11/01/2013

The Cross Movie Can Be Found On DVD

By Allyson Burke


The Cross Movie is a documentary that was released in 2009. Matthew Crouch directed the film in his debut as a director. It chronicles the 38,000 mile journey of Arthur Blessitt, who made the Guinness Book of World Records when he set out to cover the aforementioned mileage, without the benefit of a motor vehicle, carrying a 12 foot wooden cross. His objective was to present the gospel to every nation and major island group across the globe.

Matthew Crouch had met Arthur Blessitt 20 years before. The two men met again by chance in the summer of 2008, during Blessitt's trip to Zanzibar, Africa. It was then that Crouch had the idea to create a documentary that would tell the complete story, including the timeline of each facet of the journey.

The story essentially began with what Arthur Blessitt calls a basic act of obedience to God: designing a large cross to hang on the wall of the Christian coffee house he started in the 1960s in Hollywood, California called "His Place." Several years later, in 1968, he started taking short walks with the cross to feed homeless people on Sunset Strip and share with them the gospel.

Blessitt quickly began feeling that God was calling him to complete another journey, although this walk would involve a much longer route. Soon, he left Hollywood on Christmas Day in 1969 and walked as far as New York City and Washington DC carrying the cross.

The next year, Blessitt took his cross into then war-torn Northern Ireland. It was this journey that began what commenced as a walk across the globe, as he felt led of God in 1988 to continue the trek until he had taken the gospel to every country possible. Ten years later, this mission was completed, and he even gained access to North Korea due to an extraordinary chain of events.

In summer of 2008, the aforementioned documentary film was completed. His wife assisted director Matthew Crouch, as she had been with her husband in over 290 of the countries he visited during the walk. To this day, the journey is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as "The longest walk in the world".

The movie gives a personal account of Blessitt's trip through 315 countries, territories, and island groups. The distance he walked, which was specifically 38,102 miles, is equivalent to circling the globe over one and a half times at its equator. The movie has been received well by both Christians and non-Christians alike, and truly showcases the dedication and beliefs of Arthur Blessitt and his family.

The movie also highlights many conversations Blessitt had with the individuals with whom he stopped to speak during his journey. Many times he walked in complete solitude, while other times large groups of people were waiting to greet him in certain areas. The journey led him into many troubled and war torn areas of the world. However, no circumstances he was forced to meet ever tempted him to abandon his journey. The Cross Movie played in select theaters, and is now available on DVD from a variety of retail outlets, as well as online.




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