Last weekend Mike and I were given tickets for a special showing of the new movie "There Be Dragons". I came in with no expectations - and I came out of the movie theater with only praise for it. I thought it was an excellent movie. There are scenes, lines, and extremely compelling truths framed in certain light that will stay with me.
I've read criticisms of the movie which I disagree with. One complaint is that there is no plot - that thought never crossed my mind. In fact, the plot and narrative was very straight forward. Another complaint was that the movie should have stuck only with Josemaria's story - I would argue the side story of the father and son relationship strengthened the themes of sin and forgiveness. In general, I found the acting great, the story engaging, the dialogue substantive.
Father Longenecker has a good post about it on his blog and he makes the point that the story of the Saints' lives are mainly about their inner struggle and conflicts. How can one effectively capture that in a movie (he explains in more depth)? There probably is no perfect way to do it, but I thought the director Roland Joffe (who also did "The Mission") did a good job with making this major motion picture. I mean, really, if a person wants the real thing (substance, education, to be called on to think more deeply) - read the BOOK. Books are always better than a movie. Yes, movies are an art form - but they are entertainment with hopefully the bonus of a good story (although that is harder and hard to come by these days)!
I am certainly inspired to read more of Josemaria Escriva's writings.
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