By  LPJ

It was a wonderful movie, but my friend and I came out arguing about it. The movie was “Unsung Hero”, based on a true story of singer Rebecca St. James’ Smallbone family, their sojourn from Australia and the trials that beset this immigrant family in the US. Rich in pathos with heart-rending episodes, the story, in my estimate, did not fail in drawing sympathy for a family suddenly thrashed from comfortable living to destitution. The message of the narrative evokes a spiritual reflection hinged on hope and faith.

My intent is not to spoil it for those who may wish to watch it. But I share a viewer’s reaction, my review: it is a good film. A good film not for entertainment, but for human empathy that reminds us that the world is replete with people needing help that may not be appreciated initially, but which eventually will touch hearts, and change hearts, and bring relief to suffering.

The argument with my friend: who was the unsung hero?

My friend Roghi contended it was the mother. It was she who carried the family all throughout the poverty years. It was her faith and encouragement that served as the wellspring of strength for everyone in the family. It was her determination that woke her husband from depression and toward the realization that, for the sake of his family, he couldn’t just give up and surrender. The timing of this movie, or rather, the timing of our watching it in the theater was quite apropo for Mother’s Day. Indeed, the unsung hero, the Mom as according to my friend. The truth – it was hard for me to refute that.

I stuck to my stand, however. It was the father. I’m saying this not because of Father’s Day that’s approaching. In Australia, the Dad provided his family prosperous living lifestyle enabled by a successful career in entertainment promotions. His success didn’t last, in fact, it unexpectedly flopped. Futile efforts to find a job led to the decision to move his family to America where employment was waiting in Nashville, Tennessee. Fate continued to deal him with disappointment. The company reneged on its offer. A big blow to the family of six children living in an unfurnished house, with limited money for food. For livelihood, the father organized a cleaning team that started to work in the neighborhood, and expanded towards the wealthy suburbs where they met an entertainer on the top of his industry.

It is in this setting where the father encountered the lowest point in his self-esteem and the pit of hopelessness. Battered emotionally and humiliated, he went into deep depression that further dragged his family to poverty. Pain and suffering too much to bear, he mired into misery that kept him in bed for longer than his wife and children could stand it. But one day he got up, listened to his wife’s exhortations and considered seriously his daughter’s desire to try audition for the celebrity that sorely humiliated him.

From depths of pain, the father rose, gathered the strength battered in humiliation and boldly faced the odds once again. Combatting the warning he previously hung over his daughter’s head to quelch her ambition – “You will always be a maid to them” — he approached a friend that he had alienated before. Together, they prepared the daughter’s audition. That move kickstarted Rebecca St. James’ career that soared.

The father was the unsung hero, my opinion. In excruciating pain and desperation, he was dead to his family, dead to the world, dead to himself. But with a faithful wife and children behind him, he rose from the pits and overcame the wounds of despair and humiliation. And even as they stung, he forged ahead. The unsung hero.

Our friend Jeanette who so kindly drove us to the theater and home, amusingly smiled as Rhogi and I animatedly argued. But with a soft voice, said under her breath, “I think it was the father”.

After the movie, I came home searching on the internet any material on the film. I found the interview of the Smallbone family by Huckabee TV. Remarkably, my argument with my friend was resolved with that interview. Rebecca exalted her Mom for her steadfast faith and relentless encouragement for her father and family. The brothers that sang the background duet during her audition, now successful entertainers themselves, voiced praises for the father’s painful emergence from despair to courage and determination.  Very interesting was the program host’s and co-host’s take on the “Unsung Hero”. It was the family, they maintained. No one gave up (though the father did for a while). Each suffered, and each contributed. And love for each other never ebbed.

At times, we are so drawn to individual efforts to assign heroes in the group. We get so impressed about how each performs and we stack them against each other in our estimate to see who wins. We forget that individuals by themselves, are like spokes in a wheel. Each spoke will fail to move the wheel. But together and in coordination, the spokes will turn the wheel. The group wins. With that realization in mind, I am less adamant about relenting my stubborn stand.

The family is the “Unsung Hero”.

(A moving quote from Mother Theresa used in “Unsung Hero” — If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.)

Linda P. Jacob