Amish Grace

Last updated
Amish Grace
Amish Grace Poster.jpg
Promotional poster
Based on West Nickel Mines School shooting
Written bySylvie White and Teena Booth
Directed byDylan Scharping
Starring Kimberly Williams-Paisley
Tammy Blanchard
Matt Letscher
Theme music composerJoseph Conlan
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Producer Larry A. Thompson
Editor Anita Brandt-Burgoyne
Running time88 minutes
Release
Original network Lifetime Movie Network
Original releaseMarch 28, 2010 (2010-03-28)

Amish Grace is a television film that premiered on the Lifetime Movie Network on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010. The film is based on the 2006 West Nickel Mines School shooting at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, and the spirit of forgiveness the Amish community demonstrated in its aftermath. [1]

Contents

The film stars Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Tammy Blanchard, and Matt Letscher [2] and is based on the book Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, Jossey-Bass, 2007, ISBN   0-7879-9761-7, by Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David L. Weaver-Zercher. [3] [4] Amish Grace was executive-produced by Larry A. Thompson, written by Sylvie White and Teena Booth, and directed by Gregg Champion. [2]

Plot

When a group of Amish schoolgirls are taken hostage and killed in their classroom, their parents and the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, stun the outside world by immediately forgiving the killer. Ida Graber (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), mother of one of the murdered children, has a tougher time than the others accepting the tragedy, but in her anguish and pain, she begins a personal journey of renewed faith, ultimately accepting the heart-wrenching tragedy of losing a child after learning that her murdered daughter, Mary Beth Graber, had promised to pray for the perpetrator before her death; reconnecting with her husband (Matt Letscher), family, and community; offering forgiveness to the killer; and even showing kindness and compassion to the killer's widow (Tammy Blanchard) and children — all in the form of Amish grace.

The film was dedicated in memory of the victims of the West Nickel Mines School shooting.

Cast

Ratings

Amish Grace broke network records in multiple demographics, with more than 4 million viewers, becoming the highest-rated and most-watched original movie in Lifetime Movie Network’s history. Households (3.8/2,916,449 viewers), Total Viewers (2.0/4,020,496), Women 18+ (3.5/2,729,834), Women 25-54 (2.7/1,156,363), Adults 18+ (2.4/3,649,266) and Adults 25-54 (1.9/1,585,667). [5] [6] [7] [8]

Reception

The film mostly received positive reviews; [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] however, it received criticism because the authors of Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, Jossey-Bass, 2007, ISBN   0-7879-9761-7, distanced themselves from the production out of respect to the Amish community. [15] Others criticized the film for blending facts with fiction. [16]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<i>Witness</i> (1985 film) 1985 American neo-noir crime drama film by Peter Weir

Witness is a 1985 American neo-noir dramatic crime thriller film directed by Peter Weir and starring Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, and Lukas Haas, with Jan Rubeš, Danny Glover, Josef Sommer, Alexander Godunov, Patti LuPone, and Viggo Mortensen in supporting roles. The film focuses on a police detective (Ford) protecting an Amish woman (McGillis) and her young son (Haas), who becomes a target after he witnesses a brutal murder in a Philadelphia train station.

Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Township in Pennsylvania, United States

Bart Township is a township in southeastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. At the 2020 census the population was 3,181, up from 3,094 at the 2010 census.

Darcy Rose Byrnes American actress (born 1998)

Darcy Rose Byrnes is an American and Irish actress, singer, and songwriter. She is best known for her roles as Abby Newman on The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful, Penny Scavo on Desperate Housewives, Princess Amber on Sofia the First and Elena and the Secret of Avalor, Ikki on The Legend of Korra, and Maricela in Spirit Riding Free. In addition to contributing original music to the show, Byrnes recurs in the role of Harper on the Disney+ series Big Shot (2021).

Donald B. Kraybill is an American author, lecturer, and educator on Anabaptist faiths and culture. Kraybill is widely recognized for his studies on Anabaptist groups and in particular the Amish. He has researched and written extensively on Anabaptist culture. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Elizabethtown College and Senior Fellow Emeritus at Elizabethtown's Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies.

<i>Bella</i> (2006 film) 2006 American drama film

Bella is a 2006 American drama film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, starring Eduardo Verastegui and Tammy Blanchard. Set in New York City, the film is about the events of one day and the impact on the characters' lives.

Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She rose to prominence for her role as teenage Judy Garland in the critically acclaimed television film Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001), for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination and a Primetime Emmy Award. Her other notable film roles were in The Good Shepherd (2006), Sybil (2007), Into the Woods (2014) and The Invitation (2015).

On October 2, 2006, a shooting occurred at the West Nickel Mines School, an Amish one-room schoolhouse in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines, a village in Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV took hostages and shot ten girls, killing five, before committing suicide in the schoolhouse. The emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation in the Amish community's response was widely discussed in the national media. The West Nickel Mines School was torn down, and a new one-room schoolhouse, the New Hope School, was built at another location.

Georgetown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Census-designated place in Pennsylvania, United States

Georgetown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2010 census the population was 1,022. Georgetown has a post office for P.O. boxes that is called Bart and has the ZIP code of 17503. Otherwise, the CDP is divided into three ZIP code areas for more distant communities.

Fall from Grace is a television film about the lives of Jim Bakker and his then-wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, during the 1980s, starring Kevin Spacey and Bernadette Peters in their lead roles. The film aired on NBC on April 29, 1990, as well as occasional reruns in later years on the Lifetime Movie Network, and depicts the events that led to the PTL scandal and the Bakkers' subsequent downfall.

Micky Levy is an Israeli-American film director, screenwriter, and actress.

Madison Davenport American actress and singer (born 1996)

Madison Danielle Davenport is an American actress and singer, best known for her role as Kate Fuller in From Dusk till Dawn: The Series. She also appeared in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl as Kit's best friend Ruthie Smithens.

<i>City of Life and Death</i> 2009 Chinese war film by Lu Chuan

City of Life and Death is a 2009 Chinese drama film written and directed by Lu Chuan, marking his third feature film. The film deals with the Battle of Nanjing and the following massacre committed by the Japanese army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The film is also known as Nanking! Nanking! or Nanjing! Nanjing!. The film was released in China on April 22, 2009, and became a major box office success in the country, earning CN¥150 million in its first two and a half weeks alone.

Steven M. Nolt is an American scholar who serves as Senior Scholar and Professor of History and Anabaptist Studies at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College. The author of fifteen books, most of which focus on Amish and Mennonite history and culture, Nolt is a frequent source for journalists and other researching Anabaptist groups. He was often quoted in the aftermath of the 2006 West Nickel Mines School shooting at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.

Amish Group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships

The Amish, formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches, another Anabaptist denomination. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and slowness to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view neither to interrupt family time, nor replace face-to-face conversations whenever possible, and a view to maintain self-sufficiency. The Amish value rural life, manual labor, humility, and Gelassenheit, all under the auspices of living what they interpret to be God's word.

Larry A. Thompson American film producer

Larry A. Thompson is a Hollywood film producer, personal manager, book packager, lawyer, author, and motivational speaker.

<i>Natalee Holloway</i> (film)

Natalee Holloway is a 2009 American television film directed by Mikael Salomon based on Beth Holloway's book about the 2005 disappearance of her daughter Natalee Holloway. The film stars Amy Gumenick as Natalee Holloway, Tracy Pollan as Beth Holloway-Twitty and Jacques Strydom as Joran van der Sloot. When it aired on the Lifetime Movie Network on April 19, 2009, the film scored the highest television ratings at that time in the network's history.

The Power of Forgiveness is a 2008 documentary by Martin Doblmeier about the process of forgiveness. It features interviews with renowned Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, best-selling authors Thomas Moore and Marianne Williamson and others.

The Movieguide Awards is an annual award ceremony for Christian entertainment held every year in Hollywood and broadcast on the Hallmark Channel around the same time as the Academy Awards. The awards are commonly described as "The Christian Oscars" in industry circles.

Gregg Champion is an American film director, known for his work on wide release and TV Hollywood movies. His parents are Marge Champion and Gower Champion.

The Bad Seed Returns is an upcoming American made-for-television horror drama film directed by Louise Archambault for Lifetime, written by Ross Burge, Mckenna Grace, and Barbara Marshall, and starring Mckenna Grace, Michelle Morgan, Ella Dixon, Benjamin Ayres, and Patty McCormack. Serving as the sequel to The Bad Seed (2018), the film is schedule to be aired on Lifetime in 2022.

References

  1. "Amish Grace". myLifetime. 2010-04-09. Archived from the original on 2010-03-30. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  2. 1 2 "Amish Grace". IMDb . 2010-04-09. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  3. Kraybill, Donald B.; Nolt, Steven M.; Weaver-Zercher, David L. (2010-04-09). "Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy (Hardcover)". Amazon. ISBN   978-0787997618.
  4. "Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy". Amish Grace. 2010-04-09. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  5. Reynolds, Mike (2010-03-29). "'Amish Grace' Delivers As Highest-Rated Original Telepic In Lifetime Movie Network History". Multichannel News. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  6. Seidman, Robert (2010-03-29). "Lifetime Movie Network's Amish Grace Breaks Records With 4.02 Million Viewers". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on 2010-04-05. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  7. Kissell, Rick (2010-03-29). "7.6 million watch Kids' Choice Awards". Variety . Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  8. "Amish Grace breaks Lifetime Movie Net records". The Hollywood Reporter. 2010-03-29. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  9. Lowry, Brian (2010-03-25). "Amish Grace". Variety . Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  10. "Six Picks: Recommendations from the Monitor staff". The Christian Science Monitor. 2010-03-22. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  11. Boatwright, Phil (2010-04-05). "And on TV…Amish Grace". Preview Online. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  12. Cooper, Jackie K. (2010-03-23). "Amish Grace Is A Story Of Grace Under Fire". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  13. Baehr, Dr. Ted; Holder, Jeff (2010-03-22). "AMISH GRACE – Coming to a Greater Understanding of God's Grace". Movie Guide. Archived from the original on 2010-03-24. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  14. Walker, Angela (2010-04-09). "Amish Grace Is Amazing". Christian Cinema. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  15. "Movie on West Nickel Mines School shooting draws criticism". USA Today. Associated Press. 2010-03-24. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  16. DeJesus, Ivey (2010-03-07). "Amish Grace movie fictionalizes Nickel Mines tragedy, generates debate". PennLive.com. The Patriot-News. Archived from the original on 2014-10-12. Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  17. "Finalists Announced for 36th Annual HUMANITAS Prize Honoring Great Television and Film Writing". PR Newswire. 2010-07-14. Retrieved 2011-03-22.
  18. "19th Annual MOVIEGUIDE® Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry". MOVIEGUIDE. 2011-02-18. Retrieved 2011-03-22.