'Dragons'

At this stage in our life, my wife Josie and I rarely watch movies even if movie theatres nowadays are more modern, conveniently located in malls and replete with all sorts of amenities that make viewing more relaxing and enjoyable. Usually we watch movies in those theatres only when we are invited to a movie premier showing. And the last movie premier we watched that has a great impact on us was Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” shown a few years back.

But last Saturday, we were very fortunate to have been invited once more and to have accepted the invitation to the premier showing of Roland Joffe’s movie, “There be Dragons”. We are very fortunate because we are again treated to another superb movie with the same forceful and enthralling message of “love and forgiveness” like the message in “The Passion of the Christ”.

Of course, the characters and the settings in the two movies are entirely different. The “Passion” is about Divinity in the person of God the Son Jesus Christ who was sent into this world by God the Father and became obedient to His will “even unto death, death on the cross” in atonement for the sins of us all that happened more than 2,000 years ago. The “Dragons” on the other hand is about humanity in the persons of a “Saint who has a past and a sinner who has a future” that happened in the 1930’s.

The word “dragons” in the movie’s title refers to “experiences in life which cause people to suffer and to react in different ways”, the dangers, challenges and fears every person faces in this world. The film was inspired by actual events especially in the life of St. Josemaria Escriva, priest and founder of Opus Dei. It is an adventure and action picture dealing with friendship, love and forgiveness centering on the story of two childhood friends, Josemaria and Manolo whose lives took very different paths during the Spanish Civil war. The main message of their story is that “nothing can change the past, but forgiveness can change the future”. Although St. Josemaria and the early members of the Opus Dei are real, the rest of the characters in the movie are fictional.

Like the “Passion”, this is another movie that really moved me and my wife into shedding tears. Its message truly made its mark deep in our hearts. As we were leaving the theatre, I became convinced even more that indeed “a picture is worth more than a thousand words”; that the best medium to convey a beautiful message with greater impact is really the motion picture. Through this medium, we can more deeply absorb the beautiful message being imparted than by merely reading the cold words in print. Besides, watching the story unfold on the screen is truly more electrifying, effective and enjoyable than watching it with foreknowledge of what it is all about. Hence narrating the movie synopsis here is no longer necessary and is even unfair. Just watch the movie come November 9, 2011 when it will open for commercial showing in various movie-houses throughout the country.

It will be more interesting to write about the story behind the making of the movie and some significant themes in it. How the movie came about is interesting because its writer and director, Roland Joffe, a two time Academy Award nominee, is a self confessed “wobbly agnostic” of Jewish descent, being the adopted son of Jewish-British sculptor, Jacob Epstein. Initially, he was not interested in the script, but after viewing a DVD of St. Josemaria, he was touched by a scene of a Jewish girl telling St. Josemaria that she wanted to convert to Christianity but her parents were opposed to it. Placing himself in the girl’s and her parents place, he was amazed at the humanity of the Saint’s reply and understood the full humanity of the situation. “He recognized that this was a life dilemma that will involve, as love does, sacrifice on somebody’s behalf, but that sacrifice can only be chosen. God does not want people to come to Him treading on others”. Hence he agreed to direct the film on the condition that he will write his own script based on a “story about humanity triumphing over ideology (whether political or religious)”.

To depict this idea, one of the significant and moving scenes in the story is when St. Josemaria uttered the words “all I know is you are loved by God” at the deathbed of a Jew who was assailed by anguish at the thought that he will not enter heaven because of his beliefs. This is the most poignant scene according to Joffe in “his attempt to capture on the screen the power of love”.

Then in another scene, Joffe expressed the foundational message of Opus Dei which St. Josemaria Escriva saw exactly 83 years ago yesterday while alone in his room during a spiritual retreat in Madrid. Uttering the words “everyone and everything”, he saw in “an ineffable way, people of every nation and race, of every age and culture seeking and finding God in the middle of their ordinary lives: in their work and in their family”.

On the whole Joffe suggests that “only by acknowledging and dealing with those ‘dragons’ can we escape the cycle of vengeance and dehumanization which so marked the twentieth century and today’s world”. This is “what St. Josemaria was teaching again and again, to people going through agonizing experiences: to connect to the humanity not only of those who are suffering but also of those who are causing them to suffer”.

Thanks to Educhild Foundation therefore, for sponsoring the premier showing of this excellent movie. Educhild which stands for “Education for Upbringing of Children” is a non-profit organization formed by parents to help fellow parents in the delicate task of rearing a family. It is mainly involved in strengthening parent-child relationship, so it has indeed every reason to sponsor the movie which incidentally is also about father-son relationship.

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