The Brothers Who Reconnected Over Drummer Boy
Joel and Ben Smallbone co-direct this Revolutionary War musical, which opens Nov. 6 with Melora Hardin in the cast.
At some point, Joel and Ben Smallbone went their separate ways. They started talking again because of Drummer Boy, the Revolutionary War musical they co-direct, which opens in theaters on November 6, according to RELEVANT Magazine.
A musical about two brothers on opposite sides
Joel plays Jeremiah Clem and shares the cast with Ioan Gruffudd and Melora Hardin, Jan from The Office. The story puts two brothers on opposite sides of a literal war. Joel described his own estrangement with that same image: he and Ben ended up, he said, on opposite sides of the battlefield of life.
For him, the film is an allegory of his own life story: it speaks to his life, to America, to being an Australian immigrant and to a mixed marriage. It also speaks to a musician who makes a musical and to a band, for KING + COUNTRY, that he shares with his brother Luke.
«Forgiving is letting go of the right to collect»
When he got stuck on the main character, a director asked him who the character was. Joel answered that he carries a rescuer complex, and he wrote all of that into the script.
From a Lionsgate meeting to a windy shoot
On March 10, 2020, Joel pitched the project to Lionsgate. Approval was close. Three days later, the world shut down. Unsung Hero came out first and the musical waited. Someone reminded him that 2026 marks America's 250th anniversary, and he replied that maybe it was always meant for now.
About 30 minutes of the film are musical numbers. His rule: good musicals put words to what dialogue can't reach. He places it among Hamilton, The Patriot and Pride and Prejudice. In the story, an enslaved woman sings to better understand her own confinement, he said.
The last day of shooting brought the big fight between Jeremiah and Emmaline, on a hillside with winds of nearly 40 miles per hour. They feared they wouldn't be able to use any of it. The wind stayed in the final cut. On another day, with temperatures around 88 degrees, part of the Irish crew ended up in the hospital.
Forgiveness: the film's theme and the brothers' homework
The thing Joel is proudest of is forgiveness. The questions he asks are the same ones that linger after a family fight: what does it mean to be forgiven by God, to forgive yourself, to forgive others. "You can't have freedom without forgiveness," he said (translation by Sígueme).
Within the story, Jeremiah doesn't practice what he preaches: his father taught him that in Christ there is neither slave nor free (see Galatians 3:28), and yet he goes around fretting over whom he is going to marry. Off screen, Drummer Boy is what brought them back together. They started talking again.
"bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive." (Colossians 3:13, ESV)
Forgiving doesn't mean agreeing with the other person or pretending the hurt never happened. Forgiving is letting go of the right to collect. In a family split by politics, money or faith, that feels like losing. Scripture frames it the opposite way: where we let go, God opens a way out.
Think of that person you stopped talking to. You don't need a speech. A short message this week can open a door you've kept shut for years with silence. What conversation are you avoiding?
