Joe Johnson is a young college student in desperate need of a room to rent. Due to initially ambiguous reasons, he cannot return to the city that he has come from, and, having spent the previous month draining his savings in a hotel room, he is prepared to settle for any living arrangement, regardless of the conditions. He ultimately rents a room from a fellow college student named Tom, in spite of the latter's warnings that he is exclusively seeking to rent the room to a dedicated Christian. Given that Joe is only a lukewarm Christian at best, his lax attitude towards the faith causes tensions between him and his new roommate, culminating in a life-changing confrontation.
Cast and characters
Matt Reaves as Joe, a college student running from his past and afraid to accept personal responsibility.
Anthony Bianchi as Tom, a victim of a tragic past who seeks to ease the pain of it by burying himself in religion.
Rachael Norman as Anna, Joe's best friend and a lesbian with hostile feelings towards organized religion given the bigotry she has suffered because of it.
Ashneel Kumar as Tim, a follower of Tom's who is also seeking to find his way through God.
Amandeep Lehal as Muhammad, a Muslim friend of Joe's who seeks to convert his friend to what he believes is the true path.
Richard Britt as Phillip Washington, an unscrupulous profiteer whose primary motivation is money.
Phyllis Britt as the kindly lady.
Themes
The Crusader is a film that tackles such issues as religion in the modern day world, homosexuality, friendship, betrayal and hipocrisy. Through its characters, it observes the everyday complexities with regard to such aforementioned topics and how they impact individual people. For example, Joe is a character often torn between his personal principals, and those of religious faiths. He professes to be a devout Catholic, and yet he defends his best friend against his roommate, who opposes her homosexuality on religious grounds. Furthermore, Joe's defense of his friend's preference doesn't prevent him from using anti-gay slurs. In addition, while he claims to be a practicing Catholic, his crude behavior and poor decisions suggest otherwise. He is a walking contradiction, so much so that when his Muslim friend Muhammad attempts to persuade him to join Islam, he does so by pointing out as a black man, his ancestors most likely had Christianity forced onto them as slaves.
