More Ralph

Friend and fellow critic, Jeffrey Overstreet, has the full-text of his piece on Ralph Winter up on his blog over at Looking Closer.

Here's a snip of Craig Detweiler and me chiming in our testimonies...

Craig Detweiler, who writes and teaches about faith and film from his vantage point on the edge of Hollywood, says Winter reached this level of accomplishment and influence “by being good.”

Okay, he’s good, but what sets him apart? Detweiler explains: “If you go to Ralph Winter’s office, he has posters up for all of his films. They have signatures [and messages] from all of the crew. You’ll see the depth of feeling from the actors, the level of appreciation. It’s not like, ‘Ralph, hey, that was fun.’ It’s like, ‘Ralph, I couldn’t have survived without you. Ralph, you made a difference to me when it mattered. Ralph, you were the glue that held this production together.’ There is a depth of respect engendered from the way he has carried himself. It goes far beyond what happens onscreen. The power is in the interpersonal testimony more than the finished product.”

Barbara Nicolosi grants Winter something akin to superhero status, calling him “a talented, experienced and reliable professional. He is one of the handful of men who can line-produce $150 million projects, and bring them in on time and on budget. He has wrangled the most temperamentally difficult actors and directors, and has managed to get the best results possible out of them.”

She adds, “Ralph is important to the Christian community of Hollywood, because he is a living breathing witness of what it takes for Christians to acquire power and influence here. [He’s] a wonderful combination of professionalism and integrity, and godliness. He has made it to the highest level in Hollywood, without losing his faith in Jesus, and without the kind of nauseating rationalizations that many Christians eventually make to achieve success here.”