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Jesus Camp (2006)

tomatometer

87

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 98
Fresh: 85 | Rotten: 13

Evangelical indoctrination is given an unflinching, even-handed look in this utterly worthwhile documentary.

88

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 24
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 3

Evangelical indoctrination is given an unflinching, even-handed look in this utterly worthwhile documentary.

audience

76

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 64,502

My Rating

Movie Info

The youngest foot soldiers for the Lord are shown in their native environment in this documentary. Becky Fischer is a children's pastor who runs "Kids on Fire," a summer camp for evangelical Christian children in North Dakota. Fischer believes in the political and moral importance of a Christian presence in America, and uses her camp to reinforce the religious training most of her charges are already receiving at home (the majority of the campers are home-schooled by their parents). Using video

Jan 23, 2007

$0.8M

Magnolia Pictures

All Critics (106) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (89) | Rotten (13) | DVD (8)

No matter your religious or political affiliation (or lack thereof), this supremely even-handed documentary from Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady is cinematic dynamite.

October 13, 2006 Comment
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Perhaps indoctrination is in the eye of the beholder. But one thing is certain: All Christians aren't the same. I'm one, and I found this film to be saddening, not heartening.

October 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | Comment
Houston Chronicle
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I spent a lot of years studying the teachings of Jesus in Catholic grammar school, and I think Jesus would be appalled by what goes on in the these camps.

October 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | Comment
Ebert & Roeper
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Both disturbing and enlightening.

October 7, 2006 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Jesus Camp seems to me most interesting (and poignant) as a portrait of denied and even desecrated childhood.

October 6, 2006 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Jesus Camp does what documentaries ought to do: It poses serious questions, then steps out of the argument.

October 6, 2006 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | Comment (1)
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Jesus Camp doesn't just preach to the converted, it bores and frightens them.

February 6, 2012 Full Review Source: Cinema Writer | Comment
Cinema Writer

Eye-opening look at the Evangelicals among us.

January 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Why bother with horror films when you can see this?

November 23, 2007 Full Review Source: This is London | Comments (2)
This is London

Some lively material - but nothing new.

November 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

Flawed editing and intrusive and irritating commentary hardly detract from the shock value of this disturbing documentary. Compulsory viewing for anyone in the least bit concerned about religious extremism.

November 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

This gripping shock-doc looks inside the Kids on Fire evangelical summer camp in North Dakota, where training starts young for a "new army of God" to "take back America for Christ".

November 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Total Film | Comment
Total Film

This unabashedly liberal documentary tries to redress the balance by giving the rest of America a wake up call: not all scary fundamentalists come strapped with explosives.

November 23, 2007 Full Review Source: BBC | Comment

Filmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady don't bother with a polemical voiceover a la Michael Moore but skilfully stitch together the comments of the evangelicals themselves. It doesn't make for a pretty picture.

November 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Sky Movies | Comment
Sky Movies

A brave, thoughtful documentary.

November 22, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Funny, sad and horrifying. Anti-fundamentalist rather than anti-Christian, this deserves to preach to more than just the converted.

November 3, 2007 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Almost as scary as "Village of the Damned". 12 year olds who aspire to be the next James Dobson!

February 27, 2007 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | Comment (1)
rec.arts.movies.reviews
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Jesus Camp

Having gone through 20+ years of Evangelical indoctrination, I found this film scarily accurate and disturbing. Much of that disturbing aura derived from the film's presentation, in how its subject matter is presented nearly commentary-free and how what commentary it presents is mostly rather subtle. That said, it's

July 24, 2007
djdemersseman

Super Reviewer

I knew this movie was going to make me angry before I even watched it.

February 21, 2007
purplemegan

Super Reviewer

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