Courageous

6/11/2026

Courageous (2011) follows the blueprint of Alex Kendrick’s previous film, Fireproof — only with cops instead of firefighters and “The Resolution” instead of “The Love Dare” — and takes it to unadvisable extremes. The movie’s thesis is established in an early scene in which a “study on the increase in violent gang activity” is cited. “In almost every case, each gang member had a similar attribute … most of them came from a fatherless home.” Moreover, “when a father’s absent, kids are five times more likely to commit suicide and abuse drugs, twenty times more likely to wind up in prison.” I don’t know if those numbers are correct — and that the name of the study, who conducted it, and where it was published remain unspecified doesn’t fill me with confidence — but the takeaway seems to