The Father’s Love for You: Movie MOST Based on a True Story

John Griffith had lost all he had in the stock market crash. He moved to Mississippi where he took a job as bridge operator for a railroad company. In 1937 he was involved in a horrible accident.

One day his 8 year-old son, Greg, spent the day with his Dad at work. The boy was fishing next to the office so his Dad could both work and keep an eye on his son.

The bridge was over a river and whenever a ship came John had to open the bridge to allow the ships to pass. The day the boy was there with his father a ship was coming so John opened up the drawbridge.

After a moment or two he realized his son wasn’t at his fishing spot any more and as he looked around, to his horror, John saw his son climbing around on the gears of the draw bridge.

He hurried outside to rescue his son but just then he heard a fast approaching passenger train, the Memphis Express, filled with 400 people. All of the passengers aboard the steam train are completely unaware of the danger that looms as they head toward an open drawbridge.

He yelled to his son, but the noise of the now clearing ship and the oncoming train made it impossible for the boy to hear him.

All of a sudden John Griffith realized his horrible dilemma.

If he took the time to rescue his son the train would crash killing all aboard, but if he closed the bridge, the boy would be crushed in the gears; John would sacrifice his son.

He made the horrible decision, pulled the lever and closed the bridge.

It is said, as the train went by John could see the faces of the passengers, some reading, some even waving, all of them oblivious to the sacrifice that had just been made for them.

While the film is produced from a completely secular viewpoint, parallels can be drawn with the sacrifice a young boy and his father make to that of God and Jesus.

Another relevant parrallel is that of a female drug-addict who’s life is changed forever by witnessing an act of mercy beyond imagination.

The movie MOST is a both heart-wrenching and glorious story that portrays the greatest measure of love, sacrifice, hope and forgiveness known to man.