‘The Blind’ Returns To Theaters In Tribute To Phil Robertson: A Gritty Look At Redemption
(REVIEW) Christians in America don’t often feel like most celebrities. They just don’t share their values. This has always been a big appeal of the stars of the reality show “Duck Dynasty” about a family of hunters with a duck-themed sporting empire who live out in the Louisiana woods. The family has always been open and unashamed of their Christian faith, with their post-reality show projects like “Unashamed” and “Woah That’s Good” podcasts putting their Christianity front and center.
It’s no surprise that Christians responded so enthusiastically to the first faith-based film made about the family, “The Blind,” which was originally released in 2023. The film follows the family Patriarch Phil Robertson and his wife Kay before they became stars, as they navigate their love and his alcoholism and abusive behavior before converting to Christianity. The film was given rave reviews by Plugged In and I Am Second and has a 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now, in the wake of Phil Robertson’s death this past May, Tread Lively, GND Media Group and Fathom Entertainment will have a special theatrical re-release honoring him called, “The Blind: A Special Tribute to Phil Robertson” for a five-day nationwide engagement starting Aug. 31. This limited run will feature the new tribute segment exclusively in theatres. The moving footage features Jase Robertson sharing reflections about his father's legacy and the call to live a life of faith, service and second chances.
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There’s a good reason that the film made an impression on Christians when it first came out. The film was better than most faith-based industry films at the time at showing gritty hardship inherent in stories of redemption. Its weaknesses are still the typical ones common within the industry genre, but those who are part of its target audience will likely enjoy seeing it in theaters if they didn’t see it the first time.
The first half of the film, which focuses on Phil’s childhood and love story, is simultaneously complex, thoughtful, tragic and beautiful. The film does a good job of making you root for Phil and Kay, which makes you invested in them succeeding when Phil becomes abusive. The dialogue is decent and not overtly cheesy or preachy.
Where the film especially surpasses faith-based industry films is how it embraces showing dark and gritty stories unflinchingly, while still avoiding anything too graphic for most Christian families. Faith-based genre films have been criticized for failing to adequately address the hard issues like porn addiction or adultery and abuse in marriage that they are portraying because they are simultaneously trying to keep it “family friendly”.
“The Blind, to its credit, doesn’t do that. The abuse and neglect that Phil experiences as a child — that he passes on to his wife and kids — is shown vividly. We see Phil’s absent father and screaming mother. We see Phil yelling at and hitting his wife. We see Kay almost kill herself with pills.
These scenes aren’t downplayed or cut away, but instead vividly portrayed so you feel it. Likewise, the ways the characters deal with it and the consequences they pay before redemption can be had are real. As a result of this, the eventual redemption feels real as well.
It’s also positive to see a Christian film that isn’t going out of its way to lionize its Christian protagonist in a way that’ feels dishonest or overtly brand-building. Sometimes Christians can (since they are so happy to have celebrities who share their faith) fall into minimizing their heroes’ flaws. This is particularly true when those Christians are involved in the making of their own movie. “Jesus Revolution” constantly had people tell Greg Laurie how awesome-amazing-spectacular-special he was going to be when he grew up. Or how they minimized Lonnie’s post-conversion sexual history.
However, where “The Blind” is weak is where it succumbs to the typical faith-based industry film flaws that have long plagued many of its brothers and sisters. The acting, particularly for the lead, ranges from bland to cringe. The voiceover narration and sermonizing of the Gospel sometimes crosses over into preachy and distracting territory. While one can’t criticize a film for following a true story (I presume largely faithfully), its story is so predictably told that it's easy to become disengaged.
What’s unique about these flaws for a Christian film is how inconsistent they are. For example, there are times that the device of Phil Robertson telling “The Blind” as a story to his friend while duck hunting works well — particularly when they cut back to him and his friend discussing the events of the story akin to “Mystery Science Theater” commentators. But when they use it as narration over the events of the story, it ends up putting emotional distance between us and the action rather than putting us deeper into it. This is especially obnoxious in the first half, where the film is largely engaging.
Likewise, preaching the Gospel in the film sometimes works. It is, after all, an important part of the real-life story that Phil was only able to turn his life around by embracing Jesus. And hearing the Gospel is part of that. Unfortunately, some of those scenes go on too long and, at times, repeat themselves.
More importantly — like I wrote about in my review of “What If …” — their presentation of the Gospel doesn’t always pay off the character arc for Phil Robertson they set up. It’s never clear that Phil’s problem was that he pridefully wanted to be the hero of his own story and needed to accept that he couldn’t save himself. If anything, it seemed like his childhood taught him he couldn’t trust other people to take care of him, so he had to take care of himself.
This speaks to a larger problem within American Evangelicalism. Sometimes we make the Gospel presentation too formulaic and rigid, assuming that everyone must be asking the same questions and have the same problem, so we can give everyone a paint-by-numbers answer. When people say that this Gospel presentation doesn’t resonate with them, we assume that they are “Gospel resistant” or that they’re in denial about their “real” problems.
This reliance on formula shows up in how much more boring the second half of the film is compared to the first. When Phil is growing up and falling in love with Kay, there’s a lot of depth, tragedy and nuance to the dynamics with his family and how they intersect with both the sweet and problematic ways his insecurities inform their relationship.
Once they get married, these dynamics inform their relationship a lot less. Instead, they tend to rely on a boilerplate presentation of the “abusive Gospel resistant husband and faithful good wife” formula.
This “Christian wife vs. bad husband” trope is ubiquitous in Christian films (such as “Unsung Hero” and “The Unbreakable Boy”) and has a long history in Christian fiction. As Nancy Pearcey points out in her book “The Toxic War on Masculinity,” a large percentage of the earliest novels were Christian fiction that all followed this formula. A good Christian wife would be neglected and abused by her cheating and alcoholic husband until either he converted or she left him. Does that sounds familiar?
This reflected the cultural attitudes at the time that women were more spiritually engaged compared to their spouses — attitudes driven partly by men’s drop in church attendance during the Industrial Revolution. Married moms have continued to be (although there’s evidence this is shifting) the most likely demographic to attend church. As a result, it is no wonder this formula has persisted. The popularity of this trope in Christian circles means that — like in the case of “The Blind” — it can be a shorthand that restricts the artistry of a narrative rather than supports it.
“The Blind” deserves credit for making a Christian-friendly film that doesn’t downplay the darkness of life. If it had only been able to overcome some of the other faith-based industry tropes that plague the genre, the results could have been truly special. Even so, for fans of the Robertson family or those who want a classic Christian redemption story, this story about a duck-hunting clan mostly hits its target.
“The Blind: A Special Tribute to Phil Robertson” will be available from Aug. 31 through Sept. 4 nationwide.
Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at josephholmesstudios.com.