Different Drummers DVD

Different Drummers DVD

An important Christian movie about a boy with Muscular Dystrophy

Based on a true story, Different Drummers follows two unusual boys living in Spokane, Washington in the 1960s. During this innocent time, when body builder Jack Lalanne was king of the airwaves, two boys try to triumph over mortality through the power of friendship and sheer willpower. These two are elementary school students who could not be more opposite. Eleven year old David is being forced to slow down due to muscular dystrophy. He is now wheelchair bound and is becoming discouraged as his life starts fading away. Lyle, on the other hand, can't stop speeding up. His life is going full speed ahead and he is full of boundless energy. Back in the 1960s, he was referred to as having a condition called "Minimal Brain Dysfunction". In today's culture, he would be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. Lyle wants more than anything to get David out of his wheelchair and get him to start running again. He can sense the desire in David, so he concocts a crazy scheme involving a science project, some firemen, drummers, the elementary school principal, a cop, and a hand walk across the gymnasium, along with a few other things. The plan is supposed to work like this: Lalanne, Lyle's TV idol has inspired him to believe in a message of intestinal fortitude willpower. Because of this, Lyle convinces David that he can teach him how to run if David promises to help him obtain the scariest science project bug collection in the history of the fourth grade. Unbeknownst to David, Lyle is using this experiment as a way to find out once and for all if God really exists. He thinks that if David gets out of his wheelchair and starts running, it will prove the existence of God. Once their pact is final, the two begin an adventure full of twists and turns, joy and heartache. When the plan starts going awry, Lyle tries to twist the rules by giving his friend some of his excess energy. Through this, they come face to face with life's most inspiring and painful truths. In the end, Lyle learns the most important lessons of friendship, loyalty, and miracles. Different Drummers is an inspiring and heart wrenching film that shows the powerful friendship of two young boys trying to find meaning in life and trying to navigate the hardships of their respective disabilities.

The Most Painful Truth

Throughout the film Different Drummers, many different questions are asked and answered. Young David informs Lyle that their teacher is about to die and states that the source of this most depressing revelation is none other than God himself. Lyle becomes full of doubt and extremely confused about God when their teacher does, in fact, die. He feels that he must prove the existence of God, and he secretly uses his project with David to test God's existence.

Lyle believes in what the body builder Jack Lalanne keeps saying if you put your mind to something and believe it will work, whatever you want to happen will ultimately happen. This, however, is not true, and Lyle finds out in the most painful of ways.

The two boys think that sheer determination will allow them to accomplish their goal, but this is not the case. They formulate an elaborate plan to try and get David walking again, but it does not go exactly as they had imagined. David is not improving in the way that they had hoped, and his condition worsens. Lyle's level of energy keeps increasing and he can no longer contain himself. He tries to pour this energy into David, but is obviously unsuccessful.

Different Drummers tackles an emotional topic when David finally dies. Lyle is devastated, as he has lost his best friend and his hope. He believed that their plan would work and that David could overcome his muscular dystrophy and run again. This death shakes him to his core and causes him to question his belief in God. He wanted to believe that God existed and that David would be healed. However, when this does not happen, he believes that God does not exist and that there is no goodness in this world.

The painful truth that sheer willpower cannot overcome certain obstacles hits Lyle like a ton of bricks and he realizes that life is not what we think it should be. The most important thing to remember in the face of such tragedy is to believe that God is working things together for good. In the end, Lyle comes to understand this, but it takes a while.

The plans that we as humans make on this earth are not the same as God's plans. This is why it is extremely important to ask for God's guidance in all situations. If we ask for our will to be done and not his, we will be disappointed. God knows what he is doing when he plans our lives. He directs our steps and has a divine plan for us.

This concept was hard for Lyle to grasp. At just ten years old, he did not quite understand that God was working things together for good through David's death. However, he eventually realized that there was nothing he could have done to change what happened. He accepts the existence of God and believes that God's will is ultimately what is best for us.

Different Drummers holds many lessons about belief, testing God, and divine circumstances. It will teach viewers the importance of believing God's will is sovereign and not becoming discouraged when things don't go our way. Lyle had to learn the truth through a painful way David's death. In the end, however, God worked all things for good, despite the heartache experienced by the boys. This film is inspiring and thought provoking.

Different Drummers is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for thematic elements, some mischief, and brief smoking. It is always recommended that parents preview all content to determine what is suitable for their family.