MPAA (PG-13) CNS/USCCB (A-III) Fr Dennis (3 1/2 stars)
IMDb
listing
CNS/USCCB
review
I found
There be Dragons (written and directed by
Ronald Joffé) to be an excellent film about the early years of
St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of the
Opus Dei movement. Since just about everything regarding the
Opus Dei movement tends to produce extremely strong reations both pro and against, I do believe it is useful to put this film into the context of both the other films made by
Ronald Joffé and other hagiographical films (biographical works about saints) made in our time.
Ronald Joffé had previously directed the Oscar nominated films
The Killing Fields (1984) about a New York Times reporter seeking to find his Cambodian translator after the fall of Cambodia to the Communist
Khmer Rouge, as well as
The Mission (1986) starring
Robert DeNiro and
Jeremy Irons about the suppression of the Jesuit Mission to the Guarani Indians in Paraguay in the late 1700s. He also directed the 1995 remake of
The Scarlet Letter starring
Demi Moore. An excellent interview with
Joffé regarding his decision to make
There be Dragons about the
St. Josemaria Escriva can be found in the
National Catholic Register. I do believe that a number of the themes/concerns present in these previous works can also be found in
There be Dragons. These include Communism both in its ideal (
The Mission) and its documentable historical excess (
Killing Fields), discerning the best path for the individual / the weak to combat (
The Mission) or at least witness against (
The Killing Fields /
The Scarlet Letter) the horrific abuses of the Powerful. Even the use of the figure of “a common man”/”reporter” to tell the story of the heroic deeds of “the Saints / Martyrs” can be found in both
The Killing Fields and
The Mission and is certainly present in
There Be Dragons. So
Dragons is not the work of an ideological hack.
Then, I do believe that it is useful to compare
There be Dragons to other hagiographical films of recent memory including,
A Man for All Seasons (1966 directed by
Fred Zinnemann and both the play and screenplay written by
Robert Bolt) about
St. Thomas More,
Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972 directed and cowritten by
Franco Zeffirelli) about the early years of
St. Francis of Assisi,
Bernadette (1988 directed and cowritten by
Jean Delannoy) about
St. Bernadette of Lourdes, as well as the influential films (in Catholic circles) produced by Paulist Media,
Romero (1989, directed by
John Duignan, written by
John Sacret Young and starring
Raul Julia as the slain
Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador) and
Entertaining Angels (directed by
Michael Ray Rhodes and
John Wells and starring
Moira Kelly as Dorothy Day and
Martin Sheen) about
Dorothy Day of New York co-foundress of the
Catholic Worker Movement during the Great Depression. Included in this category could even be the
Gandhi (1982, directed by
Richard Attenborough, written by
John Briley and starring
Ben Kingsley as
Mahatma K. Gandhi of India) and
Seven Years in Tibet (1997 directed by
Jean-Jacques Annaud screenplay written by
Becky Johnston based on the book by
Heinrich Herrer and starring
Brad Pitt as Herrer a “recovering sinner” living and working in Tibet in the presence of the
Dalai Lama during the years of WW II up until the Chinese occupation (or re-occupation) of that country).
All these films can help one appreciate both the various characteristics that do make one come to stand-out as a Saint and also various techniques used by writers and film-makers to tell the Saint’s story.
Viewed in the context of these other Saint’s lives, if one had doubts about
St. Josemaria Escriva’s “qualifications” to be a Saint, I think that they can be dispelled. I do also believe that St. Josemaria Escriva both in life and after-earthly-life, exhibited the same “lightning rod” nature of many of the Saints (and non-Christian/secular ‘saints’) listed above. It's not easy to be "neutral" about these people. For instance, it was all but inevitable that
St. Thomas More would have to be put to death under
Henry VIII. (Four centuries later, rather than put another excrutiatingly irritatingly honest man to death,
Mahatma Gandhi, the British chose to leave India rather than fight (and sin) to continue to dominate it).
Then while finding someone to play
Oscar Romero proved not altogether hard (and it was
Raul Julia’s true role of his lifetime), it proved _extremely hard_ to find someone to play
Dorothy Day. Why?
Dorothy Day was an ex-Communist, Catholic convert who had earlier in her life had an abortion which she immediately regretted, and when she got pregnant a second time she had both herself and her child baptized and later in the 1960s came to compare the advent of the Birth Control Pill to the H-bomb. From the mid-1930s onward she spent her life feeding the poor and on during the 1950s when New York City would hold atomic bomb drills, not only did she and her community not participate, they publicly went to Central Park to play volleyball instead. Almost _no Hollywood actress_ was brave enough to play her though
Moira Kelly finally did (and did a great job) even though
Martin Sheen was more than happy to play
Peter Maurin, who helped Dorothy Day co-found the Catholic Worker as well. I doubt that many Hollywood actors were lining up to play
St. Josemaria Escriva "in his early years" either, though
Charlie Cox did so, and again, did a great job.
So what of
Josemaria Escriva’s life do we learn that make him compelling as a Saint? Obviously, I’m not going to list everything or even most things to not ruin the movie for the reader but I will list some. First, he knew something of _failure_ (economic and otherwise) early in life. His father went bankrupt several times when he was growing up. At a time currently when up to
40% of Americans have a negative networth (owe more than they own) someone who knew something of economic failure (and survived/transcended it) becomes already a compelling figure.
Second,
Josemaria Escriva was clearly formed during the
Spanish Civil War (something that the bulk of the movie is about). But the movie portrays
Escriva as someone far more complex than what could be assumed. At a time when priests and nuns were being _rounded-up and shot_, (my own Order has a recently beatified martyr
Sr. Maria Guadalupe Ricart Olmos, OSM of Spain who was executed by the Reds during the
Spanish Civil War) and
Escriva himself had to spend a number of years _in plain clothes_ conducting his priestly ministry, the movie did portray him as someone who _did understand the Communists_ as well. He did disagree with their methods but he did not deny the fundamental injustices that they were fighting. Finally,
Escriva is presented in the movie as _despising careerists_ in the Church _and_ actually refusing the protection and “mentoring” of a Bishop in Valencia who could have made the initial years of his fledgling
Opus Dei community much easier than it turned out. Instead,
Escriva and his community arguably chose to “go it alone” _in much the same way_ as
Dorothy Day and _her community_ did in New York during roughly the same time (Amazing, isn't it?) I find that these surprising and _compelling_ bits of information about
St. Josemaria Escriva make him an interesting and challenging saint at a time when _we_ often dismiss those we disagree with out of hand, without realizing that the justice of their arguments as well.
Indeed, like Zeffirelli’s
Brother Sun, Sister Moon became an interesting “topic of conversation” over the years with
Franciscans, it will be interesting how
There be Dragons comes to be seen by
Opus Dei in the years and decades to come. Will it be seen as a source of renewed inspiration? Or will it come to be seen as a story that Hollywood didn’t get quite right?
Folks, honestly check back in five years ;-). In the mean time, here's an excellent review of the movie from
Opus Dei's American website. And yes, I would recommend the movie to all teens and adults. There is something to be learned here for all people of good will.
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