The Eric Metaxas Show - Steve Barnett and Bernie Goldman

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

Filmmakers Steve Barnett and Bernie Goldman share the incredible story of honor and courage on display in the new film Valiant One. In Theaters Friday. Tickets at: www.valiantonemovie.com

Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments. That's noble gold investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Metaxus show. Would you consider yourself smart, insightful, precocious, astute, clever, wise beyond your years, and good at checking a thesaurus for synonyms? Well, then you've come to the right place. Here now is the handsome, attractive, striking, gorgeous, and quite frankly, breathtaking, Eric Mattaxas. Hey, folks, it's the Eric Mattaxas show. We're talking about God.

Talking to Chris Heim's, talking to Keith Jinta. So Keith Jinta, you're sharing in this case about this person. I never had them on the program. I don't even know what they look like, but this guy named Sean Bolts, who had this big ministry. And he was caught. I mean, again, I'm so sick. Yeah.

Even hearing this. Like, it's so creepy that somebody would do this and that they're hanging out with Christians and the Christian ministry and they're doing all the stuff. So let me ask you, because I always want to to fish for maybe there's something redemptive in the midst of the horror. Is it possible because there are people like this that they would say it's important to build people's faith? Yeah. So do you think that he was telling himself? like this gets people kind of psyched up and it builds up their faith. So he's justifying it in his own mind that puts people in a sense of expectation or some kind of.

I mean, I just, I'm just trying to process how you live a lie like this. Like I still can't even take it in. That's 2016. This is like eight, nine years ago and he's been going on like this. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great, great insight. Eric, because why would the Lord allow it? Well, maybe in some cases, a lot of these people were

greatly charged up and encouraged, and it spurred them on to life in the Lord that maybe wouldn't have otherwise happened. But it's still phony. The premise of it is wrong. And a couple things. One, I think that possibly they are presuming upon the fathomless forgiveness of the Lord. They think, well, he's going to ultimately forgive me. He knows I'm doing this for the good. Maybe I'm cheating, but it's a sloppy doctrine of forgiveness. It is so disgusting. I just once again, I cannot fathom how somebody, because look, we know we're all sinners.

So this is not about I'm not a sinner. But I just don't understand how you can knowingly, publicly deceive people in the name of God. Like, my brain can't even go there. I don't get it. And I guess I, the worst thing about this, for me, the worst thing is that I know that there are people who maybe come to faith through something like this guy. And then years later, find out, oh, he was a fraud. And so suddenly their whole walk with God is called into question. Is God real?

Is everybody a fraud? Is everybody a liar? are all Christians stupid hypocrites. Yeah. That to me is the most horrifying thing. Yeah. It brings shame to the name of Christ. It brings shame to the body of Christ.

I think of all the faithful Christians. I mean, this is just like, you know, when I think of the scandal in the Catholic priesthood, the worst thing for me, apart from, you know, the truly worst thing, child rape and all but I'm saying, think of all the faithful Catholic priests. whose names are besmirched. They have been faithful, faithful, serving God. And their name, they become mixed in with this evil. People look at them with a jaundiced eye.

Oh, you're probably a molester. You're probably, it just rips your heart out to think what happens because of this kind of fraud. And I guess that's to me the worst thing is that people get turned away from God. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, there's a there's a lot of podcasts going on right now covering this story because new information emerged. And there's a young, young girl who I think it was Sean prophesied over her, Chris, back to what you were saying before, of who her husband was going to be. She didn't really want to marry this guy.

But the prophet told her, this is going to be your husband. Well, guess what? They got married and he was abusive and strangled her. a couple of times. To the point, yes, she's on the internet now talking about this. She has since divorced him and she's left so confused because her heart was so right before God. She was like, Lord, I want to please you.

And if the prophet said, now there's immaturity there I get, but she went into that because of a false word from a quote prophet and her life was ruined because of it. So it's a lot more than just calling out addresses. and birth dates. Think about Ananias in the book of Acts when they were selling all of their goods and pooling the proceeds so that the Christian community would not be in need. And let me just throw in a disclaimer that wasn't socialism. But Ananias and Safira sold their house and gave Peter the proceeds in front of the community. And Peter knew. He got a word of knowledge that Ananias was lying. And he said, is this really all the proceeds?

And Ananias said, yeah, yeah, that's all of it. And he was holding back a little bit. Peter said, you have not only lied to men, you have lied to God. And he dropped dead. It's in the book of Acts. He dropped dead as Acts 5. So we don't mess around playing Rich Little with the voice of God, thinking we can imitate or trick him or fool him. There is a king, and he's on a throne.

It's, yeah, it's chilling stuff. Okay, so we mentioned Sean Bulls. Now, listen, I'll bet you that there's mitigating stuff in the Sean Bolt story. So I don't want to condemn people completely. I don't know the whole story. And I say this, you know, I mentioned Daystar. I mentioned Chris Reed. These are people I would consider friends, right? So I'm only interested in what's true. I'm not interested in the gossip. I'm not. interested in taking people down. I'm not interesting. But I believe God is purifying his church and that, listen, folks, let's say, you know, let's say you are involved in some kind of sin right now. You're doing something right now and you know it. I want to be real clear. The God of forgiveness

wants you to repent 100% and to trust him 100%. 100% with the results. Say, God, I repent, I've been wrong. Help me pick up the pieces of my life. That's what God wants. So there is no excuse at any moment, any of us who are doing any horrible thing. Repent before God. Find a healthy church, you know, and come clean.

God loves you. He wants to forgive you. He wants to help you. But unless you are honest with God, God, you cannot move forward. If you're trying to protect some ministry or you're trying to protect some business or you're worried about your bottom line. If you're worried about that, more than you are about being honest before God, you get nothing.

It's the worst bargain. So God wants us to come to repentance and give him, just give him everything. But there are people that they're kind of holding back. They're kind of like, well, I only did this. And it's like, I mean, I get that on some level. We don't need to be, you know, this can go wrong in both directions where you see people oversharing and, you know, like, but I just want to say this is about when I think of some of the names that I mentioned, you know, you want the best for them too.

I want the best for these ministry leaders, whether it's Robert Morris or Tony Evans or you, You want the best for them. And so I don't know how to advise them right now because I don't know the details. But this is about the cleansing of the church because I do believe God is, we're at the beginning of a huge move of God that has been prophesied for decades. And I think that we need, you know, God says that anything that can be shaken will be shaken. Anything that's not of me, it's going to get shaken and it's going down. And so if there's flesh, what the Bible calls. calls flesh, carnality, where you're really doing something. It's not God. It's you. God says,

look, now's the time you've got to die to self. You've got to kill that, what the Bible calls the old man. Otherwise, you know, if you're not dead to self, you cannot participate in the resurrection power of Jesus. In order to participate in resurrection power, you need to be dead. So unless you die to self, God is powerless to do anything. You have to die to self. You have to die to self. Preach it, brother. Preach it. That's exactly heavy stuff, but we've got lots more when we come back. This is important stuff. I wasn't planning on talking about this. I just woke up today. I said, we're talking about this. So we'll be right back. You can go to Ericmetaxis.com, sign up for the newsletter. Be right back. So you're putting money away, saving for the future, for retirement,

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readlion.com. Okay. Talking to Keith Jinta. talking to Keith Junta and Chris Himes, and we're talking about God. And so this brings us to our friend Chris Reed. Now, this is really hard for me because I love Chris Reed. He's a sweet soul. But he has become embroiled in controversy over the last couple of years. He was chosen to be the head of Morning Star Ministries. There was some kind of a, you know, and again, we have to.

to be real clear. When we talk about a sexual scandal, think of how many levels there are of sexual scandal. Number one, oh, I had a weak moment and I kissed a woman and we immediately repented and it never happened again. Okay, that's level one. Level two, it happened five times. You know, level three, it happened for three years and it went way past kissing. Yeah. It goes. It goes. those on there are all these levels. And so they're not all equal. But if you're a man or a woman of God, we're called to holiness. And so I don't know the details. And we don't, I don't want to get into it here. Yeah. But evidently, Chris Reed, who's been on this program, he, he had to leave Morning Star. I don't know what's going on with him now. But to me, I bring him up because this is somebody that I care about.

This is somebody that I love. I haven't spoken to him about this. Me too. But I wish him well. But I just want to want to know what's going on in the church, what's going on in the body of Christ? What's going on that Rick Joyner, the head of Morning Star, would bring Chris Reed on board knowing that this happened. I guess there was like a year probation or something like that. And then it's all, I say this very candidly.

I do not have all the answers, but I do want to say that this is grievous. And we have to do way, way better at not letting this stuff go go on. And I guess there was even a question, Keith, with Chris Reed, kind of like the Sean Bolt stuff with the data mining. And I don't know, it doesn't seem to have been the same level. But even if it happens once, you're kind of like, what? like that just undermines everything that comes out of your mouth. There's an idea in the Bible about wolves in sheep's clothing, and I do think that's a real thing.

I think they're there, I mean, the Bible basically says. You don't mean literal wolves. I mean carnivorous canine predators passing the baskets, and then they bite you. Well, I mean, I mean, that's a real thing. Yeah, it's a real thing. But that's kind of my question is, like, I don't believe the, that that's Chris Reed. Like this is what I'm saying.

There's all these levels of sexual scandal. There's all these levels of deception. I mean, we're supposed to have zero tolerance for any of this stuff. But we also think historically the problem is the church leadership doesn't like, and I get, I don't like conflict. And I think there's a,

there are ways to handle trials and, and, offenses that involve the light. And then there are ways to kind of like do it badly. And, you know, the person just picks up and moves on and goes to the next church. because they weren't properly exposed to sanitation, you know, to disin, you know, to the light, to disinfect them, basically.

Right. I think a big element here, there is a common response, a common behavior. And I don't sit here as judge. They have to stand before God. And, Eric, I'm with you. We met him. We know him personally. I've talked to him since.

He's a dear man, and I think he's incredibly gifted. I've heard him give incredible sermons. on topics, non-prophetic type messages. Really, really insightful. But what I see, you mentioned Tony Evans, you mentioned Mike Bickle, you mentioned Robert Morris, when these offenses are found out, when they've been revealed. Unfortunately, in almost every case,

it wasn't self-confession followed by repentance. They got caught. There was a whistleblower. There was an email. There was a tape. Something came out and they were caught. And what was their response collectively? They all disappeared.

I think if Mike Bickle or Robert Morris or Tony Evans, not in the Jimmy Swaggered manner, but if they stood up and owned their sin and not only repented before God, but repented before their people, and the millions who follow them, the millions who've been influenced by their ministry, if they had come out and spoke the truth and repented, and it might mean the end of their ministry, but it would have been the right way. But all these guys are just disappearing.

Now, with Chris and Sean, they didn't disappear. Sean self-selected out for a while. He took a break from prophetic ministry. And now on his website, he says, I will no longer give words of knowledge that are related to data that can be on the internet, blah, whatever. It's like,

good grief. Nobody really cares. But wait a minute. Yeah. It's Sean Bulls. Who cares? The fact is you did it, you defrauded people,

you lied. That's kind of the issue. That's the issue. That's kind of the issue. Why would anybody want to get a word from you after they know you've done this? This is kind of a problem, isn't it?

Yeah. And you were talking about levels. And dear Chris, it all came out in levels. You know, there was the sex scandal. at Rick Joyner's Church. It wasn't sex, sex.

It was like... Well, there were sexual abuse scandals at Morningstar that Rick Joyner was covering up that came to light and were going to be prosecuted. And that's when Chris Reid publicly said, I'm out of here. So his initial announcement had nothing to do with his sin. It had to do with what was going on at Daystar and Rick was managing. But then soon after, the student came out. who Chris had this emotional, sexual but not intercourse affair.

It was all explained a little bit in too much detail. But he was diddling around behind his wife's back with a student. And he released a teeny part of that because the whistleblower came out. And then more information came out. And he admitted to that. And it just, it's like if these men would just stand up and own their sin, but unlike listen i i i i am speechless this is this is so heartbreaking i don't know what to say i mean listen folks it is the the the the let's let's even say this right there there was uh and again these

are these are people i know so it's probably going to cost me significantly to talk about this on the program but i say this stuff before god right um i there's been this kind of thing happening at Daystar. I've been on their programs many times. These are like wonderful people. I've spent time with them. But all this weird stuff comes out. And just like with the Mike Bickle stuff, and you're trying to process like what what is real? What is backbiting? What, you know, and I always get very defensive for my friends or people that I like, whatever. And you just try to process what in the, what is going on, what is actually going on. But I think a lot of people, the, the, the main question, because there's this question of sexual abuse of a kid and all this horrifying

stuff. Yeah. But to me, the central question that precedes everything is whether the marriage between Joni Lamb and her husband now is legitimate. I think that's what precipitated all of this. Now, this is a legitimate question for the body of Christ to say, wait a minute, you know, if you, Keith or you, Chris, decide like, I'm walking away from my wife, and I'm going to get married to somebody else. I, as your friend and brother in Christ, would say, whoa, whoa, whoa, you can't do that. I hope you would take a beer bottle and break it on the edge of a bar

and try to get me with it. Well, no, that's true. I would say, what do you mean you're walking away from your wife? I've met your wife. She's not perfect. She's like my wife. Oh, she's like me and like you and like you. I have to say, since we're on the radio, on the airwaves, my wife, in fact, is perfect.

Put the beer bottle down. My wife's better than your wife. My wife could beat up your wife. But I'm saying, like, so somebody comes to me, like, if you've been married for years, like the three of us have, you know, marriage can be tough. Yes, that's correct. And but if you just said, well, yeah, I'm walking away and I would just say, excuse me, excuse me, sir. No, no, you can't do that. Where did you get the idea that you could divorce your wife and walk away?

You go to a church where that's okay? It's not okay according to the New Testament. Actually, Eric Val in the Aramaic means I got other options out there, baby. We'll be right back. For years, customers have been asking if my pillow sells cross necklaces like the one that Mike Lindell proudly wears every day. Well, they're excited to announce that Mike has partnered with a jeweler right here in United States to create beautiful sterling silver my crosses. You can save 30% today using promo code

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Mypillow.com, use promo code Eric. 800-9783057-3057. promo code Eric. Okay, so we're continuing this conversation. I think this has to be our last segment on this, I think. But so just to reiterate, when somebody. says, because this is at the heart of the day star issue for me, biblically. But again, it's like, I really like Joni Lamb, right? I've been on that show many times. So it's just like if I'm talking

to you, Keith, or to you, Chris, to a friend, a brother, sister, and Christ, you'd want to know, is, you know, if you say, oh, I'm leaving my marriage and I'm going to be involved now, I'm going to marry someone else. I think that's the central question that some people have about what's going on a day star, because all this other stuff is important. But I think the central question for some people, and I don't know the answer, and that's why I'm speaking about it very gingerly. But, you know, is Joni's marriage to her husband now, Doug? Is that legitimate? In other words, did he, well, I should backtrack. Did he leave his wife? under what we would call biblical grounds for divorce.

What I have looked at says no, says that he left his wife and the grounds for divorce were not biblical. Now that, if that's true, I don't know, but if that's true, that's deeply troubling to me. Because I don't know how you can be at the front of a major ministry and be in this kind of, you know, gray area is putting it kindly. And so I think that the reason I'm talking about this is that we need honesty in the Church of Jesus Christ. And especially if you're in ministry leadership, we need honesty and we need clarity. And we have to stop running things like big businesses and, you know, we need to hire lawyers and stuff.

I mean, maybe you do need to do that. But at the heart of it, you have to be clear. And I think that nobody seems to be talking about the marriage issue. They're all, people are all focused on whether there was sexual abuse with this kid and whatever. And that's all horrible and important. But you don't sweep away the question at the heart of it is a couple who are in the front of this huge ministry. Is their marriage legitimate? Was that okay?

And I have to say, like, my question right now is why aren't people talking about that? And talking about that humbly and soberly, not to attack anybody because, yes, we're all broken, but to talk about it humbly and soberly to understand what is going on. Because if we don't live in the light, the enemy comes in. And that's kind of, that's part of what I see. So there's so much ugliness going on. And I just thought I should just talk about it. We've only mentioned a few names here.

I mean, there's a lot of finger pointing and there's a lot of, and that's not of God either, right? Like, you know, earlier than now. But we have to at the same time be clear, what is the biblical standard for marriage? I mean, where are you going to hear that? Adultery and death, right? It's essentially adultery and death. Even an unbelieving spouse, Paul says, no, you don't leave them.

They are sanctified by your faith. but this just in joney did seek out spiritual authority she wanted biblical approval for her divorce for her marriage and she did reach out to a trusted prophet and that prophet was sean bulls and she proudly said sean has approved of this marriage okay that's confusing to me right because when you say reached out to a trusted prophet what the heck is that that's what she's gentlemen no no no but i'm saying out to a trusted prophet. I don't know what that means. Right.

What does that mean? How is that even biblical? Like what world are people living in? And also, I think, see, this is what's so interesting. Let's say, my marriage is going through a tough time, and I'm attracted to another woman. How dare you? Or I'm attracted to a man. What?

And I want to find someone to tell me that according to the Bible, you know what, Eric, that's okay. You can pursue that. I can always find someone. Yeah. I mean, just the other day, the National Cathedral, you have this Episcopal elfin, quote-unquote, bishop, stand up and talk about, you know, gay, lesbian, and trans kids, as though that's biblical, as though there's such a thing as God created gay kids, lesbian kids, and trans kids. and we need to respect them and they fear for a good day. You can always find somebody who is going to tell you what you want to hear. And so this is the chilling question.

This is chilling to me that is God bringing about a reckoning in his church now where he's saying you're held to a higher standard? And I'm just telling you, folks, if you come to me and you ask me, is it okay if I get divorced? Here's the story. You know, in many cases I would say, no, it's very clear that it's not okay. It's very clear that it's not okay. Now, you want somebody to tell you what you want to hear?

Don't come to me because I fear God if I tell you what you want to hear. And this is the biblical standard. And I've talked to a number of friends of mine and they say, oh, yeah, you know, a lot of Christian leaders, they don't go there anymore. They don't talk about that. And I think, well, why don't they? You're going to tell a young man who's attracted to other young men that he can't pursue that, which you should tell him. But you're going to tell them that, but you're going to allow heterosexual sin to, you're going to look the other way. You expect that young man to take your counsel seriously on what you say about same-sex attraction,

but you're not being vigilant and dying to self when it comes to this other stuff. Fortunately, for my audience, we're out of time in this conversation. We're going to have to pick this up another day because this is very, very, very, very, very important. And we submit all this to God. We put it at the foot of the cross because the question is, what is God doing in his church? And at the end of this, we say, praise the Lord. Lord, lead us and guide us. Amen.

Folks, welcome back. There's a big deal film of coming out this Friday in theaters across America. It is called Valiant One. I know the plot of Valiant One, but I'm not going to tell you the plot. I have on the program Steve Burnett and Bernie. I don't even remember your last name. Welcome. Goldman. Goldman?

Thank you. Yep. Goldman, what is that, Irish? It is. Bernie and Steve, welcome to the program. The new film is Valiant One. Now, people need to understand. You guys have produced a lot of Hollywood films with which they might be familiar,

or you've been involved in all kinds of films. The 300 film, I'm Greek, so I'm well aware of the 300 films. there are two films actually. Oceans 11, not a faith-based film. I want to be clear and analyze this also not a faith-based film. But you are now working on faith-based films, all kinds of stuff. The film Valiant One sounds to me very exciting. Would one of you share the plot of the film?

Sure, I'll jump in. The plot of this film, the idea of the film really comes from a high school. friend of mine who was a Navy SEAL, and he had an experience that was kind of the spark that created the idea for it. It's about a group of army soldiers who are mostly tech soldiers, not combat soldiers, who end up crash landing their helicopter in North Korea. And in North Korea and the DMZ, there's really no way to rescue them. The United States military cannot send people in, so they're on their own. And this group, of tech soldiers, very cerebral as opposed to physical, have to use, you know, use the physical side

of their job for the first time. I've never even heard of the term tech soldiers. What is that? You know, the military, you know, we all think the majority of soldiers are on the front lines fighting, and the reality is a vast majority of our men and women in uniform are behind the scenes working on everything you can possibly imagine. And in this case, it's a group of soldiers who mostly deal with the tech side, surveillance, monitoring surveillance technology around the world. That's what this character does. And he's not, like I said, he's not an action, or excuse me, he's not a combat soldier, but he's called in to do a routine mission. That routine mission goes completely sideways, and now he's left in charge of this group and has to make life or

death decisions to bring them home safely. So, Bernie, were you or Steve involved in the writing of this or just in producing and directing? You know, Steve and I came up with the idea. Steve came to me, I think around the time we finished the second 300 movie and said that he was really interested in doing a movie that celebrated the military and the people that fought in it and was thinking about a first-person point-of-view movie in the movie in the the experience of war. And I had had a similar idea about a group of underdog soldiers, people that aren't used

to being in the world of combat that, you know, have to experience a warfare experience. We brought in a writer named Eric Tipton, who took us a great deal of the way. And then when it became clear that Steve was going to become the director of the movie, he began the writing process and took over for Eric and shaped it into a movie that he eventually became the director of. So this is obviously a thriller, but it sounds, I mean, I have a lot of questions. I'm a creative, so I always have questions on how things, how stories get formed. So when you say that, you know, they're on a, I think the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, routine message, a routine mission that goes wrong.

So how does a routine mission end up in North Korean airspace? Like, do you, do you? deal with that or not? Yeah. So the actual incident was a group of soldiers, well, it was two Navy SEALs and a group of tech soldiers supporting Aratheon Tech to go from Patriot Missile Installation to Patriot Missile Installation along the DMZ South Korea border. And, you know, for a Navy SEAL, that's a boring job. These guys are used to getting out there and getting after it. So babysitting Aratian Tech and a bunch of younger, inexperienced soldiers was just not on their bingo card for the day. But in the actual situation, they hit brutal weather. That part of the world has very unpredictable weather. And they were told to come back to the base. And when they got up in the air, that wind took them all the way

over the DMZ and almost into North Korea. And that's kind of where the story, the nonfiction version of the story ends. We then took it and kind of ran with that idea and had them crash North Korea, which, you know, if you know anything about the region and the politics and the pressure that's coming out of that region, that's a nuclear state. That's a possible act of war that could escalate to something pretty scary. So the stakes were there. It's hard to believe, really, I think, for most Americans, the nightmare that is North Korea. I mean, it's really almost impossible for us to comprehend what it was. would be like to be in a place like North Korea. It's just unimaginable. I do a thing called

Socrates in the city where I interviewed for 90 minutes, Yomi Park, who escaped from North Korea. And the two books she's written on it are so harrowing. If you ever needed to appreciate living in America, you can read her books or people can go to Socrates in the city.com just to watch my interview to get a taste of what we are talking about. So you set your film in North Korea, that they're trying to escape North Korea. So tell us about this, because again, most people, it's really, it's incomprehensible. Yeah, look, I think we did a tremendous amount of research over the years. It took us a while to make this movie.

And through that time, we just did more and more research about what life is like there. Now, you know, and in addition to the terrain and all the things that would help us with our storyline, we had to obviously capture a world. And that world is different than ours in almost every possible way. They don't have a lot to eat because most of their money is shifted into their military. Obviously, it's a pretty brutal dictatorship over there. Does it get more brutal? I don't think so. I don't think it can either.

It's pretty out there. But, you know, one of the things that was really important to us as filmmakers in telling this story is even though our U.S. soldiers are in foreign territory and enemy territory, they are taken in and helped by a North Korean family. And it was important for us to, you know, illustrate the message that people love exactly the same no matter where you are, no matter what country you're born in. This North Korean family is kind to our soldiers. And I wanted to make sure that, you know, we wanted to make sure that we saw the world through that lens, not through everybody being bad. Forgive me, going to a break. Folks, the film is Valiant One in theaters this Friday. We'll be right back. Folks, welcome back.

Brand new film in theaters this Friday. Valiant One. Bernie, let me ask you, what attracted you to the story? And another question, what is the title Valiant One? You know, I think what attracted us to the story was that we felt that, you know, Hollywood was not really making these kinds of movies anymore, that there was a space that was really being unexplored. And that, you know, it takes a great sense of duty and heroism to serve your country.

And we didn't feel like we were seeing those people. people on the screen and we didn't feel like those themes were being explored. You know, you know why you felt that way, Bernie? Why? Because it's true. I agree with you. I think it is true. And, you know, it's unfortunate, but, you know, we're happy that we got such a great group of creative talent. We have, you know, great actor in Chase Stokes and Lana Condor and Desmond Borges, many others, you know, that contributed to making this movie and, you know, showing what it's like,

not only what it means to be a hero, but what it means to be an ordinary person having to be put in a situation of defending your country and defending yourself and having to stand up for the guy who's standing next to you, no matter who that person is. And, you know, that's the great thing about the Army, and that's the great thing about the United States. And, you know, I think one of the thing that's underappreciated about our country is our willingness to stand up for each other in those times of crisis.

And that's what this group of soldiers does. So, I mean, I think that, you know, most Americans agree with you simply because it's true, that heroic stories, stories that are, you know, about honor, about, you know, the greatness of freedom, about this kind of stuff. There's a tremendous hunger for it. and Hollywood for many reasons shrinks from telling those stories. Are you willing to speculate on why they shrink from telling those kind of stories and why there's such a big opening for you guys to tell this story,

for example, in stories like it, like Valiant One? You know, I think it would be very speculative on our part to say that, you know, it's, you know, for any other reason than, you know, thankfully there hasn't been a lot of armed conflict. you know, by the United States since we were really involved in Iraq. So, you know, it's, I think we're all thankful for that, that they, you know, haven't set a lot of soldiers. But, you know, I do think that soldiers are people that need to be celebrated.

They do sacrifice for this country. You know, veterans are not often treated with the great deal of respect that they deserve, you know, a great deal of our homeless population, our veterans. and, you know, they don't necessarily get the services or, you know, to be first in line like they should be. And, you know, I hope that they'll come out and see this movie and support it and see themselves in the movie and, you know, feel that sense of pride that they should feel in defending this country because it's a country that's really worth defending. Yeah, I agree. Well, for somebody from Hollywood to say that, that's big news.

I just want to say, thank you, Bernie, for saying what so many Americans want to hear. here. And I have to ask you again, where did the title Valiant One? Where does that come from? You know, that's the name of the helicopter. So it's a play on words, obviously. We came up with the name of the helicopter. So it would kind of also dovetail into what's happening with our character. You know, Brockman starts out as a selfish kid, basically. And he comes out the other end, the Valiant one, the one who's selfless. So that was the idea. there. So Valiant 1 opening in theaters this Friday. How many screens do you think you're on? About 1,500, I think. Wow. Okay. That's big. Folks, check it out this weekend, Valiant 1. Guys,

God bless you. Thanks for coming on this program. Thank you. Thank you for having us.