Mike Rowe Explains How Gratitude Can Unite Americans
By Movieguide® Contributor
Mike Rowe is reflecting on the power of gratitude ahead of Independence Day.
“To me, gratitude is more important today than it’s ever been because it’s one of the few things left that my liberal friends and my conservative friends can agree to,” he said on TBN. “It’s a choice. Gratitude is not about that color of your skin or your blood type, or any other thing that’s out of your control.”
The DIRTY JOBS star went on to explain how gratitude isn’t just a feeling. It’s a decision.
“You can choose to be grateful, and in that sense, it’s a virtue and maybe the most important virtue. Not just because it makes us better individually when we embrace it, but if we can go to a theater with a neighbor who might not see eye to eye with us in the voting booth, who you might not be able to persuade to go to your church, if you can go to the theater together and agree that everything up there on that screen is still worth celebrating and worth being proud of, then maybe the 4th of July starts to feel exactly like what it’s supposed to be, which is a celebration of our independence.”
Rowe is referencing his new movie SOMETHING TO STAND FOR, which he narrates.
“Join America’s favorite storyteller on an epic journey to the heart of Washington DC. Drawing from his blockbuster podcast ‘The Way I Heard It,’ this cinematic tour de force will take viewers to the frontlines of the American Revolution, World War II, the Civil Rights movement, and more,” a synopsis of the film reads. “Part mystery, part history—each harrowing tale tells a story you’ve never heard, about the patriots who built our country.”
Part of Movieguide®’s review reads:
SOMETHING TO STAND FOR WITH MIKE ROWE is a lively documentary just in time for July Fourth. TV personality, raconteur and motivational speaker Mike Rowe tells several historical stories celebrating American patriotism. Rowe tells multiple re-enacted patriotic stories. The stories include stories about the Founding Fathers, several America soldiers who took part in various famous battles, two Medal of Honor winners, an American President, and two Supreme Court Justices. He also reveals a story about some advice the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave to a young black female singer that impacted her life.SOMETHING TO STAND FOR is a stirring, inspiring, superb documentary. Mike Rowe, who produces and wrote the script, infuses his movie with an energetic style. He celebrates liberty, patriotism, duty, honor, and sacrifice. However, it fudges some historical facts. SOMETHING TO STAND FOR also has some re-enacted war violence, a few light obscenities and a humorous, somewhat off-color biographical story about animal husbandry. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger and older children. That said, SOMETHING TO STAND FOR WITH MIKE ROWE is worth seeing on the big screen.
“I think patriotism, by definition, is passionate,” Rowe told Movieguide®. “I think the bigger issue today is — we hear a lot about the divide between left and right…I really think that there are still some things that people on both sides of the aisle can stand for and celebrate and feel grateful for and be proud of.”
He added, “Our country doesn’t know what to stand for anymore. We’re confused — not just about the difference between left and right but between American and anti-American.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
“The movie consists of nine short stories written for my podcast, all of which I present from the stage of an empty theater, and all of which have been brought to life with cinematic recreations,” he described in a Facebook post. “Each story is a mystery of sorts, that tells you something you probably don’t know about someone you probably do – in most cases, a famous American who risked everything to give us the country we all call home. Your job, as viewers of my podcast know, is to try and figure out who I’m talking about before I get to the end.”
SOMETHING TO STAND FOR is now available in theaters nationwide.
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