Medicine has advanced quite a bit over the past few decades. These days, approximately 40% to 50% of people with third-degree burns covering 90% or more of their total body surface area survive. The percentage is even higher if they’re young.
However, the odds weren’t so favorable back in the late '80s when nine-year-old John O’Leary accidentally set himself ablaze, sustaining burns over the entirety of his body. At that time, such injuries were tantamount to a death sentence. Soul on Fire, the new film from director Sean McNamara (Reagan, Soul Surfer), tells the true story of O’Leary, who, with the aid of his faith and an unlikely new friend, defied the odds to become a best-selling author and motivational speaker.
Of course, none of those future achievements were on the young John’s mind as he lay in agony on a suburban lawn watching his family’s home burn to the ground, knowing the whole time that it was all his fault. You see, after some of the neighborhood kids wouldn’t let him join in on the fun of lighting fires with gasoline in the nearby woods (not the stupidest thing we did in the '80s, believe it or not), John thought he would give it a try by himself in his garage. The resulting inferno left John’s family with no house and himself with little hope of survival.
And perhaps John wouldn’t have made it through the ordeal if not for a chance act of kindness from a complete stranger. Hearing of John’s predicament, the beloved radio announcer for the St. Louis Cardinals at that time, Jack Buck, decided to visit the boy in the hospital. Told that John had little to no chance for recovery, Buck committed to giving the avid baseball fan some additional motivation to keep fighting for his life. He began by dedicating a game to John, making sure the boy heard the announcement on the radio. After that, Buck continued to visit and offer moral support, often doing such things as bribing John with an autographed baseball from someone on the Cardinal’s roster for each time he committed to and then successfully reached a milestone in his recovery.
It’s easy to see what attracted the always-great William H. Macy to the role of Buck. Without being asked, the sportscaster took it upon himself to bring a small ray of light into the darkest of situations. John did the hard work, obviously, struggling through agonizing treatments, amputations, and skin grafts, but Buck stuck with the O’Leary family all the way through John’s college graduation, popping in here and there to keep John motivated.
“It’s a graphic illustration of how seemingly small things can have a huge effect on people,” Macy told The Christian Post.
Macy’s not the only recognizable face on display. Stephanie Szostak and John Corbett take on the roles of John’s parents, who are always there to provide words of Christian wisdom, unconditional love, and the occasional firm hand when necessary. In fact, if the movie has a fault, it’s that all the characters who surround John — be it his parents, Jack Buck, his caregivers, or his eventual sweetheart — are perhaps a bit too idealized with nary a fault to be found.
However, these are the people whose encouragement and aid brought the real-life John from the brink of death to a very happy and successful adulthood. So, it’s forgivable if O’Leary, who wrote the book the movie was based on and was active in the film’s production, chooses to see them all in an overly positive light. There is perhaps a slightly rougher version of this story that could have been put to film, but Soul on Fire has no interest in being that kind of movie. It wants to inspire and give thanks to all the people who do the little things that get us through each day. And that it does.
Soul on Fire opens in theaters on October 10.
