Thousands of people were baptized after watching Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson’s story of addiction and redemption in the film The Blind, his daughter-in-law Korie Robertson says.
“We went to Phil to talk to him about doing this movie because it’s his story. He shows the hardest parts of his life, and that’s tough to put it out there on the screen,” Robertson told the Christian Post.
The Blind, streaming on Great American Pure Flix, follows Phil Robertson’s life from his childhood to 1985.
The film highlights the challenges he and his wife Kay Robertson faced during the early years of their marriage, as well as how the Duck Dynasty star struggled with anger issues, alcoholism, and emotional instability over his father abandoning his family — until he found Jesus.
“Long before Phil Robertson was a reality-TV star, he fell in love and started a family, but his demons threatened to tear their lives apart. This is the true story that started a dynasty,” the description of The Blind on the film’s IMDb page reads.
Korie, who is married to Phil’s son, Willie, talked about the importance of portraying the raw and broken parts of her in-laws’ story.
“Phil said, from day one, ‘If it impacts one person, if one person changes their life and gives their life to Jesus, because of my story, because of the darkest parts of my story, I’ll do it. It’ll be worth it,'” she recalled.
“One of the greatest rewards has just been to read the comments and read the emails that have come in that have told us the life change that has happened in people’s lives after seeing this film,” Robertson added.
Korie said the family has heard a slew of stories about people who have been baptized after seeing her father-in-law’s movie, with some of the baptisms even happening right in Phil’s own backyard.
“I wish we knew how many thousands of people have been baptized in that river right behind Phil and Kay’s house, because Phil loves to baptize people and has done it right there in his backyard for years and years and years,” she said.
Korie stated: “People would head straight to the church or head straight to the body of water right after seeing the movie,” and “one group had like 27 baptisms, and right after the film, everyone just kind of continued and went somewhere [and] worshiped.”
“One woman said her husband had been an alcoholic for 17 years, he never goes to the movies with her,” Korie said. “She convinced him to come to the movie with her because he loved Phil and our show. He reached over and held her hand for the first time in years while they were watching the movie. I read that and just bawled.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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