SummaryThere Be Dragons is an epic action-adventure romance set during the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War. The story traces the lives of two young men, Josemaria Escriva and Manolo Torres, childhood friends who are separated by the political upheaval of pre-war Spain to find themselves on opposite sides as war erupts. Choosing peace, Josemari...
SummaryThere Be Dragons is an epic action-adventure romance set during the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War. The story traces the lives of two young men, Josemaria Escriva and Manolo Torres, childhood friends who are separated by the political upheaval of pre-war Spain to find themselves on opposite sides as war erupts. Choosing peace, Josemari...
Dragons may not be perfect, but it plays to the helmer's strengths, demonstrating an increasingly rare sense of scope and pageantry best served by the bigscreen.
First let me say to Enrique, It sounds like you have an ax to grind with Opus Dei. you must have been privy to their secret memos about "influencing the media". Get real! Nobody knew what Opus Dei was until Dan Brown's silly little novel was made into a book and Tom Hanks and Ron Howard kept mentioning Opus Dei in the millions of press interviews promoting their movie. Opus Dei is an organization for people who want to live holy lives outside of church. No money making scheme here. They function on donations just as any other not-for-profit does. Members are not recruited they are "called" . And I am not a member or even a catholic I'm a CPA with a few Opus Dei clients . Enough said.
On to the **** perfect, but I agree with Christy, well worth the $13. You will be well entertained. It is much deeper than its flaws and makes the moviegoer think about his own actions and human imperfection. As a non-christian this movie was more moving than I expected. Hopefully when you see this movie you won't waste time with the minor details. They really are not all that destracting to the average person who enjoys a great story. And scenes and lines from the film pop into your thoughts for several days later.
Excellent film, worth watching more than once to get the best out of it. I can't understand why some people can say bad things about this movie. This is exactly the kind of movie we need these days. Stories that makes us think and rethink our lives. Of course we all have to face our dragons (and deal with our **** message of the film is one of forgiveness and redemption, more importantly about the mercy of God who is always ready to forgive us. THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE. Even in the technical aspect, the movie delivers; the photography is superb, the dialogue is beautiful, great sound effects and post production work; even the music is perfect (the composer did a great job). I don't think the point of the movie is to educate people about the Spanish Civil war nor about Opus Dei. The main point of this film is simple and beautiful (and there is a mystical beauty and truth to simple things)...FORGIVENESS, forgiveness in any context is good....people can critique this film and say whatever they want, but if they don't focus on the foundation of the message (they clearly failed to understand it).
Enrique, coincidentally we share the same name, but totally diametrically opposite views. You are attacking irrevocably Opus Dei in a personal way, therefore you are not even contributing with objective opinion of the movie. It seems to me like you still have to face your dragons (which are entirely yours) . In fact, this movie can help you more than you think. My advice is go see it again with fresh eyes, get yourself out of the equation and think about all the good this movie can do for other people; people that are divorcing, separating, hating and unwilling to forgive. One more thing to all the potential viewers; this movie also speaks about humility which is one of the most difficult and mysterious things in life. Josemaria lived a heroic life, and no matter how much he has been attacked and put down, you should ask yourself why a director who is a non catholic decides to put his testimony on the big screen for other to **** let others know that we can all (even you Enrique) be like him.
We should be supporting this movie and echoing its universal messages of love, faith, friendship and **** can any of this be a bad thing?....everyone should see it!!!!
History can be an equalizer, so director Roland Joffe ("The Killing Fields," "The Mission") makes sure saints and sinners all get painted with the same uninteresting brush in this fact-based drama.
Controversially, Escrivá started the Opus Dei, and There Be Dragons is best appreciated by those seeking more realism than the albino self-whipper of "The Da Vinci Code."
In fairness, putting holiness onscreen is an enormous challenge. It can be done, as several directors have shown, most notably Dreyer and Bresson. Bad enough that Joffe is the poor man's Lean. He's also the nonbelieving man's Dreyer and Bresson.
Excellent movie, so many things to talk about, loyalty, friendship, forgiveness, never giving up on people, faith in God. I saw it last Friday & was impressed that so many people who came really didn't know what the movie was about ahead of time. We could talk about Manolo's dragons, his friendship, that Josemaria never gave up on his friend. Manolo (like the prodigal son) sees the errors of his ways in the acts of those people he thought would help him become something great (the general, his father, girl). we could also talk about Josemaria & seeing the horros of war, his friend being shot on the street, leaving his family behind, in some ways feeling abandoned by God. i would see it again!
To Enrique -- I do not belong to Opus Dei. However, I have several friends who do belong. For the past ten years, I have gone to some of their days of recollection. My friends who belong are some of the holiest people I have ever met.
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. If you did not, that is your choice. But I think Your negative commentary was more than a movie review.
The powerful and compelling movie,"There Be Dragons" moves the viewer to search within and face his own inner dragons that ultimately need to be slayed in order to find forgiveness and happiness. Are you afraid of your inner dragons? This movie will help you face them. Any movie that can accomplish that deserves 5 stars!
The film was selected from Red Box by my wife but as it happens I had been looking into Opus Dei because of Santorum's affiliation with, if not outright membership in, this strange organization. My appetite whetted for more information after watching the movie, I looked up Escrivas entry on Wickipedia. Although the Wikipedia entry mentions some of the controversy surrounding Escriva, the biographical details match pretty closely what we saw in the film. What I have come away with from my admittedly limited research is that to Escriva, when he was alive, and to the organization he founded, image is all all that matters. In protecting its image and that of its founder at all costs, Opus dei strongly resembles other "religious" cults like the LDS and Scientologists who have elevated their founders, the very human Joseph Smith and L. Ron Hubbard, to saintly status. Of the three only Josemaria could become an actual saint, a status he apparently aspired to even before his death. This film was a heavy handed propaganda schlock job commissioned and funded by Opus Dei. 18 of the 19 reviews appearing on this website pan the movie while 14 of 15 users thought it was great. Should I be surprised?
Notwithstanding the high marks given this film by the users, I thought it was a ;pretty bad and 18 of the 19 critics whose reviews appear on this site it thought so too. Since the film was conceived and funded by Opus Dei, it's not a stretch to conclude all or most of the user reviews were writen yu OD members. I have been looking into Opus Dei during the last week or so .
People of Opus Dei: could you stop voting 10 for this movie? In every place where there are reviews about this movie, a group of people vote 10 without any kind of doubt. This is ridiculous, donâ