Hollywood rarely gets veterans right, portraying returning soldiers as caricatures or perfect heroes.
“Sheepdog,” which opened nationwide on January 16, doesn’t have that problem. The film is intent on showing the reality of the veteran experience from all sides — something the film’s writer, director, producer, and star, Steven Grayhm, says came at a cost.
“It was hard. It was really hard,” Grayhm told The Daily Wire in an interview reflecting on the film’s 14-year journey to the screen. “We could have cut corners early on that would have made our lives easier. And we would never have been able to live with ourselves. We never bent the knee, and we never kissed the ring.”
“Sheepdog” is about Army combat veteran Calvin Cole, who is court-ordered into treatment and into the care of a VA trauma therapist in training.
“Things become even more complicated when Calvin’s father-in-law, a retired Vietnam Veteran, shows up on his doorstep having just been released from prison,” a description of the film reads. “As Calvin’s plan to run from his past becomes even more challenging, he learns through the support of his community, tough love and compassion, that he must put himself back together again for his family and for himself.”
The film is personal for Grayhm, whose grandfather was a Polish farmer captured by the Nazis during World War II and held as a prisoner of war for five years. After being widowed, he moved in with Grayhm’s family.
“I had bunk beds in my room,” Grayhm recalled. “So I slept on the top, but I would fall asleep to his stories at night. Some of them were hard … but he did share his being liberated by the American and Allied troops. As a young boy, that’s ingrained in you. That goes into the DNA of who you are.”
His grandfather’s influence laid the foundation until a chance encounter planted the seed that would lead to “Sheepdog’s” creation. In 2011, Grayhm’s car broke down three hours north of Los Angeles. He said his conversation with a tow truck driver is a major source of inspiration for the film.
“He opened up about his life, the challenges in his marriage, being a father of three, financial hardship,” Grayhm said. “Then he began to share all the different medications that he was on … tethered to his post-traumatic stress from multiple military deployments.”
Grayhm recalls listening without speaking.
“He kept saying, ‘I can’t believe I’m telling you this. I’ve never told my wife. I’ve never told a therapist,’” Grayhm said. “And that lit the spark. The teachable moment was to sit and listen without prejudice.”
The idea that it was easier for a veteran to speak to a stranger than to his own family stuck with the filmmaker.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about him weeks after,” he said. “I thought there had to be more men and women like him suffering in silence.”
That summer, Grayhm and co-star Matt Dallas, who plays Calvin’s best friend in the film, embarked on a nationwide road trip to interview veterans and families. Along the journey, they found many similarities in the stories.
The result is not a traditional war movie, Grayhm said. “‘Sheepdog’ is not a post-traumatic stress movie,” he said. “It is a movie about post-traumatic growth.” He went on to say that too many films in this genre portray veterans as broken beyond repair.
“My character has been to hell and back, but he’s not broken,” Grayhm said of Calvin. “He doesn’t feel sorry for himself.”
He said Hollywood wasn’t biting, at least not without totally changing the vision.
“I cannot tell you how many rooms we were laughed out of,” Grayhm told The Daily Wire. “They said, ‘These movies don’t make money. Nobody cares about these stories.’”
When someone did show interest, it always had stipulations. “We started getting script notes to sanitize the story,” he said. “They wanted to turn my character into some paranoid guy having visions … almost a thriller. That’s not the truth.”
Instead, Grayhm made the project independent, raising private equity out of Texas and filming on a tight budget. After making the rounds on the festival circuit, the film just opened in 500 theaters nationwide.
The authenticity extends to the cast. Academy Award nominee Virginia Madsen (“Sideways”), who plays trauma therapist Dr. Elecia Knox, is a Gold Star family member. “She knew the stakes were very high,” Grayhm said. “She bared her heart and soul.”
“She has this speech where she says, ‘You were willing to give your life for your country. Now maybe you should try living for it,’” Grayhm recalled. “You could hear a pin drop. She did it in one take.”
Grayhm says he has just one goal for “Sheepdog.”
“If we can save a single life with this film, it will be the greatest Hollywood success story,” he said. “There are currently five million veterans not accessing their VA care,” Grayhm added. “Sometimes walking through that front door can be the longest we’ve traveled.”
For civilians, the film serves two purposes. First, it’s a glimpse into what a veteran is going through. And second, it’s a chance to appreciate the freedom they’ve been given.
“The one percent is defending and protecting the other ninety-nine percent,” Grayhm said. “Just being aware of that matters.”
“Sheepdog” is currently showing in theaters.
