Azle actor stars in 'Last Ounce of Courage'

By Jim Jones

Special to the Star-Telegram

Actor Marshall Teague, an Azle resident, is a former kickboxing champion who has played tough guys on the television series Walker, Texas Ranger and in several movies.

In his latest film, Last Ounce of Courage, he portrays a small-town mayor and Vietnam War hero who fights back when school and local officials try to water down the religious meaning of Christmas.

"I think this movie is about faith, family and freedom," Teague said in a recent interview.

The film, he said, reflects his own view that Christian freedoms are threatened by court rulings and overzealous efforts by a plural society not to offend Jews, Muslims and other minority faiths.

Last Ounce of Courage, rated PG, is showing at 1,200 theaters nationwide, including several in North Texas.

"I have no problem in saying everybody has a right to exercise a particular religion," he said. "But by the same token, do not turn around and tell us Christians that we don't have a right to celebrate our faith."

Teague's character and his wife, played by Jennifer O'Neill, known for Summer of '42, are devastated after their son enlists in the Army and is killed in Desert Storm.

"I play a character who served his country proudly and has a hole in his heart when his only son unfortunately is a casualty of war," Teague said.

The character, Bob Revere, is the mayor but is apathetic until his teenage grandson gets in trouble for carrying a Bible to school.

The grandson asks Revere what he's going to do to defend the freedoms that his son fought for.

"We both start working together to stand up for our beliefs," Teague said.

He reinstates the custom of putting up a community Christmas tree and is jailed for defying a court ruling by returning a cross that had been removed from a government-owned building.

During that controversy, Revere's adversary is the leader of the Washington, D.C.-based ACLO (a thinly disguised version of the ACLU) played by Fred Williamson.

The film has both its supporters and its critics.

It has been hailed by many Christians and family-friendly-movie websites, such as www.movieguide.org, which said, " Last Ounce of Courage dramatically tells an important, captivating story and ends on a spiritual, heart-rending, patriotic, life-changing note."

Mainstream critics have panned the film.

Sean P. Means of the Salt Lake Tribune called it "laughably awful" and a "ham-fisted melodrama" that features "amateurish acting, a tasteless finale ... and a cameo by either God or a ZZ Top cover-band refugee."

Teague said the movie expresses some of his own convictions, noting that he personally witnessed threats to Christian freedom.

"When we were living in California in the San Fernando Valley, they wouldn't let you put up Christmas lights or Nativity scenes," Teague said.

"They didn't want the name Christ there."

Teague, a Navy veteran and a former sheriff's deputy in his native Tennessee, has appeared in 35 films, including Road House, The Rock and Armageddon, and on more than 100 television shows.

While living in Los Angeles, he was on the board of directors of the Vietnam Veterans Foundation.

He also helped found one of the first Agent Orange community support groups in the United States.

He and his wife, Lindy, work with the Military Warriors Support Foundation in San Antonio to help veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

One of their activities is taking severely wounded veterans on weekend campouts.

"It helps some of them to be transformed mentally and spiritually," he said. "I love the outdoors. It doesn't matter whether we are hunting or not. When we do hunt, it gives them a different reason for carrying a gun."

After living in Los Angeles and North Carolina, Teague said, he and his wife decided to make a move.

"We flipped a coin and said, 'Heads it's Texas and tails it's Texas.'"

"We love living in Azle," he said. "It's perfect. The people are wonderful. It's in the middle of the country. You can fly to Hollywood or to the East Coast.

"I've been working in Texas, off and on, for 22 years. The first episode I made of Walker, Texas Ranger was made in downtown Fort Worth. We blew up three banks at the same time. It was a great day."

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