Twice Oscar-nominated Roland Joffé, who directed The Killing Fields and The Mission, has a new film on the Spanish Civil War and Opus Dei.
There Be Dragons was released in Spain in March and is currently showing in cinemas in America. It depicts the conflict in Spain between nationalists protecting the establishment and republicans seeking regime change in the 1930s.
The film also highlights a young St. Jose Maria Escriva, who survived the war and went on to found Opus Dei.
The director stated that it is about believers and non-believers, and how everyone struggles with their own ‘dragons’, and how no one ever became a saint without struggle. The film has received mixed reviews and commentary.
Dove Worldview, a Christian website, states that the film delivers a compelling message, while Christianity Today says that as a biopic about the founder of Opus Dei, it falls flat and doesn't ring very true.
An Opus Dei website carries what it describes as "one of the best reviews that was written when the movie opened in Spain,” by Juan Manuel de Prada.
“Joffé’s movie brings back the epic spirit of The Killing Fields and The Mission. As he did in those two films, Joffé leads us to the very core of suffering, where the darkest shadows have free rein. Then we discover - just as in those two memorable films - that even there, where everything seems lost, the light that illumines the journey of man on earth can still shine out,” he writes.
According to author Robert Royal, Ph.D. it falls short in portraying the brutal persecution Spain's Catholics underwent.
“This is a part of Catholic history that has been long neglected," he said, but "the movie is too nervous to tackle it.”
Royal, who leads the Faith and Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., said that although the revolutionaries' struggle for democracy at the time was legitimate, the methods they used were "an outrage.”
Royal told CNA that around 6,000 Catholics were killed in Spain during the civil conflict including entire seminaries and convents of women religious.
In Madrid alone, there were over 1,100 priests killed, almost one third of the number of priests in that city.
A further 600 priests were killed in the cities of Barcelona and Valencia combined.
He said. "Catholics don't know about this. When you tell them they're shocked and they can't believe it."
He also agreed that there were atrocities on the nationalist side but the republican revolutionary side is never tarred with the same brush.
Royal said that the failure of There Be Dragons to accurately show what happened means it overlooks a deeper cultural problem - that of Christian martyrdom in the 20th century, a time when there were virulent anti-religious forces.
The film story line looks at the horror of the Spanish Civil War, and how a candidate for canonisation, Josemaria Escriva, is investigated by a journalist who discovers his own estranged father had a deep, dark and devastating connection to the saint's life.
Josemaria Escriva (played by Charlie Cox) was canonised by Pope John Paul II, having founded Opus Dei, meaning "God's works,” a prelature of the Catholic Church.
His story in war torn Spain is in sharp contrast to the journalist’s father Manolo (Wes Bentley) who grows up with Escriva, and takes a much different path as a soldier and spy, while constantly challenging the priest's faith.
The title, There Be Dragons, refers both to the mapmakers of old to designate uncharted waters with unknown dangers or ‘dragons,’ it also refers to the "dragons" in our own lives as we face struggles between good and evil.
At the time of going to print a distribution company had not yet been found for Ireland and the UK.
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