Some like to defend their behavior based on (for lack of a better term) the Robin Hood principle, which is taking from the rich and giving to the poor. It is not uncommon to hear this defense when someone is caught in an illegal activity but the person is known to contribute to their community. Enter Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians minus the illegal shenanigans. None of the blackjack playing Christians come out and say they are modern day Robin Hoods but they also don’t hesitate to express their disdain for the casinos, all while thriving in those very same villainous caverns for their bustling business.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with the rationale behind the team of Christians performing their own modified version of Bringing Down The House (or 21 in movie form), the success of the documentary rests on telling a good story with compelling characters. The main narrative is relatively straight forward and well told. A couple of guys learn how to count cards, learn there is money to be had at the blackjack tables, and eventually expand on that revelation by finding investors on the one side and players on the other. Before you know it, there is over a million dollars flowing into the hands of a team of card counting Christians. The method to the madness is all based on math. The theory is you put the odds in your favor by keeping the count on the cards. Every card represents either -1, 0, or 1. The higher the count, the better chances there are that you’re going to beat the house. It’s more complex than that when it comes to placing bets, etc. but the theory is so strong that casinos disallow it. Counting cards is not illegal but the casinos will see you out the door if they think you’re turning the odds in your favor.
The characters making up the team are not so interesting. The team managers come off as smarmy if not outright dull. The players spend most of their time justifying their actions and don’t offer much more than that throughout most of the doc. The only other person who shares much screen time is a game room manager of a casino. He explains the casino’s point of view. There is so much time spent on Christians feeling guilty, or at the very least on the defensive, they explain away their time at the casinos. Little to no time is given to those who oppose their business venture. It’s as if the players are swinging at windmills. Of course there is plenty of real opposition to what this team of statistically driven blackjack playing Christians is up to, but almost none of it is represented on the screen. We’re left with rather mundane personalities running a less than mundane operation.
The guilty consciences never seem to wrestle with the all too real dilemmas their card counting gets them in. Casinos kick them out. They keep coming back. Casinos kick them out even quicker. They come back in disguises. Casinos kick them out some more. They take on fake identities. The cycle continues. There is a lot of talk about accountability within the group and how they couldn’t do this if they all weren’t believers in Jesus Christ. However, no one seems to flinch when they have no choice but to either give up the gig or use deceitful means to continue. There is no choice for most, at least that is how it is portrayed. You do what you have to do. After all, they’re taking down the big bad casinos. Granted, it’s a business, with investors expecting a rather high return on investment (35%). Robin Hood may have messed up when he spread the wealth around. He should have gotten some investors and paid dividends. Eventually the money would get back to those in need.
Possibly the worst moment, which should make every Christian cringe when they see it, is when the team goes on a long losing streak and suspicion of theft within the team heightens. The team has allowed at least one non-Christian to join. The team starts losing and guess where the blame goes? Yep, the man in black. Literally. The non-Christian is shown in a long sleeve black shirt when the accusations are made on camera. The suspicion comes from one particular team member who says God spoke to him and told him the non-Christian was stealing. Bam! Goodbye bad guy. Was he stealing? We don’t know and there is really no way of knowing. Every player is given large sums of cash to bet at the blackjack tables. They track their wins and losses. Who’s to say a loss was to the dealer or the player’s wallet? There is no way to know. And the director doesn’t help shed further light on the mystery. He instead follows a team member who begins questioning his participation on the team. After that we’re left with the team managers hitting the casinos in order to break the losing streak.
Holy Rollers is a generally well paced documentary with a solid soundtrack. Unfortunately there aren’t enough interesting subjects and the opportunities to counter the defensive stances from the team are never taken. The story is well told though it doesn’t need more than an hour to tell it. For non-Christians, the film will likely only further suspicions of those who hold to the Christian faith. And for Christians, there are likely to be many conversations and looks of befuddlement as they try to work out exactly what the purpose of the doc was.
[xrr rating=3/5 label=” “]
This post is part of my Way late reviews. Read more reviews here.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3s4o6gAQRk[/youtube]