MOVIE INSIDER: Will 'The Cross' Cross Over?
By BECK/SMITH CELEBRITY GOSSIP
When "The Cross: The Arthur Blessitt Story" opens in some 220 theaters across the U.S. on March 27, filmmaker Matthew Crouch is confident the unique documentary will reach an audience beyond its Christian base. Time will tell, but the saga does seem to be one that could spark the curiosity of anyone, regardless of belief.
Blessitt is the Guinness Book of World Records record holder for World's Longest Walk: 38,102 Miles, 315 Countries and Major Island groups over 40 years. He carried a replica of Jesus' cross on his shoulder the entire time (fortunately, Blessitt's had a wheel on the bottom).
Along the way, he walked amid crowds of tens of thousands in India -- people who all wanted to touch the cross. He walked through deserts and mountain wilderness alone. He was arrested many times. He prayed with Yasser Arafat -- who embraced him on both cheeks -- in the midst of the Israeli-Lebanon conflict, a scene captured by CNN cameras and Peter Arnett. He was in Northern Ireland walking side by side with Billy Graham when the Catholic-Protestant conflict there escalated to terrorist bombings.
Why?
According to Crouch, who is the youngest son of Trinity Broadcasting Network founders Paul and Jan Crouch, Blessitt aims to reinterpret the symbol of the cross as "a message of hope, love and unity -- not divisiveness, death and killing. And, everyone can get behind that."
Blessitt is well-known in the Christian community, by the likes of Rick Warren and Jim Reeve, and, of course, the Crouch family. Their history with Blessitt goes back to the days he was known as The Minister of the Sunset Strip -- when Blessitt came to Hollywood from Mississippi in hopes of saving the souls of hippies, druggies and assorted other sinners in the purple haze-covered1960s, when there were love-ins in Griffith Park and a LSD tabs for sale on Hollywood Blvd.
Long haired, bearded, jeans-wearing Blessitt became a controversial figure, Matt Crouch recalls, for walking right into strip clubs and houses of prostitution and witnessing for the Lord -- something few evangelicals of the day would have ever considered doing, Crouch says. He chained himself to a cross and walked down Hollywood Blvd.
"My father thought he was kind of a kook," Crouch recalls.
But, the senior Crouch did eventually invite Blessitt to join him, live on the air.
"My dad said, 'Are you telling me you put that big cross on your shoulder and go out with it?' And, Arthur said, 'Yeah. Every week.' And, Dad said, 'Can I go with you some time?' And, Arthur said, 'How about tomorrow night?'"
They made plans to meet at the most famous intersection in town -- Hollywood and Vine -- at 7 o'clock. Matt was then a 16-year-old operating the camera. They arrived to find a throng he says police estimated at 15,000 on the scene. Traffic was backed up to the freeway.
Since then, the men have been friends, and TBN has kept tabs on Blessitt throughout his world-wide journey, through war zones and countries known for hostility toward Christianity -- from the former Soviet Union to Iran in 1997. Blessitt reached his final destination, Zanzibar, off the coast of Africa, last summer.
According to Crouch, initially, he was going to simply update and extend a previous documentary on Blessitt. Then, it occurred to him to do a new film, a theatrical film -- an event film. He mentioned the idea to Blessitt, and told him he'd need a half-million dollars' seed money to start -- and asked him, "Do you know anyone who might help with the budget?" He thought about it and said, "Maybe."
The next day, Crouch found himself on the phone with a San Antonio-based businessman who offered to put up $250,000 if Paul Crouch would kick in a like amount. It was agreed, and Matt dove right in to work. Such instant funding would strike most Hollywood filmmakers as something requiring divine intervention, to say the least.
Crouch went through some 160 hours of footage on Blessitt to make the 90-minute documentary, which he narrated himself. According to him, "It's a roller-coaster ride of emotions, extreme laughter to sorrow and everything in-between. I mean, strip away the religious context and you have this amazing story of a man who lives a truly dynamic life. He'd arrive in a country like Sierra Leone with $50 and no contacts in the days before cell phones, and somehow manage to make it.
So, his story is inspiring and challenging -- whatever it is inside of you that you feel you're meant to do, go for it. Just do it! If ever there was a poster guy for Nike's slogan, it's him."
Blessitt's book of "The Cross" is already in release. The fim, "The Cross: The Arthur Blessitt Story" gets its premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater on March 24, appropriately right in his old stomping grounds.
