Collision: A movie review

I haven’t yet reviewed an apologetics movie for the blog, so I thought I would discuss a movie I’ve just shown to my classes: Collision. Collision pits the witty, irreverent, and sometimes self-deprecating Christopher Hitchens against pastor, professor, family-man and author Doug Wilson. The two went on a debate tour while promoting their book Is Christianity Good for the World?, and this chronicles their discussions.


First, I do believe that this is the first time I’ve ever seen an apologetics movie that has the opponents at so many, and at such a variety of venues. They go from a school sponsored debate, to a bar, to a restaurant, to a taxi cab, to a helicopter, etc. etc. Yes, I do agree that the producers and directors were trying a little too hard to be “hip” with their format and music choices (see the reviews on Amazon) but I don’t think this detracted from the overall meaningfulness of the movie. While there were many critical issues raised that sparked discussions amongst my students, I found the most interesting and I daresay compelling undercurrent of the whole film was the respectful relationship that developed between the two men. It reassured to me that there are some atheists and christians that can actually disagree civally.


While Wilson comes from a different apologetic perspective of my own (he’s a presuppositionalist- where I’d take a more classical approach), I think he did a great job clarifying his position and an even better job dismantling Hitchens’ objections. The pairing could not have been better. They continually played off of each others arguments, often times with a humorous and even playful interactions that spawned giggles from the audience. Of course, not all of their dialogue was amusing, but all of it was definitely intriguing.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone with one warning: If you are planning on showing this to a church or youth group- be forewarned that there are a couple of minor expletives. (Oh my!) The one used by the pastor started an interesting discussion in my class on the propriety of language in apologetics debates, and when, if ever, is there an appropriate time to use this sort of exclamation point.



I give it an easy 4.5 out of 5 stars. (The .5 off was because a few arguments were offered by one party- but the other party was never given the chance to answer. ) Visit http://www.collisionmovie.com/ for more details.