The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him ~ G. K. Chesterton
When a fine young Arkansan man from a good family goes wrong, he will find redemption in faith, family, and country and becomes a Navy SEAL’s Navy SEAL, an American hero, and more importantly, a faithful husband and loving father.
Now That Should Be A Movie.
It is called Fearless
It is a War Drama
In the vein of American Underdog
It is like American Sniper meets Greater
It follows drug addict but tough Arkansan Adam Brown
And his faithful but strong-willed wife Kelley Brown
As they struggle to help Adam overcome drug addiction and alcoholism when he enlists in the Navy SEALs
Problems arise when Adam encounters pushers, wild parties, and sufferers possibly-career-ending-injury after possibly-career-ending-injury
Together Brown’s devotion to his family, honoring of his military contract, and Kelley’s strong-willed support of him will help him become a faithful husband, loving father, and an American hero
The idea came to me when I was listening to an audiobook of Fearless and I could envision Adam jumping from a truck bed crossing Highway 70 West Bridge into Lake Hamilton after watching the movie Navy SEALs at the beginning of a film about him and then ending with his SEAL Team brothers jumping off the same bridge in his honor as the screen fades to black
My unique approach would be the contrast between the rough lifestyle of the Navy SEALs with the gentleness of home and hearth it supports and defends, and the life story of Adam being told from different perspectives, his parents, his wife, and his fellow SEALs
A set piece would be the one Friday Adam goes to a neighborhood party with some Navy friends. Alcohol is served. He takes one sip. Then a few. Then several. Then way too many. He disappears. Kelley does not know his whereabouts. All through Friday night, Saturday, and Saturday night, she sits, waiting and worrying about him, trying to hold it together as she feeds, washes, and tucks the children into bed. Finally, Adam stumbles in early Sunday morning, red-eyed. Kelley has a suitcase ready. “I’m leaving you alone with the children,” she declares. “For the exact same time as you were gone so you will know exactly what you just put me through.” Adam bungles feeding the children and changing their diapers. Then he takes the children and walks around and around and around a track at a high school stadium. Then he sits with them in the bleachers under a gray, overcast sky. He never goes to a party again.
Target audiences would be fans of war movies, military servicemen and servicewomen and their families, military veterans and their families, faith-based audiences, alumni and fans of Arkansas State University, and Arkansans
Audiences would want to see Adam and Kelley’s story in theaters due to its themes of romance, love, faithfulness, determination, resilience, the inspiring and motivating tale of overcoming drug addiction and alcoholism to become a Navy SEAL, and the wholesomeness of God, faith, family, country, duty
Today’s book I would like to pitch as a movie is Fearless: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy Seal Team Six Operator Adam Brown by Eric Blehm, from WaterBrook Press.
“Adam’s story has got to be told and it has got to be told right,” was one thing author Eric Blehm kept hearing as he interviewed members of SEAL Team Six between May and July 2011. They had met with Blehm, an outsider, to make sure their friend Chief Special Warfare Operator Adam Brown, a brave and compassionate warrior who was the first to enter enemy-occupied buildings and the first to calm down frightened Afghan children, had his legend preserved for future generations. And to tell his story right it had to be told from the beginning
Adam’s story started in Arkansas where he grew up in a hardworking blue-collar family that taught him to always do what’s right no matter what. From an early age, two things were apparent: he had a strong sense of protection and a high pain threshold. He would protect his twin sister from bullies at school by using his body as a shield against spitballs they were throwing. After hitting his chin on the playground while taking a hardcore dive for a football, he simply got up and said he was going to see the nurse. He had bitten his tongue nearly in half.
As Adam grew older he became shiftless and addicted to drugs and alcohol. His life spiraled into a pattern of self-destruction. Despite everything he and his family did – sending him to Teen Challenge, getting him involved in church, and making the heartbreaking decision of calling the police to arrest him for stealing from the family business – Adam kept returning to his bad habits.
Things came to a head when Adam saw his girlfriend Kelley put herself in danger by ordering a pusher to take her to where he was hiding. He realized that the best thing to do for his family was to get away from the bad company in his hometown of Hot Springs by joining the Navy. And just not any part of the Navy, but the SEALs.
Adam had first been introduced to the SEALs by the 1990 Charlie Sheen movie Navy SEALs. The scene in which Sheen jumped off a moving truck into a river inspired Adam to jump off a jeep from the 70 West Bridge into Lake Hamilton. His friends called him crazy and after he came coughing out of the lake with the wind knocked out of him, he said he would never do that again but was glad he did because it would have eaten at him the rest of his life if he had not.
When Adam went to enlist the Navy recruiter told him he was wasting his time because his rap sheet was “a mile long.” Adam pointed to a picture on the wall of the Commodore of U. S. Navy Recruiting Command Area Three, the highest ranking recruiter officer in the southeast and an old family friend, and told the recruiter to call him. The commodore remembered Adam as the boy he once believed was most likely to succeed due to his attitude and, although shocked at hearing of his current situation, vouched for him.
Many of the other Navy recruits did not take Adam seriously because he was older and too friendly, but he had a mental toughness that helped him make it through BUD/s (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) Training. During one training exercise, he accidentally cut himself. His instructor jokingly told him to swim out and retrieve the mines they planted. He swam out and got them all. He almost passed out while getting the last one due to loss of blood, but even then the instructor still had to order him to stand down after he grabbed a paddle to help bring the boat back to shore.
Adam would spend the next 10 years of his life in the Navy SEALs, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. He married Kelley and they had two children, Savanah and Nathan. He took every training course he could and eventually made it into the toughest section of the SEALs– DEVGRU (The United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, more commonly known as SEAL Team Six) – all the while overcoming the temptations of drugs and alcohol. During training, he had to call Kelley and ask her to pray for him after he saw a man at a gas station that he knew from his mannerisms was a dealer. One Friday he went to a neighborhood party with some friends, got drunk, disappeared, and didn’t return until Sunday morning. When he returned home, Kelley left him at the house with the children for the same amount of time so he would know what he had just put her through felt like. He never did that again.
To create a stable home life for his family Adam threw himself into his service as a SEAL. Despite crushing the fingers of his shooting hand in a Humvee accident in Afghanistan (which he didn’t notice until after he had helped his more seriously injured comrades out of the crash and secured the perimeter), being shot in his dominant eye with a paintball during training, which seriously damaged his sight, shattering his shinbone while racing his comrades up bleacher steps during a training exercise, and developing back problems and arthritis, he refused to take a disability discharge until his contract was fulfilled. Adam’s sense of duty and loyalty would lead to him laying down his life in Afghanistan for his brothers-in-arms on a mission to take out a Taliban fighter who had been attacking and killing U. S. personnel for months.
Adam won countless awards, including the Silver Star Medal, Bronze Star Medal with Valor, Joint Service Commendation Medal with Valor, Purple Heart Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, two Combat Action Ribbons, and Global War on Terrorism (Service) Medal just to name a few. Ultimately he won the love and respect of everyone he came across, from Navy officers to the Afghan children for whom he carried extra MREs during his patrols.
There are many reasons why Adam Brown’s story would make a good biopic. His life is an amazing inspiration to anyone struggling with addiction that victory is possible. It’s a shining illustration that at the heart of any warrior the goal is to provide a better life and safer world for family and friends. His wife Kelley is an example of a strong woman and a faithful wife. It should be filmed in Arkansas to honor Adam’s love of his home state. The letters he wrote to his children contain nuggets of wisdom and insight into true patriotism, including condemning the actions of the guards at Abu Ghraib and those of the terrorists with equal fury, which deserve to be heard in voice-over as montages of Adam’s story plays out on screen.
It could help honor Adam’s thirty comrades who were killed in a helicopter crash just six weeks after their interviews with Blehm. The movie could be narrated by actors playing Adam’s family and friends, with brief clips of documentary-type interviews, including many from his SEAL team. The final scene could be every SEAL from Adam’s team jumping off the 70 West Bridge into Lake Hamilton in his honor and then freeze-framing, fading out, and rolling their names across the screen in memoriam.
Fearless has been picked up by Relativity Media which has hired Adam Targum, writer of CSI: NY to pen the screenplay. In a recent Facebook post, Blehm announced that MGM is also on board with an adaptation. I see a younger Brendan Fraser playing Adam.
Update: Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jason Hall, American Sniper and Thank You For Your Service, will be teaming up with Jon and Andrew Erwin, I Can Only Imagine and American Underdog, to tell Adam and Kelley’s story.
Because of its shining example of victory over addiction and the true spirit of a warrior’s heart, I believe that the story of Adam Brown as told in Fearless by Eric Blehm Should Be A Movie.
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