Film director Matthew McQuarrie received a lot of backlash when he proposed making a faith-based film that would highlight the dangers of pornography. McCauley ignored them.
“If God tells us to do it, we need to do it,” he says today.
Macaulay’s film took five years to make Spotless The story of an aging baseball player battling drug addiction who rescues a sex trafficking victim. The film, currently available on Amazon, Apple TV, and Tubi (free with ads), deals with the subject of pornography rather than salacious content. An eight-part Bible study guide, A pure lifedis also available.
Starring Bradford Haynes (War of the Worlds: Annihilation) and Stelio Savante (The Chosen One, Pursuit of Freedom).
McCauley was inspired to make the film after a Christian psychologist friend shared with him the sobering statistic that more than 60 percent of church-going men regularly use pornography, and pastors, he said, also struggle with addiction.
“It hit me in the face,” McCauley said. “One of the things that Christians have said to me a lot when I said, ‘Let’s make a feature film on this subject,’ is, a lot of Christians have said to me, ‘I don’t understand why you would do that. It doesn’t matter. It’s just porn.’ … So part of our motivation was we have to address this idea of, ‘Oh, it’s not hurting anybody, it’s just porn.'”
He says the porn industry is fueled by sex trafficking. Spotless.
The film was nominated for eight awards at the International Christian Film Festival.
“Some of the scenes had to be handled very sensitively, gracefully and tactfully,” McCauley said. “Our main aim was to handle them in a way that the audience could fully understand what was going on and the seriousness of it, but still handle it with a very Christian worldview.”
McCauley recommends the film to teenagers and said it is inappropriate for younger children.
“One of the things this film does really well is spark debate,” he said, “and that’s exactly what this film was made for. It was made to start a debate.”
Photo credit: ©SWN/Light of Life Films
Michael Faust He has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years, and his work has appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, Christian Post, Leaf Chronicle, Toronto Star and Knoxville News Sentinel.
