There Be Dragons

There Be Dragons looks fantastic! The website for the movie is here. For those of you who are not yet in the loop, the film traces the events of the early life of St Josemaria Escriva. Caught up in the drama of the Spanish Civil War--in which priests were being murdered, convents and monasteries burned and religious slaughtered, Josemaria--a young priest at the time faces life risking decisions.



From the trailer, the production values of the film look excellent. Also, pretty impressive is the fact that Roland Joffe, who directed The Mission, is on board as writer and director. The fact that such an eminent film director, and a self professed agnostic, is making the film helps put to rest the idea that the film is merely an Opus Dei propaganda vehicle. When asked about this possibility Joffe said, "It's too expensive to be simply a response from Opus Dei to the DaVinci Code (in which the villain is not only an  Opus Dei priest, but an albino assassin)



I'm afraid most movies about saints are very worthy and also very dull. Most often they lack any strong plot line, or the plot line is obviously fabricated to add action and conflict. Budgets are notoriously low, acting is often lame and the director and writer rarely solve the biggest problem for movies about saints--namely--"Motion pictures are--ummm pictures that move. So how do you show the greatest struggles and battles any saint goes through--which are inner battles and spiritual conflicts?" Consequently so many worthy religious movies show the hero kneeling before a crucifix and talking out loud to Jesus.



The trick is to embed the saints' struggles within a larger, external conflict, so that the external conflict between good and evil becomes the metaphor for the saints' inner conflict. This is why Man for All Seasons works--because St Thomas More's inner conflict in becoming a saint is reflected in the outer conflict he has with the king. Studying St Josemaria Escriva within the conflict of the Spanish  Civil War is therefore a very promising idea, and I can't wait to see the film and will review it here.



The film comes out at the beginning of May. In the meantime, talk up the movie. Make sure you buy tickets and take your family. Here is a mainstream movie that features a heroic story of a Catholic saint. Let's get bums on seats and make this movie fly!