Long before “Duck Dynasty” stars Phil Robertson and his wife, Kay, found fame on the A&E hit reality television show, they weathered a stormy patch marked by Mr. Robertson’s struggles with alcoholism, drug use, and infidelity.
The difficulties they faced over that decade were nearly too much to bear, leading the couple—who wed in 1966 and share four sons—to separate.
Against all odds, they managed to mend their broken marriage, but only after Mr. Robertson found redemption in Jesus, something the family patriarch refers to as one of the most pivotal moments in his life.
“I went from believing in my next drink to believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,” he shared. “I want that for you too.”
‘The Blind’
The couple’s love story, including the difficulties they faced and how their faith helped them overcome the hard times, is at the center of the film “The Blind,” which made its theatrical debut in September 2023 before its March release on the faith-based streaming service Great American Pure Flix.
The movie also explores Mr. Robertson’s formative years, namely his experiences growing up in poverty with an absent father and a mother suffering from mental illness, culminating with his surrender to Jesus later in life, a moment that’s portrayed in the film via a moving scene of a baptism in a river.
“You wouldn’t have the true story of the Robertson family without the true story of Jesus,” Mr. Robertson captioned on Instagram alongside clips of the film.
“The Blind is the story of a rebel and a redeemer—THE Redeemer,” he shared. “We didn’t get this movie made to tell our story. We did it to tell his.”
Inspiring Baptisms
Mr. Robertson’s son, Willie Robertson, was an executive producer on “The Blind.” His wife, Korie Robertson, whom he married in 1992, also served as one of the film’s producers.“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,” she shared.
“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.
Mrs. Korie Robertson said the public’s reception of “The Blind” has been very positive, noting that “one of the greatest rewards” of working on the project has been the outpouring of messages from viewers who watched the film. She also shared that the movie inspired a slew of baptisms, many of which Mr. Phil Robertson performed himself.
“One woman said her husband had been an alcoholic for 17 years, he never goes to the movies with her,” Mrs. Korie Robertson 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.”
“If anything brings me to tears, this is it,” he wrote. “I’ve baptized a lot of people in the name of Jesus. But in 50 years, the one thing I’ve never seen is young people getting baptized right after seeing a movie.”
Overall, Mrs. Korie Robertson told The Christian Post that the film truly encapsulates the message of redemption.
“There’s this narrative that we have in the world that people can’t change, and seeing their lives and Phil’s life showed me early on that people can change, they can and they do,” she said. “You can hold out hope for that.”
