WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
HEART OF A CHAMPION is a family drama on Amazon Prime about a 14-year-old girl named Charlotte, or Charlie. Charlie has a dream about riding a horse. Her father’s friend, Clint, owns a stable of horses. So, Clint offers to help train Charlie to ride, and Charlie becomes interested in barrel riding. As Clint keeps training Charlie, he starts falling for Charlie’s mother, Beth. Clint takes Charlie all the way to the Texas State Finals in barrel racing, but obstacles arise that may derail Charlie’s competition there.
HEART OF A CHAMPION is entertaining, well directed and well-acted. The characters may be a little stereotypical, but they are true to life, and the actors bring believability to their roles. HEART OF A CHAMPION has a very strong moral worldview with strong redemptive values. It stresses honesty, hard work, determination, good mentoring, purity, honor, doing the right thing, repentance, and forgiveness. The best family movies have storylines engaging for all age levels. HEART OF A CHAMPION achieves that goal with blue-ribbon success.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:
Very strong moral worldview stresses honesty, proper mentoring, purity, honor, encouragement, and doing the right thing, with strong pro-capitalist elements promoting hard work to achieve a goal and strong redemptive values stressing repentance, forgiveness and grace, plus some pagan immorality such as a parent says anything he feels with little filtering, bullies put other people down, and people tell “white lies,” but they are rebuked
Foul Language:
Two obscenities (one “h” word and one “d” word), but no profanities
Violence:
No violence
Sex:
No sex or sexual immorality depicted or implied
Nudity:
No nudity
Alcohol Use:
Adults drink beer in one scene
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
No smoking or drugs; and,
Miscellaneous Immorality:
Main characters tell small lies but they are not tolerated when discovered and are rebuked with sincere apologies made and eventually accepted; there are frequent references to the divorce of the main character’s parents, with implied irreconcilable differences as the reason, and some bullying scenes by a group versus an individual.
While the focus of HEART OF A CHAMPION is on Charlie, it also tells the story of Clint who helps Charlie acquire a horse. He also teaches Charlie how to ride Western style, then to barrel race, and finally taking Charlie all the way to the Texas State Finals in barrel racing. In the process, Clint wins the resistant heart of Charlie’s mom, Beth. Eventually, Clint must honestly tell Troy about both the awkwardness and blessing of this new wrinkle in all the already complicated relationships. Clint’s personal character arc of seeking righteousness makes HEART OF A CHAMPION transcend a predictable “girl and her horse” story through the subtle demonstration of the biblical principle of seeking first God’s kingdom and righteousness, with Jesus’ promised result of so much more (see Matthew 6:33).
HEART OF A CHAMPION has a very strong moral worldview. Charlie rises above hardship to take the steps necessary to achieve her dream and goals. At school, Charlie ignores bullying to maintain a pure heart and healthy relationships. Clint encounters an opportunity to make a difference in a broken family and honorably takes the mentoring steps to guide a young teenager to accomplish worthy goals. An opposing pagan worldview of “anything goes” crops up in several ways. Charlie’s dad Troy often pops off with whatever he is feeling at the moment. The “mean girl” bullies will say or do just about anything to stay on top by putting others down. The original owner of Charlie’s horse takes it back at the worst timing without regard to Charlie’s needs. Even Charlie’s upstanding boyfriend will tell a “white lie” that takes blame upon himself and keeps Charlie from getting into trouble. Moral, biblical values rise victorious, though. Thus, the lie is confessed and apologized. The horse’s original owner is convinced to return the horse to Charlie in time to compete. After verbal insults from her archrival, Charlie takes the high road and sincerely gives a word of encouragement in reply. Finally, Troy eventually comes around to support Charlie’s quest and Clint’s mentorship.
The best family movies have storylines engaging for all age levels. HEART OF A CHAMPION attains that goal with blue-ribbon success.
