is best known for his role as the voice of Wybie in the 2009 film, Coraline.-Biography:...
, Steven Crowder and Sean Michael Afable
Sean Michael (US actor)
Sean Michael Afable is an American actor, best known for playing the role of Dylan Chiu in Akeelah and the Bee.- Biography :...
. The United States rights were acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Samuel Goldwyn Films is an independent film company founded by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., the son of the Hollywood business magnate/mogul, Samuel Goldwyn...
from New Song Pictures.
To Save a Life was produced on a budget of about $1 million, but nearly doubled that in its opening weekend. The film was released to 441 theaters on January 22, 2010, and has grossed $3,777,210 domestically. It was received with mixed to generally negative reviews from film critics.
The film was rated PG-13 for "mature thematic elements involving teen suicide, teen drinking, some drug content, disturbing images, and sexuality".
Plot
The story opens with Jake Taylor (Randy WayneRandy Wayne
Randy Wayne is an American actor.Wayne was born and raised in Moore, Oklahoma. He appeared on the 2002 season of the British reality show Shipwrecked, which led to guest appearances on the television shows The Closer, Huff, NCIS, Jack & Bobby, and Numb3rs as well as a series regular role as the...
) attending the funeral of his ex-best friend Roger (Robert Bailey Jr.
Robert Bailey Jr.
Robert Bailey, Jr. is an American actor , who is best known for his role as the voice of Wybie in the 2009 film, Coraline.-Biography:...
). After Roger's mom comes and asks Jake if Roger had said anything to him, she walks away, and Jake remembers that this all started during their freshmen year of high school. After Jake had made the winning basket in a basketball game, a girl named Amy invited him to a party but didn't want Roger to come (as he's not cool to her) and in the years later Amy becomes his girlfriend, he gets a new crowd of friends, star of the basketball team, and grows further away from Roger and the problems he faces. Three years later when they're high school seniors, Roger comes in with a gun and shoots himself. Roger dies from his injuries and Jake wonders that if he had been a better friend could he have saved him. After the final basketball game of the season, Jake meets up with Chris, the pastor from Roger's funeral, and a youth pastor. Later, at a party, one of his friends, Doug, lets in a boy in a wizard outfit (Sean Michael Afable) as he gave him a fake invitation. While everyone is laughing at him, Jake feels sorry for him, but Amy is telling him it's funny and then to just forget about it. They then head up to the bedroom and have sex , only to have the police arrive minutes after they are done. Jake, being drunk, won't leave. When he gets a little bit of sense back, he gets dressed, and sneaks out of the house. When he gets to the curb, he realizes that Amy stole his truck. As all of his friends are either with the police, very drunk, or asleep, he calls Chris. They talk of Roger's death and Chris tells him that the Sunday before he killed himself, he came to church, but Chris didn't pay much attention to him, because someone else came up to him.
The next day Jake walks into church, and looks for Chris. With the help of Danny, one of the "not-so-nice" guys, and the pastor's son, he goes to the room in the back where there is a youth group called "Souled Out." He sits in the back and afterward, Chris takes him home where Amy is waiting for him with his truck, and also gives him a Bible and a Christian CD. Amy is upset because Jake isn't acting like himself and tells him to get over the shooting, but Jake can't, knowing that they were good friends. Later he goes back to church, but doesn't go in because he's confused about everything going on. He then goes on the web and looks up "teen suicides", then goes to Roger's MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page and Jake reads his status and sees the things he was feeling. The next Sunday, he takes Amy to church with him, but she wants to leave immediately because she felt judged and said it was her or them. Jake asks to just wait a little while longer. Amy protests that she has something to say, but can't talk about it here. Jake goes back in, supposedly ending their relationship. Amy calls Doug and he comes and picks her up, as he had always had a crush on her. After Jake goes back into the back room, Chris calls for a 30 second period of silence to think about things but Jake sees people talking during this time. He curses a little and says that it was disrespectful and that Amy left because she felt judged and no one noticed at all. Chris asks for a solution, and a girl named Andrea suggests that they all have lunch together at school.
For the next few weeks they all meet at lunch everyday, and slowly, Jake becomes shunned from all of his old friends, including Amy. Jake sees the same boy from the party and he invites him over, but the boy says he has homework to do. He introduces himself as Jonny (Sean Michael Afable), and a couple days later joins the group. Jonny starts to have a whole new personality change from a dark side to a happier side of himself, especially after Jake gave him a ride home one day and hung out with him mostly because when Jonny went to open the door, he accidentally revealed long cutting scars on his wrist. Later on Doug approaches Jake and demands to know what is going on with him since he's not the same. He says he plans on having sex with Amy but Jake knows Amy won't do it and Doug becomes furious and they both get into a huge fight.
After some time, Jonny asks Jake if he has any experience in asking girls out. It turns out, he has a crush on Andrea and wants to go on a date with her. Jake helps him figure out a way to get Andrea to say yes. It ends up with Jonny putting a block of ice and a hammer by her front door. She breaks it revealing a vase of flowers. Then Jonny comes out of the bushes and since they've now "broken the ice," if she would go on a date with him. She happily agrees. They both get ice cream cones and Andrea reveals that she used to be a cutter as well. When Andrea takes his wrist, Jonny takes that as a "move", and tries to kiss her, but his nose goes into her ice cream, and his ice cream falls into her lap. Meanwhile, the once happy Jake after seeing Jonny off on his date, goes home and immediately his mood diminishes. His parents are getting a divorce after his mom caught his dad with another woman, and Amy is pregnant with Jake's baby. Amy doesn't want to keep the child; Jake wants to talk about it, but Amy isn't giving him a chance to talk about keeping their baby. The next day at school, Jonny wants help from Jake on what to do with Andrea after he blew his chance. Jake takes his anger out on Jonny by saying it doesn't matter what happens or if Andrea likes him or not, then mimics his cutting problem in front of everyone. Utterly humiliated, Jonny gets into Jake's face and says he was better off without Jake coming into his life.
Jake goes to youth group and talks to Andrea about what happened. She feels a little bad and asks Jake if he'd seen him lately. He says he's called a few times but Jonny never calls back. When Jake calls yet again, the scene goes to Jonny's house, where it is revealed that Jonny is cutting his wrists again.
Jake talks to Chris about Amy's pregnancy. Chris says that God is not punishing him but that he needs to let Amy know she's not alone in this, even though she wants to have an abortion. Danny overhears Jake and Chris talking about it and posts pictures all over the school about Amy being pregnant and Jake being the dad. After finding out about Amy's pregnancy, Doug makes fun of Amy and lashes out at her, calling her a slut. Infuriated, Jake tells Doug to not call Amy a slut again and punches him across the face. Despite his friend's warning, Doug claims that even though Jake is always sitting with the Bible group at lunch, he's "the biggest faker of all" and that he's not worth anything any more. He then turns and walks away, thus putting an end to his and Jake's friendship, while Jake wanders through the school, ripping down the pictures on the lockers and bulletin boards.
In the weeks that follow, Jake stops hanging out with his old friends for good, including Doug, and spends more time with his Christian friends. He gives up his dream about going to college, much to his father's disappointment, and persuades Amy to keep the baby, promising her that he will help her raise their child. Amy, having been shunned by all her old friends at school, starts spending time with Andrea and the other girls from church. Though he succeeds in this, Jake continues to call Jonny, but Jonny doesn't pick up his phone.
When Jonny bumps into Danny, Jonny accidentally drops his cell phone, which Danny picks up. After the students flood outside to the field, one of the security guards for the school tells the students that a bomb threat was issued at the school and if anyone tried to leave the premises, they would be expelled. He then says that if anyone has any information, to report it to him immediately. Danny steps forward and tells the police he thinks it was Jonny. The police search Jonny's locker and find horrific pictures of bombs exploding the school. They all walk outside and go and ask Jonny for his phone, but he doesn't have it, because Danny still does. The police handcuff Jonny, and walk him through the crowd of the entire student body. Jake knows Jonny could not possibly have done this and somehow gets the idea to call Jonny's phone. From across the field, he sees Danny answer the phone. Jake finds a way to prove his innocence, and gets all of his closest friends in on the plan. Amy goes up to the guards for the school, groaning in pain, pretending to feel ill because of her pregnancy. While the guards are distracted, Jake runs past them, unfortunately drawing the attention of one of the guards. He runs after Jake and catches him, but Jake manages to get out of his grip and step in front of the police car. Jonny had opened a bottle of pills preparing to take them, and therefore killing himself just like Roger did, but Jake successfully stops the vehicle just before Jonny ends up like Roger. Danny is then caught by the police, but could not call his father, and instead called Chris. Chris leaves Danny alone, which makes Danny very angry. He starts screaming at Chris, even though he is already gone, and starts crying in disappointment. Jake offers to stay with Danny. Seeing that Danny could not call him and now knowing that he did not even know his own son, the pastor takes a leave of absence to spend time with Danny and Chris becomes the new pastor in his place.
Jake's life soon returns to normal. His daughter is placed in open adoption
Open adoption
Open adoption is an adoption in which the biological mother or parents and adoptive family know the identity of each other. In open adoption, the parental rights of biological parents are terminated, as they are in "closed adoptions" and the adoptive parents become the legal parents, yet the...
, and Amy gets back together with Jake. Jake heads to Louisville for college and everyone is there for their goodbye and even his dad comes along with him so they can talk. Jonny gives him a note to read on the way there where he states that he actually did feel like Roger and thought about taking his life too and that if Jake didn't invite him for lunch that one day, he didn't know where he'd be at the moment. The movie ends with the truck driving on the highway, supposedly with Jake keeping in touch with Amy and patching things up with his father.
Cast
- Randy WayneRandy WayneRandy Wayne is an American actor.Wayne was born and raised in Moore, Oklahoma. He appeared on the 2002 season of the British reality show Shipwrecked, which led to guest appearances on the television shows The Closer, Huff, NCIS, Jack & Bobby, and Numb3rs as well as a series regular role as the...
as Jacob "Jake" Taylor - Deja Kreutzberg as Amanda "Amy" Briggs
- Joshua Weigel as Christopher "Chris" Vaughn
- Sean MichaelSean Michael (US actor)Sean Michael Afable is an American actor, best known for playing the role of Dylan Chiu in Akeelah and the Bee.- Biography :...
as Jonathan "Jonny" Garcia - Robert Bailey Jr.Robert Bailey Jr.Robert Bailey, Jr. is an American actor , who is best known for his role as the voice of Wybie in the 2009 film, Coraline.-Biography:...
as Roger Dawson - Steven Crowder as Douglas "Doug" Moore
- D. David Morin as Marcus "Mark" Rivers
- Kim Hidalgo as Andrea Stevens
- Bubba Lewis as Daniel "Danny" Rivers
Production
The movie is a partnership between three faith-based companies: Samuel Goldwyn FilmsSamuel Goldwyn Films
Samuel Goldwyn Films is an independent film company founded by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., the son of the Hollywood business magnate/mogul, Samuel Goldwyn...
(which released Fireproof
Fireproof (film)
Fireproof is a 2008 American Christian drama film released by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Affirm Films , directed by Alex Kendrick, who co-wrote and co-produced it with Stephen Kendrick...
, Facing the Giants
Facing the Giants
- Official listing :# Come Together - Third Day# Voice of Truth - Casting Crowns# Facing the Giants Theme - Mark Willard# I'm Finding You - Bebo Norman# The Deathcrawl - Mark Willard# Completely - Ana Laura...
, and Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace (2006 film)
Amazing Grace is a 2006 U.S.–UK co-production film, directed by Michael Apted, about the campaign against slave trade in the British Empire, led by William Wilberforce, who was responsible for steering anti-slave trade legislation through the British parliament. The title is a reference to the hymn...
), Outreach Films, and New Song Pictures. Writer and producer Jim Britts was inspired to make the movie after observing a simple problem: many teenagers are hurting. Britts, a Christian youth pastor in Southern California, and his wife, a schoolteacher, began taking the many stories of teens' struggles and molding them into a film. "Every day my wife and I talk to teens who are in some kind of pain," Britts said. "I wanted to make a film that would bring hope to hurting and lonely students."
Director Brian Baugh was surprised at the grittiness of the script, in stark contrast to many other Christian films. The movie includes scenes of teen drinking, cutting (inflicting self-injury), moderate profanity, and implications of sex. Actor Randy Wayne
Randy Wayne
Randy Wayne is an American actor.Wayne was born and raised in Moore, Oklahoma. He appeared on the 2002 season of the British reality show Shipwrecked, which led to guest appearances on the television shows The Closer, Huff, NCIS, Jack & Bobby, and Numb3rs as well as a series regular role as the...
, the star of the film, said he originally rejected the idea of starring because it was being made with a low budget, but he eventually accepted the offer and offered to do it for free. The film has being marketed in a grassroots fashion, a tactic that proved successful for low-budget Christian films like Fireproof
Fireproof (film)
Fireproof is a 2008 American Christian drama film released by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Affirm Films , directed by Alex Kendrick, who co-wrote and co-produced it with Stephen Kendrick...
.
Over 80% of the cast and crew for To Save a Life consisted of Oceanside
Oceanside, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Oceanside had a population of 167,086. The population density was 3,961.8 people per square mile...
and North County locals. Several Oceanside locations, including Oceanside High School
Oceanside High School
-Campus:Oceanside High School rests between the beach and Interstate 5. The remodeled campus includes many palm trees and new sport fields. There is a three-story Science & technology building and Senior Hall...
, Calvin Christian High School, MiraCosta College
MiraCosta College
MiraCosta College is a community college located in the northern coastal region of San Diego County, California. MiraCosta College is located at 1 Barnard Drive, Oceanside, California 92056. It also has a campus in Cardiff-by-the-Sea and a Community Learning Center in Oceanside.- History :MiraCosta...
, New Song Community Church, Eternal Hills Memorial Park, Harbor, Guajome Park Academy, and Beach are shown in the film.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for To Save a Life has been released as a digital download on the official website of the film and iTunes.Track listing
- "Boom" (Da Enforcerz)
- "500,000 Boomin’ Watts" (Flynn AdamFlynn AdamFlynn Adam is an American producer/singer/rapper originating from Los Angeles, California. He is currently independent and has released a new EP titled Bang the Drums. Flynn Adam has also been featured numerous times on RadioU and TVU for his music video, "Such a Time," and is an active member of...
) - "Bounce" (J-Rus)
- "Fall Back" (Bobby Taylor)
- "Outsider" (The DaylightsThe DaylightsThe Daylights is a pop rock band from Los Angeles, California that formed in 2004. The trio is fronted by brothers Ran Jackson and Ricky Jackson, with Svend Lerche on Drums....
) - "Golden Thread" (Joy Williams)
- "Sunset Cliffs" (Paul Wright)
- "Go Together" (Jillian Edwards)
- "Rollercoaster" (Kendall PayneKendall PayneKendall Payne is a singer/songwriter of indie rock music who was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her first album, Jordan's Sister, was released by Capitol Records in 1999 and sold over 100,000 copies...
) - "Hero (Red Pill Mix)" (SuperchickSuperchickSuperchick, originally known as Superchic[k], is an American Christian alternative pop/rock band. Their music incorporates various styles such as pop, punk, rock, rap, and R&B. Their sound has been compared to mainstream artists No Doubt and Avril Lavigne with a heavier sound...
) - "Future Plans" (Timothy Michael WynnTimothy Michael WynnTimothy Michael Wynn is a musical composer for films, television shows, and video games.His past and current projects include Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, The Simpsons Game, Red Faction Guerilla, Warhawk, Odyssey: Driving Around the World TV Series, Tiberium, The Punisher, Gun , Supernatural, Dr...
)
Critical reception
To Save a Life received mixed to generally negative reception from film critics. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gave it a 35% rating based on 17 reviews. Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
currently has its score listed as 19%. Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle
The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
gave the film a negative review, saying, "To Save a Life is a well-meaning but ineptly made message movie..." Melissa Anderson of The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
said, "For all its initial attempts to soften its religiosity... To Save a Life is about as subtle as this closing credit: 'The producers would like to thank: GOD.'" Andy Webster of The New York Times said, "The film would be a mere nuisance if not for its shameless exploitation of school shootings to advance its agenda."
Other reviewers were more supportive of the film. Gary Goldstein of The Los Angeles Times said, "The teen drama 'To Save a Life,' nicely directed by Brian Baugh from a script by Jim Britts, manages to be appealing, poignant and inspiring in ways that are gentle and quite real." Dan Bennett of the North County Times
North County Times
The North County Times is a local newspaper in north San Diego County, California owned by Lee Enterprises. It is headquartered in Escondido. The current publisher is Peter York....
gave the film 3 of out 4 stars, saying, "Not pushy or intent on establishing an absolute doctrine, the film does well by throwing ideas out there, and letting the realistic characters define those." Bob Fischbach of the Omaha World-Herald
Omaha World-Herald
The Omaha World-Herald, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is the primary daily newspaper of Nebraska, as well as portions of southwest Iowa. For decades it circulated daily throughout Nebraska, and in parts of Kansas, South Dakota, Missouri, Colorado and Wyoming. In 2008, distribution was reduced to the...
said, "[To Save a Lifes] messages are good ones for kids to hear. The characters' appeal and a sprinkling of humor should help draw a young audience."
Box office
To Save a Life had a strong debut in its first weekend, amassing a total of $1,581,517, despite playing in only 441 theaters. Theaters in markets such as Burleson, TexasBurleson, Texas
Burleson is a city in Johnson and Tarrant counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is considered a suburb of Fort Worth and is located in the rapidly growing suburban expanse just south of the city. As of the 2010 census, the population was 36,690, having increased from the 20,976 residents counted...
, Oceanside, California
Oceanside, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Oceanside had a population of 167,086. The population density was 3,961.8 people per square mile...
, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
, and Evans, Georgia
Evans, Georgia
Evans is a census-designated place in Columbia County, Georgia, United States. It is an affluent suburb of Augusta and is part of the Augusta - Richmond County Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 17,727 at the 2000 census and, in 2006, the population was 20,681.Evans, possibly named...
were the film's top grossers. The film was #3 on Fandango
Fandango
Fandango is a lively couple's dance, usually in triple metre, traditionally accompanied by guitars and castanets or hand-clapping . Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has an instrumental introduction followed by "variaciones"...
's most requested tickets going into the weekend. The film fell 53.6% in its second weekend to $733,457, and −63.2% to $269,684 in its third, accumulating $3,777,210 to date.
Home media
To Save a Life was released on DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
on August 3, 2010. The DVD features an in-depth behind-the-scenes of the making of the film, deleted scene
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
s, a gag reel, and music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s.