Joel and Luke Smallbone of For King & Country stopped by The Bobby Bones Show to talk about their new biographical movie, Unsung Hero.
Four years in the making, Unsung Hero is finally out. The film is based on the Smallbone’s family journey from Australia to Nashville. They shared it’s based on a 100% true story, and it starts when their parents, Helen and David, after they lost everything in Australia, so they decided to move their six kids to Nashville, only to arrive and their father lose his job again. Joel Smallbone, who plays the role of his father, said it gave him a whole new perspective on him. His empathy for his father and what he went through trying to create a better life for his family skyrocketed. They shared that the heartbeat behind this movie is the importance of family and wanting to make a change in the world, but the change first starts at home with your loved ones.
Luke Smallbone helped produce the film and shared the struggles you see in they truly went through. When they arrived in Nashville and found themself in a position of loss again, their community stepped up and helped them. The movie highlights the belief that being a family is more than just sharing a last name but being there for each other when times get tough.
They first pitched the idea of the movie in 2020 and an issue they had from the beginning was that they didn’t want it to be a self-indulgent story about their music career. It was about their family’s story, but it wasn’t there’s to tell because they were so young when they moved to America. It was about their parents, and they wanted to make sure they approached it in a way where the focus was if it weren’t for the American dream, local community and church, there would be no For King & Country.
A privilege they had creating this film is that the story was 100% true for them to work into the script. In fact, so many bad things happened in their life that they had to scale it back, but many miracles happened as well. Mike D who hosts Movie Mike’s Movie Podcast shared a positive review on the film. He usually doesn’t like music or faith-based movies, but shared that Unsung Hero showed the struggles of people wanting to live the American dream to create a better life for their family and because of that he enjoyed it.
The film also highlights their sister, Rebecca St. James and her music career. She was the first breakout star in the family and had Christian music hits in the 90s. Joel and Luke loved that they were able to lift her story up in the movie and called it a very emotional moment for them because it became a redemption story for the journey she was on.
“The Inspired By Soundtrack” album for the film, Unsung Hero, is also out today (April 26) and includes songs from For King & Country, Rebecca St. James, Lee Brice, Amy Grant, Hillary Scott and more.
Unsung Hero is in theatres nationwide now.