Fallen Angel: The Outlaw Larry Norman

No documentary is perfect. No observer is either. The world, and particularly the music industry and Christian evangelicalism in the 1970s, was a place hungry for answers, full of questions, and there was an undercurrent of passion that came through in music. Larry Norman's music was part of that turbulent current. He was a man trying to figure out who he was as a person of faith in Christ. And like many performers, he found the lights, the cameras, the crowds, the atmosphere in studios became more than what he expected. All of that, and something within, took over. And the result was harm. People were hurt — people dear to him. We all suffer when one we know, maybe one we love, makes mistakes. And Larry did make some. But I look at the wider breadth of Larry Norman's life and work and must say that he was part of a movement (Jesus People) that has shaped what faith looks like in the emerging 21st century. If Woodstock and its performers can be called formative, Cornerstone, Ichthus, and festivals all across the U.S. (where Larry, Randy, Chuck Girard and many many others stepped onto makeshift stages) were no less so. I watched this doc with the eyes of a journalist (I teach it, or try to) and I took its assertions with grains of salt. And I still celebrate the good that came of this brother's musical journey.