“Abel’s Field” is a heartwarming, entertaining film about finding faith even during the darkest of times but also finding redemption and getting a second chance. An inspirational Christian film that I definitely recommend!
Image courtesy of © 2012 Abel’s Field, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Abel’s Field
FILM RELEASE DATE: 2011
DURATION: 104 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Anamorphic Widescreen 1:78:1, English and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, Subtitles: English, English SDH, French and Spanish
COMPANY: Affirm Films/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RATED: PG (For Thematic Elements, Brief Violence and a Smoking Image)
Release Date: January 22, 2013
Directed by Gordie Haakstad
Written by Aron Flasher
Producer: Tore Knos
Executive Producer: Glen Hommy, Laurie Hommy, Kevin Sorbo
Associate Producer: Katie Tull, Straw Weisman
Line Producer: Sandhya Shardanand
Music by Jeff Toyne
Cinematography by Ian Ellis
Edited by Susan Munro
Casting by Vicky Boone
Production Design by George T. Morrow
Art Direction by Walter Schneider
Costume Design by Charlotte Harrigan
Starring:
Kevin Sorbo as Abel
Samuel Davis as Seth
Richard Dillard as Coach Chalmers
Catie Duff as Mary
Elizabeth Duff as Cary
Nicole Elliott as Katie
William Buchanan as Billy
Devin Bonnee as Netty
Bob Coonrod as Mr. Gates
Left motherless by tragedy and abandoned by his father, high school senior Seth McArdle (Samuel Davis) has been put under enormous pressure to support his little sisters. At school, he endures the daily bullying of the football team. When he fights back, he’s singled out for punishment, assigned to an after-school work detail under the supervision of a reserved groundskeeper, Abel (Kevin Sorbo). Much to his surprise, Seth discovers that ABel may be the only one who truly understands his struggles. As dark times lure Seth towards desperate measures, the reluctant Abel may be the one person who can point him back towards the light.
From Affirm Films comes a drama titled “Abel’s Field” directed by Gordie Haakstad (“11 Minutes Ago”, “Killing Babies”) and a screenplay by Aron Flasher.
The film would star Kevin Sorbo (“Andromeda”, “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”, “Soul Surfer”) and Samuel Davis (“New Hope”, “Machete Kills”, “Steal Away”) and now the DVD will be released courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in January 2013.
“Abel’s Field” is a film that revolves around a high school senior named Seth McArdle (portrayed by Samuel Davis). With his mother having past away and his father having left home to find a job years ago with no contact with the family, Seth is left to raise his younger twin sisters Mary and Cary (portrayed by Catie and Elizabeth Duff).
But life is not easy for Seth. Having to be a high school student, a parent to his younger sisters and having to financially raise them working a job as an auto mechanic and the high school food service job during football games, it’s barely enough for him to take care of his sisters and also to pay babysitters. But now, he is receiving letters that their home will be repossessed.
And to make things worst for Seth, he is often bullied at school by the football team. And the bullying escalates when the quarterback of the football team nearly runs over him and his two sisters with his truck, prompting Seth to throw an apple at and bust the driver’s side mirror. This leads to Seth being approached by the QB and the football team and getting beat up.
Meanwhile, a man named Abel (portrayed by Kevin Sorbo) has moved into town. A secretive man who carries a brown notebook with him, Abel works as a janitor at the local high school and is taken by Coach Chalmers (portrayed by Richard Dillard) and made to make the football field much greener by installing a new sprinkler system.
As Coach Chalmers is responsible for defusing the situation between Seth and the football team, because the small town is a football town, Seth is seen as the bad guy and asked to join his stepbrother who quit school, so he doesn’t cause any further problems with the football team.
Seth refuses to quit and asks for his punishment and so, Seth is forced to work a third job (this time with no pay) by helping Abel install the sprinkler system on the football field. For Seth, he is a bit belligerent of working with Abel, because he feels it’s not his fault and his punishment is excessive, but mostly because it will affect his work and also being their for his younger sisters.
While trying to make things work out with the extra jobs and raising his sisters, the pastor at church asks him to pray to God but also to not be afraid to ask the church for help. But Seth being hardheaded, he refuses any help from the Church and as for praying to God, he tells the pastor that the last time he prayed, it didn’t work because his mother still died.
But the more he starts to work with Abel, Abel who appears to be a man of faith, tells Seth that perhaps he should pray to God and believe in his faith.
But for Seth, he is at a breaking point. With the threat of him losing the house and his estranged step-brother not willing to help, how will Seth be able to raise his younger sisters? And if they are taken away, he doesn’t know how he can live as they are the only thing that is making his life worth living.
And while Seth deals with his monetary and life problems, the secretive Abel seems to run into trouble when Coach Chalmers tells Abel that he did a background check and there is no history for Abel and requests he get fingerprinting done. What is this mysterious past that Abel had lived?
VIDEO, AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Abel’s Field” is presented in 1:78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen with an English and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack.   For the most part, picture quality is good as one can expect on DVD. There are some minor artifacts during one low-light scene but for the most part, the film looked very good, warm in colors and skin tones looked natural. Dialogue was crystal clear and displayed some use of surround channels for ambiance but this is primarily a dialogue-driven film and dialogue and music sound very good!
Subtitles are in English SDH, French and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Abel’s Field” comes with the following special features:
- From the Sidelines: The Making of Abel’s Field – (24:45) Director Gordie Haakstad and the producers along with cast discuss the making of the film, finding Thrall, Texas and working with the community and more.
“Abel’s Field” is a very entertaining and inspirational film about faith and family.
I have been quite pleased over the last few years to see how Affirm Films and Christian films in general have gotten better by depicting actual life as opposed to characters and scenes that seem almost to perfect. With wonderful films such as “Courageous” and “To Save a Life”, to show faith with an actual setting that people can relate to, it really makes these films much better and more inspirational for the viewer, but most of all, helps re-affirm those who are wanting to find faith and bring God into their lives.
With “Abel’s Field”, Seth McArdle lives a life that many people have read on newspapers or seen on television. An older sibling in their teens or early 20’s that are forced to become parents to the younger siblings after the death of the parents. And with Seth, he’s struggling to pay the bills, working several jobs and raising his young sisters.
But it was his mother who had faith in God, believed in God and brought the children to church, but for Seth, it’s that struggle with the pain that he prayed for his mother to get better whens he was sick, that part of him feels betrayed by God because his mother’s life was taken away and now he has to take care of his sisters. Despite having an older brother, his older brother only sees them with relation by their father, and with the father also gone, also is the relationship between Seth and his older brother. He really has no one but his sisters.
And because he lives in small town that puts football on top, from the bullying he receives from the football team, he’s the person who gets the short end of the stick at times. Granted, he also has a part that leads to him getting in quite a few fights with the football team.
Meanwhile, we have Abel, a drifter who finds his way into a small town, with a job but is a mysterious individual. Always drawing inside a notebook which he keeps in a leather binding, he’s very protective of it and also not wanting to let people into his life.
But in this case, with Seth forced to work under Abel, we watch overtime as these two people with nothing in common, become friends and in some way, depend on each other. For Seth, not having that father figure in his life, the mysterious Abel is able to drive him towards having faith, while Seth becomes important in Abel’s life as well.
Part of the film’s efficacy is capturing the struggle of a young man who has to raise his family on his own but also capturing that small town life and ideal. I was brought up in a small town and immediately, I can see how the experiences that Seth had faced, can actually happen.   But important is capturing the journey of one in trouble but yet finding faith and showing viewers that no matter how bad things are, you are never alone if you have God in your life and that those who are in church, are there to help.
Performances by both Samuel Davis and Kevin Sorbo are well done and as for the DVD itself, there is some minor artifacts but it is expected from a DVD release. And you also get a 24-minute making-of featurette that was fascinating, especially when it came to search for the location of where the film would be shot. And it’s great to see how the crew and the cast worked alongside the community of Thrall, Texas.
Overall, “Abel’s Field” is a heartwarming, entertaining film about finding faith even during the darkest of times but also finding redemption and getting a second chance.
“Abel’s Field” is an inspirational Christian film that I definitely recommend!
