3 Reasons Families Will Love ‘Drummer Boy’

Drummer Boy doesn’t fit neatly in any film box. Joel Smallbone describes it as “The Patriot meets Pride and Prejudice meets Hamilton meets The Greatest Showman.” It has the patriotic fervor and battlefield action of The Patriot, minus the gore (more on that below). It also has a touch of Pride and Prejudice in its romance, as Jeremiah finds himself drawn to two women: Lord Balfour’s daughter, Lady Elizabeth (Beth Easdown), and her servant Emmaline, an enslaved young woman he’s known since she was a child.

The musical numbers have the toe-tapping energy of Hamilton and The Greatest Showman, and the songs keep the story moving.

The Smallbones estimate the two-hour film contains about 20 minutes of music. To moviegoers who are typically allergic to musicals, Luke Smallbone has a message: “Give this one a try.”

He said the songs in the movie drive the plot.

Luke said the filmmakers asked two questions of every song.

“Can you listen to this song without watching the movie and enjoy it? And then, can you insert the song into the movie and the movie depends on the song? That's kind of the metric and the hard work of music inside a musical,” he told Joy-FM.

Photo Credit: ©Angel Studios

Filmed in Ireland, Drummer Boy has the sweeping scenery and large-scale battle scenes you’d expect from a bigger-budget film, with a thread of faith running through its story of forgiveness.

The film opens with a battle at sea, as Benjamin and Jeremiah watch helplessly as their father fights valiantly before he is shot and killed. The story then jumps 12 years to a ball in a grand colonial home, where the guests break into a skillfully choreographed song-and-dance number where – for a moment – all seems well.

But the next day, at an outdoor market in Kingston, N.Y., a man announces that shots have been fired at Lexington and Concord, Mass., and that volunteers can sign up for the colonial army on the spot.

Neither brother enlists that day, but the war soon pulls them in opposite directions. Jeremiah initially joins the British to protect his family’s business, which counts Loyalists among its customers, yet comes to embrace the British cause and repeatedly calls Benjamin a traitor.

Faith is woven naturally into the story, and the characters often turn to prayer and to God’s Word. Emmaline declares that “ours is the faith that sets captives free” and recalls Scripture’s teaching that there is neither slave nor free. A patriot officer urges a bitter Benjamin to look beyond his brother’s choices and follow Christ’s example. “Do I not believe Christ died to save a wretch like me? If so, how can I not believe in forgiveness?”

Photo Credit: ©Angel Studios

Drummer Boy is rated PG-13 for war violence and some bloody images, but its battle scenes are restrained by Hollywood standards. We see men shot and killed on the battlefield, though there’s little blood. If your child has seen a Star Wars film or a superhero movie, the action in Drummer Boy likely will seem tame by comparison. The film contains no coarse language or sexual content.

The film takes its name from the young drummers who helped keep troops in step and relayed commands on the battlefield. That job falls to Benjamin, who is too young to serve as a regular soldier and still walks with a limp from an injury he suffered when a beam fell on him during the French attack on his family’s ship.

Drummer Boy is one of the best family movies of the year, with battlefield drama, intrigue, and even a bit of romance. It’s a fitting film for America’s 250th birthday, and its lessons about faith and forgiveness are as timely as its story of a family divided.

Here’s hoping the Smallbones have another musical in them.

Entertainment rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

Family-friendly rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Photo Credit: ©Angel Studios