THE LEGEND OF JOHNNY LINGO

You can take your family to The Legend of Johnny Lingo for its good heart. The film extols patience, kindness, hard work, perseverance, keeping promises, loving someone for what is inside, and sacrificing your life for others. It also shows care for the homeless, the lost, and the rebellious.

The movie’s Christian appeal is indirect. Its humble servant who is a chief by birth, its themes of dying to self, and its redemptive elements can be connected to biblical teaching. But the film does not explain salvation through Jesus Christ or the gift of freedom from sin. It also places too much emphasis on marriage and following your heart.

The practical answer is simple: this is worth the trip for families who can appreciate its virtues while discussing its romantic worldview.

A baby washes ashore on a boat in the South Pacific, and a chief declares him a gift from a god of blessing. The child, Tama, is chosen over the chief’s own son, but after three years of bad luck, the chief believes Tama is cursed.

Passed from family to family, Tama eventually lives with a drunk and his daughter, Mahana. After falling in love with her, Tama sets out across the sea and finds help from Johnny Lingo, the wealthiest trader in the South Pacific.

Three stars means this is a good-hearted, memorable film that could have been better. The cinematography is beautiful, and the direction is slow at times but winsome. The acting is serviceable, though a few performances are very strained.

The film’s virtues give it lasting appeal, especially its emphasis on patience, kindness, perseverance, and sacrifice. The reviewer also believes Mahana’s character would have been stronger as a downtrodden Cinderella who blossomed after Tama paid eight cows for her, as the short story suggests. As presented in the movie, she remains plain.

The film offers a moral worldview with strong romantic elements and a particular view of marriage. It presents patience, kindness, hard work, perseverance, promise-keeping, inner character, care for the vulnerable, and self-sacrifice as virtues. Those are substantial points of alignment with biblical morality.

The story also contains allegorical elements that can be interpreted within a Christian worldview. Tama arrives almost miraculously from a god of blessing, grows up as a humble servant despite being a chief by birth, and experiences a form of dying to self. Yet the film does not recognize or clarify the salvation available in Jesus Christ or God’s gift of freedom from sin.

Its central weakness is a Romantic belief that people are basically good and only need work or help along the way. The film emphasizes marriage and following your heart without acknowledging that human beings are sinners. Scripture offers a deeper answer: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The Legend of Johnny Lingo is a beautiful, winsome drama with good intentions and memorable virtues. Its romantic worldview and lack of clarity about salvation call for thoughtful discussion, but its positive content makes it a worthwhile family choice. WORTH THE TRIP.