On Sunday, I was able to screen There Be Dragons, the new film about St. Josemaria Escrivá by Oscar-winning director Roland Joffé. Paul Lauer of Motive Marketing - the organization behind the grassroots marketing for The Passion of the Christ - was at the University of St. Thomas, showing the movie to a large group of folks, including Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché. The movie, which opens next spring, is a wonderful portrayal of human goodness amid the brutality of the Spanish civil war. Joffé, who describes himself as a “wobbly agnostic,” talked with me recently about what inspired him to write and direct a film about a Catholic saint. The complete interview will appear online as a Register Exclusive.
It’s ironic to me that an agnostic has worked on a film about a Catholic saint. What inspired you?
When I decided I would do the movie, I wondered what Josemaria Escrivá might say. I think he would be delighted. He had an all-embracing view of human beings. If certain of our values are lining up, how wonderful that is and what a rich world God’s is.
I decided to write about Josemaria from an objective point of view and accept his faith at face value. That’s quite different from the conventional approach which is to ask, “What were his failings?” He had many of them, but they weren’t major.
Here’s a man who, in a time of civil strife, civil war – when God appeared to be silent – was an example of someone going through a spiritual crisis who never lost the sense that each human being is a saint, that every human being is deserving of love, and he lived that. That is saintliness. Those subjects are worthy of honest story-telling.
What do you hope viewers will take away from “There Be Dragons”?
I have tried to make the struggles of the characters in the film available to everybody. I see this as an extremely emotional story about love, redemption, parenting, loving and receiving love, loving and not receiving love, pain, guilt, suffering and death. It’s about those glorious things that human beings share. It’s also about the most glorious thing of all: that all of our lives have meaning.
I created these characters so the viewers could be part of a conversation. I wanted to create an atmosphere of conversation in exactly the same way as you would have with someone you really liked. One where you could listen to their story, and actively say, “Yeah, I agree with that”. Or, “I never thought of that!” Or, “Ahh, that’s a difficult point”. I hope to invoke all sorts of responses.
The film acknowledges very human struggles and how different people relate to them. I hope the film sparks an interest in conversation about where the viewers find and experience faith in their own lives. If they do that, I will have honored the most important thing that Josemaria gave us—that spirituality can be experienced in everyday living.
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Joffe actually didn’t “create” the characters. He signed on to direct a screenplay that I wrote and then he rewrote it. Since then, he has spent more than a year pretending that the original screenplay and writer never existed. It has been a gross power-play that makes a mockery, in many ways, of the particular nature of this story which is about a saint. In truth, Joffe kept many of the characters that I had chosen from history, or had made up for dramatic purposes. He kept the time period, genre and many of the same events that I had in my screenplay. He did screw up the Catholic spirituality and neutered the real causes of the persecution of the Church that were present in the original screenplay. He is clearly not a writer, and it shows in what he ended up producing.
At this time, the Writers Guild of America is conducting an arbitration to determine the appropriate credits on the film. Joffe, whose main work was as a rewriter is completely ineligible, according to the Guild norms, to receive the “Written By” credit that he is assuming all over in these interviews and promotional screenings. All parties have been asked by the WGA to refrain from publicizing their desired credits on the movie until the arbitration committee has completed its work. The promotional efforts in support of this film are in violation of standard Guild policy. But, in a hyper-irony, the whole history of this story has been riddled with actions that have begged professionalism and ethics. I think St. Josemaria stopped fighting for this project a long time ago, and now, he and heaven may be fighting against it.
Far from being “wonderful,” this is really a terrible movie now. It is a mess in terms of spirituality and theme, but also in terms of structure, character arcs and story. People I have spoken to have found it confusing, unnecessarily brutal and completely unsatisfying. Honestly, publications like The Register have got to stop promoting bad or mediocre projects JUST BECAUSE they are coming from other Catholics. It manifests minimally an ignorance of the cinematic art form, or in a darker light, a failure of integrity.
I am hardly objective as the original screenwriter, but my feeling is the whole progress of this project would be a great case study in how religious people tend to do mass media efforts wrongly. Joffe, who has long been past his prime in Hollywood - no one will work with him in the business because of his diva reputation - saw the clueless Catholics coming and ate them and their money all up. Now, we have basically an ego project, for Joffe and for the group who can say they financed him. But we have very little else. This movie won’t last. It may not even get distribution.
Greetings Barb,
I am an avid Catholic and an amateur filmmaker who “studied” film one summer in NY.
I am curious about your statement “He did screw up Catholic spirituality…”.
Can you elaborate?
Thanks,
Carlos
Independently of anything, the movie is doing a lot of good:
Many people are discovering God and the power of forgiveness, starting with the actors themselves:
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1101229.htm
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