Machine Gun Preacher (2011)

The title is like something a cheap summer action movie might use, but MGP is nothing of the sort. It's the story of how one US resident, Sam Childers (Gerard Butler), made it his life's mission to help the SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) save the country's children from the atrocities committed upon them by a group of rebels known as the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army).
At the beginning of the film Childers is an angry, reckless asshole who enjoys making others feel like shit. A path to salvation and redemption seems like a million miles away; but a single random act can shrink such distances to almost nil. The journey from selfish to selfless is based on real life, and even though it's technically only a movie and the FX aren't real, knowing what inspired it makes the onscreen violence seem more horrific than it would be otherwise.

3 adopted struggles out of 5