Kevin and Sam Sorbo Discuss "Miracle in East Texas" and the Power of Homeschooling @SorboStudios

0:00 Praise Jesus in all his glory! Letharios. He's talking about you. True hand to God miracle is what it is. That's the gospel truth. Leave the rest up to Jesus! Well, Kevin and Sam Sorbo, it's great to have you here on Charisma News to talk about this new film that you have coming up, The Miracle in East Texas, which both of you guys are starring in. And Kevin, you directed and I haven't had a chance to see the screener or anything with this yet, but the clips that I've been sent look like this is an amazing, amazing film and it's a true story.

0:45 So I'd like to hear about where the idea for this film actually came from and what are your hopes for that? Well, the idea came from Dan Gordon. He's an Oscar-nominated writer. He wrote the script actually many, many decades ago for Paul Newman and Robert Redford. You know, it kind of feels like they would be good for that part. Yeah, it just was a timing issue for both of them and it sort of disappeared. And Newman was deciding, you know, he was getting older, decided less and less. He just didn't want to get involved, whatever. But Dan brought it to us because we worked with him before. Sam wrote a script called Let There Be Light and Dan came and did a polish on it. And it's just a fantastic story. And we love true stories.

1:26 It's a true story set in 1930. It's about two con men that went through Oklahoma and Texas, wooing widows out of their money in fake oil wells. They would sell 500% of the shares, declare a dry hole, move to the next town. And you know, it's amazing how big these are real con artists, real film-flame guys. They were doing it. It was really evil what they were doing because they're right in the heart of the depression. People, you know, in our country, is that the highest unemployment we've ever had. And they ultimately strike oil, largest oil find ever. And of course, they get arrested and they go to court. So I'm going to argue the opposite side. They were really, it was the heart of the depression. They were offering people hope. And you don't know if they're going to strike oil or not.

2:07 Now, overselling the oil wells was a bit of a stretch. But anyway, the miracle that they struck oil and then the ensuing miracles is really what makes the story so incredible. And the fact that it's an entirely true story. And half, really, John Ratzberg's character was an oil guy. He was a real oil guy. My guy, pretty much a con artist because he did a lot of different names and a lot of different things. He would try to sell magic, elixirs and all the kind of stuff. But it was John's character that really said, we're staying here. Yeah, I'm going to stay here and make this thing happen because we can bring an oil. I said, we'll get arrested. No, we won't. They'll build statues to us.

2:48 So it's one 10 film festival was everything from best comedy to family favorite, best faith based movie. They can't pigeonhole it because it has so much going on. Best director. Thank you very much. There you go. Hollywood pay attention to it because it's a movie that they kind of movie they used to want to do. It's the old Hollywood with real character development, no visual effects. And you leave the theater sort of uplifted, feeling like you learn something, feeling like you could be a better person, feeling, feeling good about yourself, too. It's it's really it's just a lot of fun. And it's great for families. And I should throw in, you know, I wrote a curriculum. You know, I'm a big homeschool advocate. So I wrote a homeschool curriculum that is actually intended more because I want to convert people.

3:33 I want people to join the fold of homeschooling. And so it's really perfect for families who have, you know, they they're too afraid to try. But this is just the perfect sort of vehicle to introduce them to how much they personally because parents have a lot to offer their children. And we learn this actually reading the Bible. You know, God, God puts the parents in charge of the education of the children and never says, find a good school for your kids or find a good teacher. A good public school run by government. So this is a free download. It's available at ZorboStudios.com where you can find everything about the film, including tickets. And and it's a free download. There are spoilers in it because, of course, it deals with, you know, having you already having seen the film.

4:18 But the answers are there for the parents. So they I'm not trying to, you know, pick up anybody and, you know, stump them or anything. The film deals with the theme of forgiveness. This is an important theme in our culture, especially today's culture and redemption. You know, the cancel culture where you make one mistake and you're gone, you know, because, you know, those people that do that, they're perfect human beings. There's nothing wrong with them whatsoever. There's a little bit of sarcasm in there. My goodness. Well, I love that you're you're taking this. It's not just a film that is going to be great. I mean, I really want to go take my wife to see this. I think it'll be a lot of fun because she loves true stories, especially.

4:59 Yes, so do I. But the the thing that that you're incorporating the homeschool, you know, education with this and you're able to you're able to help people be able to teach these these practical lessons about faith and and. Well, also about the economy, the depression, entrepreneurship, the value of oil, what oil helps us with, why oil is such an important commodity in our lives. And, you know, there's there are a lot of different themes that we explore in the movie. There's even the symbolism that's happening in the movie. And these are just discussion questions to to encourage a discussion after the film.

5:39 So you can you can go and be entertained and still come away a better person. Right. And a lot of the entertainment that I see coming out of Hollywood is is really just pablum. It's really it doesn't it doesn't better you. It doesn't help you. A lot of anger, a lot of theater kind of feeling exhausted. Well, it's a roller coaster ride. Right. And then and then nothing. I suppose you have something to talk about with your friends a little bit, but it's not like a discussion of of of importance. It's sort of a discussion of why they, you know, I don't know why why there were so many train cars falling off the cliff. Yeah, I grew up being homeschooled and I know that my mother would have really appreciated the work that you put into this to be able to have extra discussion.

6:27 And that's one of the reasons that my parents decided to homeschool myself and my sister throughout our entire, you know, grade school. And then but the discussions that we would have after movies or TV shows, we were always looking for the where is where can we find Jesus in this and where can we find the what can we learn from this? And I know that this film has a lot of a lot of those opportunities there and you've highlighted that. So this is going to be very helpful for parents, even if you're not homeschooling. But it'll help you tiptoe into the waters of homeschooling, which I am totally an advocate for. Yeah, that's what we want to keep doing is making movies like this. That's what Sorbo Studios does. I mean, Hollywood is doing a very good job of where can you find Satan in this one?

7:10 He's everywhere. So we're trying to do the opposite and do movies that have a positive, positive effect on people's lives. Yeah. Yeah. So what is what is your favorite scene in this film? Because the two of you guys get to work together. How is that? How is that? I know what her scene is. Go for it. Say it. Well, it's my scene. It's the courtroom scene. It's like the pivotal scene in the movie. So it's a great scene. It's my favorite. Now, I know that the law might say they deserve prison, but I'm supposedly the one they wronged. And I would ask you to set them free. I like the scene I have with John Ratzenberg when we discovered the oil.

7:51 I'm the one who says we need to get out of Dodge right now. Let's go to California. Plenty of oil there. He says, you're telling me after I do this, I've been trying to bring an oil all my life. I'm more concerned with the Texas Rangers than the Holy Spirit, let alone the lynch mob. Texas Rangers. Nobody's going to lynch you. Once you bring that black gold out of the ground, it'll be their salvation. They'll build statues to us and put them in parks where the children play. Yes, and the pigeons will relieve themselves on our likenesses. His name was D.H. was his initials. Initials. And they call him Dry Hole from Everett because he there was two occasions where he was so close to striking oil, either ran out of money or just gave up. Somebody would come in and go down another thousand feet and strike oil.

8:41 So he was known as just bad luck. And now that it hit, he just totally forgot about really all the scams we had done on all his women. He said, I'm bringing this in. I'm an oil man. I'm going to bring this in. And John Ratzenberger really brought it. I mean, he showed up in a big way for this movie and did a phenomenal job. And I'll point out that because it's a comedy, there were outtakes and there were scenes that we had to cut that we put at the end of the movie that are hilarious. People will love. Yes. Stick around for the credits. So, you know, we we feel so blessed that we get to explore our creative, our creative energy in this fashion and also bring this to the world as as uplifting entertainment.

9:27 It's really quite extraordinary what we've been able to do. Yeah. The scenes that I've seen in the trailer really does make you laugh. And so it's it's going to take you through the whole roller coaster of emotions, not because of visual effects or anything like that, but it's going to take you through the character development. And I think that's one of the things that's really missing in a lot of films and even the movies that I've seen recently. My wife and I would discuss and we're like, there's no character development. I don't care anything about this character. I don't even know their name by the time that I finished this movie. Well, that's that's part of the worst piece of Hollywood that has that has come out of I'm going to go all the way back to the 60s is the fact that they laud the antihero as the hero.

10:13 And if you're really paying attention, you're looking at it and you're saying, but he's kind of a bad guy. Why am I applauding what he's doing? You know, OK, he's beating up worse guys. But and so that's that. Yeah, that's a direction that we decided on. The bad guys are being bad guys. Really are good guys, too. I mean, you look at what's casting Sundance Kid. I mean, great movie. Robert Redford, Paul Newman, by guarantee of Butch and Sundance in real life, weren't that good looking. They weren't that quippy with the dialogue and they weren't that bad guys. They weren't that sharp. They were bad, bad guys and 60s that change everything. But Hollywood, I fell in love with the whole idea of being an actor. The old movies from the 40s, 50s, 60s.

10:54 I mean, I character development was massive in all those movies. We didn't have special effects. And you know, the great movies out there from Casablanca to Philadelphia story, whatever it may be. I mean, it's just there was so many good movies that they went here and met Sally, which is a 90s movie. I think or an 80s. I mean, they did a great great dialogue, romantic comedy like that. And Hollywood has gotten away from that. And one thing I got to say about this movie, I forgot to mention, I'd be remiss if I didn't say it. All of the music except about one or two songs were from 1930 or earlier. All the cars are 1930 earlier. The train in the movie is one of only two trains in the left in North America that were 1930 or earlier. It was wonderful to have all this real stuff. And we had an amazing local cast out of Canada.

11:36 We shot this up in Canada. And I know people go Canada. That's not East Texas. Well, we used a ranch that Clint Eastwood used and unforgiven. If it's good enough for Clint, it's good enough for Kevin Sorbo. And I do want to point out, if you go to Sorbo Studios, you can sign up for the emails. So one of the things that we really enjoy doing is telling a lot of the behind the scenes about the creation of this movie, how it how it happened. But also, there's a great story that comes on the heels of the movie. Ten years later, not part of the movie. It's part of our history. And, you know, we are losing American history. We aren't teaching it in our schools. Are we writing it? Were we writing it? Yeah, we're dismantling it.

12:19 And I think it's a really I think it's important because we tell our children you should be proud to live in the United States of America. The schools aren't telling kids that today. The whole culture is telling them don't be proud to live in America. You know, this is an evil country. It's not an evil country. The only reason that this country has been so successful is because it adopted God as its foundation. And so now students want to, you know, Yale, all these old schools, they want to take all these plaques down there. Yeah. You have got to. Here's what I say. I'm happy to spend my tax dollars this way. All those people that want to turn America into a socialist country, happy to send them to North Korea, Cuba, Russia, Venezuela. There's so many utopia states and countries they can move to.

13:01 I think they should go there. And I bet you within a short period of time, they don't want to come back to America. They need they need to understand. I think there's a huge ignorance as to the reality that they're trying to clear. I spent eight years as a missionary to 15 different countries when I was with Youth of the Mission. And I love the people that when I was there and the places that God had sent me for that time. But whenever I came back, there's this new appreciation for what you have. There is this gratitude that you have whenever you're able to have a different perspective. And for people that have never stepped foot outside of their cushy, you know, their cushy college careers or whatever they whatever they want to do.

13:43 You know, they've never tasted the real world. They've never seen what it's like. And to know how good you see it. You see it today in the push against oil and they're doing their protesting with their eyes. You know, your iPhone is made from oil. Get ready. Get ready. Get ready. Computer your clothes. There's a lot of things that come from oil, hair dryer. They're complaining, you know, because they don't know there's an uneducated ignorance about it all. Which is why I advocate for homeschooling. Yeah. Amen. Amen. I'm right there. Back on that. But I say, you know what? Like she all says, so system that you went from kindergarten through 12th grade on, you don't feel prepared to teach a first grader.

14:23 So what does that say about what you just learned or didn't learn? Wow. I'm very grateful that my parents, you know, had that investment into myself and my sister because I didn't learn just what to learn, but also how to learn and break that down. And I appreciate that you guys are taking those extra steps and not just create an amazing film that will entertain and make people laugh and make people think. But you're going to teach people through this process as well. So John, not even go to several studios for you know what we got going on with movies and things, but you go there for her books and her. I mean, she's got a number of books on educating. I mean, one of the blessings of COVID is two million more families are now homeschooling because they saw the ridiculousness of our school boards and our public schools.

15:05 I think one of the things that people realized is that, you know, education is a natural thing. We've doctored it in our schools to make it unnaturally difficult, unnaturally challenging. But honestly, you know, children are born curious. And the first thing we teach them to do in school is to sit down and shut up. It's the worst thing. Can I ask a question? Why are you raising an anti-educational? So, you know, the sooner we get the kids out of school and this, you know, the better off they will be. They will teach themselves. They will want to learn. And that's the exciting. Everything government runs, they destroy. I mean, a perfect example is Ronald Reagan's quote. He's got many that are awesome. He said the words of fear. I am from the government and I'm here to help.

15:48 And it's amazing how many people have said that recently without the sarcasm, but they've truly meant it. And that's that we've seen the degradation society because of that. So they want cradle grave responsibility for our lives. Trust me. Yeah. So Sam. So Sorbo studios dot com is where everybody can get the information about this. This this film is a fathom event and it is October 29th and 30th. And we're praying that that actually continues on as a lot of these faith based films have have been doing that they got one more thing to push. I got a new book out called Brave Books. Please go to Brave Books dot com. What I just before you say that because we were on the movie, go buy your tickets today. It helps us if we have a lot of pre sales because then the theaters are inclined to keep the movie overnight an extra day or or two or more.

16:38 So independent movies don't have 100 million dollar advertising budget like Avatar and Fights of the Caribbean. So we really need we need what for this movie what you all did for God's Not Dead that two million dollar movie made one hundred and forty million dollars. So God bless you all. That's a lot of people. We've had a lot of a lot of good. I get I get emails every day. Yeah. Somebody's saying I became a Christian because of your move. So a movie like this one Miracle is Texas is just a fun PG rated. You can take your six and seven year old. Yeah. You can consider it your form of evangelism. Share the movie invite friends go online buy your tickets screenshot it and send that to your friends so they know what theater you're going to what show you're going to be.

17:19 They can even see what seats you've got and sit next to you. So we're really encouraging people to have a fun night out with your family at the theaters and invite your friends. Meanwhile I do have a book. Yes. Talk about great books.com great books.com and I wrote a book called The Tesla Line that we went in there. Oh shame on us. And it's downstairs my office. We're in Sam's beautiful. And it it deals with letting boys be boys let boys grow like really kid like kids be kids. And what we're doing our kids today is crazy. There's a wonderful little story about a little line cut man Lucas and he ends up saving his little sister's life when she gets cut by a very boy. He has to be very very brave. Gotta find a way to learn how to be brave. Yep. And it's just it's just it's a wonderful book. It's called The Test of Blinded. Go to Bravebooks.com. You got a pre autographed copy from me and then join for one year get a new book every month for the next 12 months.

18:10 And it's a wonderful four to 10 year olds 11 year olds is really the age range in there. But it's a wonderful book about morals and values and it doesn't. Yeah the whole series wonderful. Great people really really love it for their kids. That's really cool. You know you guys said earlier that in the 60s the media really started focusing on the anti hero and how that was that was who was lauded and applauded really. And we've seen how that has really helped people be confused in our world today. And as we're as we're recording this Israel is at war with Hamas and people don't know what side is right and what's what's what's good and bad and what you guys are doing I believe will really help people to be able to make these decisions appropriately and not look for how you can align with the bad guys and the anti heroes.

19:03 And so thank you guys for being heroes. You guys are you guys are doing such a good job with Sorbo Studios and all the things that you're involved with. Keep up the great work. We're believing in you. We're believing for you and praying for you as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys.