Filmmakers Explain Gratitude for Soldiers Inspired New Military Movie
By Movieguide® Contributor
Director Steve Barnett and producer Alan Powell discussed their philosophy of filmmaking and how that inspired their newest movie VALIANT ONE.
“There are two elements that you have to have in every project….we decided this early on as a company. The first thing is, you know, it’s a business, right, so is there an audience for this? Do we think it’s going to work? You’ve got to ask that question. Anybody who pretends like they don’t is not in business for very long, or they’re lying,” Powell told Movieguide®. “That’s absolutely there and that’s certainly something you consider.”
“The second question is equally important — quite frankly maybe for us more important — and that’s does this project has a why? What is the reason that we believe this needs to exist,” Powell continued. “And not to sound cheesy or cliche, but is the audience going to be better when they’re done watching this film than when they started it? Are they going to be challenged in a way that we think is inspiring or positive? And if we can answer [those] questions, then we’re willing to spend the time, energy, effort, resource, all the things to bring it to life.”
This philosophy led them to create JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM and their new movie VALIANT ONE which inspire audiences through great storytelling.
“The setup of the story is a soldier sent on a mission as a replacement for somebody, and he’s not happy about it because he’s perfectly fine behind his computer. But they hit weather, and they crash, and the Delta team that’s escorting him dies in the helicopter crash, leaving soldiers who have zero combat experience or real knowledge other than their basic training to figure out how to get out of the worst possible situation I think we could ever put our soldiers in, and that’s behind enemy lines in North Korea,” Barnett explained. “It’s about a guy who has to sort of find the hero inside of him and lead a group of soldiers to safety.”
The movie was made with immense gratitude for our soldiers, with Powell and Barnett hoping to portray their experience in war as realistically as possible. Not only is the movie based on a true story, but the lead actors have members of their families in the military who they wanted to honor.
“When we got into working on VALIANT ONE, we did a deep dive into military culture,” Barnett said. “And there’s two things in military culture that kept coming up. One is prayer and faith, you know, it’s a big part of military culture. And the other was the way they communicate.”
“There’s some language in our film, there’s no question, and it’s authentic to the way soldiers speak to each other when they’re in the heat of battle, when they’re dealing with tension” he continued. “But we never use the Lord’s name in vain; that was deliberate. But we kept it as authentic as we could.”
The movie stars Lana Condor, Chase Stokes, Desmin Borges, Daniel Jun, Jonathan Whitesell and Callan Mulvey. VALIANT ONE hits theaters on Jan. 31.
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