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Published: September 9, 2009
There Be Dragons
Filmmaker Roland Joffe to Make Movie on Life of St. Josemaria Escriva
[Editor: the following story from Catholic News Agency was based on a story from Catholic San Francisco.]
Buenos Aires, Argentina (CNA).- A movie based on the life of St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei, has begun filming in Argentina under the direction of Roland Joffe, director of The Mission and The Killing Fields.
 The film There Be Dragons is a film set during the brutal Spanish Civil War in the second half of the 1930s. It is expected to be released in summer or fall 2010 and has a budget of about $30 million.
Joffe also wrote the screenplay for the film. He told an August 23 press conference that he has creative freedom over the project and had earlier rejected an offer to film an Opus Dei-provided script.
Discussing St. Josemaria, he noted that the priest "made no attempt to influence the people he worked with in terms of their politics."
"At that time, that’s pretty heroic. That’s a time when almost all human beings were faced with making extraordinary choices."
 Joffe told the press conference that filmmakers found themselves making a film about love, both human love and divine love, and also about hate, betrayal and mistakes.
"I don’t know if there’s anybody who wants to live his life without meaning. So it’s also a story about people trying to find meaning about their lives, and that’s a powerful kind of story," he added.
The director said that fiction is "a way of understanding the truth" and acknowledged that he took "certain liberties" if the changes could communicate the personal issues of the time.
He said he was taken with St. Josemaria’s idea that a way to God is found through everyday life.
Alluding to the controversy over Opus Dei, a Catholic prelature which was negatively portrayed in Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code, Joffe said he has been to many Opus Dei centers and has met many members in his research. He has yet to encounter "anything odd-seeming," he reported.
Father John Wauk, an Opus Dei priest and professor of literature and communication of the faith at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, was asked by Joffe to serve as an advisor on the film.
Joffe said Father Wauk explained what he knew about St. Josemaria and what it means to be a priest, for which the director was grateful.
There Be Dragons features actor Charlie Cox in the role of St. Josemaria Escriva. Cox previously worked on Stardust and Casanova. Wes Bentley plays Manolo, a friend of the priest.
Ukrainian actress Olga Kurylenko plays Ildiko, a Hungarian woman who sides with the Republican movement defeated by the rightist coalition lead by Gen. Francisco Franco.
Posted Wednesday, September 09, 2009 5:33 AM By Charles O'Connell
It remains to be seen whether this movie will be more smoke than light - I suspect the former. In any event, Catholics need to be aware that "For Whom the Bell Tolls" was terribly slanted leftist propaganda of the same type that whitewashed Stalin's 60 million and Mao's 70 million dead. Interestingly, the situation in the USA today, of extreme divisions in the culture wars, mirrors in many ways the nearly cataclysmic political radicalization in Spain in the 1930s. "[T]he Loyalists murdered thousands of priests and religious, desecrated churches, profaned the Blessed Sacrament, and did what they could to wipe out Christianity." (This Rock, "Dragnet", April 1997) "That Spain had to endure civil war was a tragedy; that the communists were defeated is a blessing. The consequences for Europe of the Hitler-Stalin pact in 1939 if Stalin had been in control of the Iberian peninsula are too horrible to contemplate. Franco strung the Axis along and kept Spain out of the war, he ended the civil wars and uprisings that had plagued Spain for nearly 150 years and he gave the country a peace that has lasted from 1939 to today – and allowed a politics to develop that has endured the transition from dictatorship to multi-party democracy." ("Fighting For Stalin", 8/14/09, The Scotsman, Scott Mcintosh, Edinburgh, Scotland) A French Catholic Priest told me that when Franco died (1975), his estate was found to be nearly valueless - he took no economic advantage of his position.
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Posted Wednesday, September 09, 2009 8:42 AM By JLS
O'Connell, that is one salvific look into the person of Frank Franko. In a brief passage, you've explained something necessary -- why Franko was a good Catholic ruler: I've heard he was a fascist allied with Hitler, but it never quite made sense. In that Franko "strung the Nazis along" ... bingo, now the various bits and pieces I've heard and read all fit together perfectly. The mother of all guerillas, perhaps, in that he could buy Hitler's military to prevent the Reds from conquering Spain, yet prevent the Nazis from conquering Spain also. Now, one of my favorite novels is Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, which I read without much political or historical knowledge or interest ... the authorship rose to a height not reached by many; he was able to jump and tap Tolstoi on the elbow in terms of the shear art of animating the reader into the story. Yeah, Hemingway blew his own brains out ... it kind of figures from the despair seething in the depths of his novels, a meaninglessness, void, terrifying paralysis of a reality without God. That would be why he signed on with the Reds ... to explore empire and conquest for the benefit of mankind but without God. Maybe ol' Joey and Addy thought of themselves as beneficial ... but to what? Maybe Hemingway took the "what" to some extreme ... maybe that is what the liberal Catholics are really and slowly but surely doing, exploring their own goodness sans God ... and as any of the faithful can see, it is leading them into self destruction. The best of them can tap a saint on the elbow, but that is as high as they can leap ... Tolstoi believed God was not to be dismissed: the difference between liberalism and truth.
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Posted Wednesday, September 09, 2009 11:37 AM By Pius Movie Critic
This is insane. A director, Roland Joffe, who thinks that The DaVinci Code was a good movie, is hired and given artistic license to write and direct a film about the founder of Opus Dei after rejecting a script providing by the Opus Dei. And why spend $30 million for such a project? Who is providing the $30 million? (Isn't that more than Mel Gibson advanced to produce his blockbuster financially successful "The Passion of the Christ" -- which largely disappeared a year after its sensationally hyped and successful release?) It will be surprising if this film turns out to portray the Catholic Church in a reasonably good light. I wouldn't be surprised if this movie proves to be such an embarrasement that it is never distributed outside of Opus Dei circles. Somewhat like the expensive movie on Fatima starring Martin Sheen which so distorted the message of Fatima that the finished product never got distributed.
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Posted Wednesday, September 09, 2009 12:50 PM By Thomas Edward Miles
I can't wait, this movie will be a big hit, a possible best seller!
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Posted Wednesday, September 09, 2009 6:12 PM By JLS
The Mission was a good movie, but only as a movie. It certainly was not a history. Its only significance was a man punishing himself for a sin, and a village of "natives" who pulled off a fine choir event. Joffe tries to pull a fast one by saying he has not met an Opus Dei member he didn't see as odd -- so what are Joffe's credentials to judge what is odd in Catholicism?
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Posted Wednesday, September 09, 2009 7:55 PM By Anne T.
I will stick to Catholic movies put out and recommended by Ignatius Press most of the time. Many of the others are just secular or know nothing of the real Lord Jesus or the real Virgin Mary and destort history. I will see it when it comes to television if the Good Lord is willing.
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Posted Thursday, September 10, 2009 12:08 AM By Kenneth M. Fisher
Franco sought help from the Western powers in his fight against, not Republicanism, but COMMUNISM, and he was refused. Hitler offered him arms to fight the communist with which he accepted (to do likewise would have damned then Catholic Spain to Communism), but when Hitler ordered him to join Facism, Franco told him "you may destroy Spain, but we willfight you and we will not join you". For that Hitler ordered his top General to invade Spain after they bombed, I believe it was Salamanca. Catholic Franco spent the whole night before the planned invasion on his knees in front of the Blessed Sacrament in his private chapel (yes he had eclesiastical permission). The next morning the German General unexpectedly died, and the Russians attacked the Eastern Front and the Germans had to use the forces that were to take Spain for that Eastern Front. Thus God used the evil communist army to save then Catholic Spain.
I got a gool deal of this from my Spanish relatives, and from my visits to Catholic Franco Spain. I would not want to go back there now that the socialist have regained control.
It is shameful the way the Vatican treated not only Franco's but Cardinal Mindzenty's deaths.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
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Posted Thursday, September 10, 2009 12:53 PM By Anne T.
Kenneth, I think Franco, although a dictator, was probably smeared very badly in the U.S. and elsewhere. I heard that when he was in power it was safe for women and children to walk the streets without fear of being robbed, etc. Was that true?
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Posted Thursday, September 10, 2009 3:17 PM By JLS
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a dictatorship. Historically they sometimes last much longer than democracies and can even provide more freedom for the public.
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Posted Thursday, September 10, 2009 3:21 PM By JLS
Interesting to consider that Spain and Spanish lands in history have often had dictatorships and have suppressed the Church ... but have never eliminated the Church; compare to England, which with its then parliamentary kingdom eliminated the Church for centuries from its land, and has managed to distort it in Canada and the US and probably Australia.
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Posted Thursday, September 10, 2009 10:01 PM By Charles O'Connell
Well, Anne, that might be taking it a bit far. Around 1970, it wasn't the custom for women to walk alone in Spain - problems with machismo, what we'd call sexual harassment. And Kenneth, I heard from retired Professor Albin Rhomberg that it is more correct to say that the Germans initially attacked Russia (Operation Barbarossa). And there was a Blue Division of volunteers that Franco allow to join the Wehrmacht, on condition that they exclusively fight communists. However, all secular rulers are liable to have their flaws & warts. It is leftist Hollywood that terribly distorted the truth about Franco. As Mark Steyn recently wrote in McClean's ("What made Budd Schulberg run", 8/20/09), "As a 20-year-old Dartmouth student, Schulberg visited the Soviet Union and was shown its artistic glories. He fell in love with the theatre of Vsevolod Meyerhold, Stanislavski’s wayward disciple. Meyerhold loved the older stylized dramatic forms—commedia dell’arte, pantomime—and refused to confine himself to Socialist Realism. So in 1939 Stalin had him arrested, tortured and his wife murdered. He was shot by firing squad in February 1940. How about that? Executed over a difference of opinion about a directing style. As 'persecution' goes, isn’t that a little more thorough than, say, being denied a writing credit on 'Hellcats of the Navy', as happened to Bernard Gordon? … Even today, we continue to draw a distinction between Nazism and Communism—between the bad evil and the good evil …"
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Posted Friday, September 11, 2009 7:05 AM By Charles O'Connell
Well, Anne, that might be taking it a bit far. Around 1970, it wasn't the custom for women to walk alone in Spain - problems with machismo, what we'd call sexual harassment. And Kenneth, I heard from retired Professor Albin Rhomberg that it is more correct to say that the Germans initially attacked Russia (Operation Barbarossa). And there was a Blue Division of volunteers that Franco allow to join the Wehrmacht, on condition that they exclusively fight communists. However, all secular rulers are liable to have their flaws & warts. It is leftist Hollywood that terribly distorted the truth about Franco. As Mark Steyn recently wrote in McClean's ("What made Budd Schulberg run", 8/20/09), "As a 20-year-old Dartmouth student, Schulberg visited the Soviet Union and was shown its artistic glories. He fell in love with the theatre of Vsevolod Meyerhold, Stanislavski’s wayward disciple. Meyerhold loved the older stylized dramatic forms—commedia dell’arte, pantomime—and refused to confine himself to Socialist Realism. So in 1939 Stalin had him arrested, tortured and his wife murdered. He was shot by firing squad in February 1940. How about that? Executed over a difference of opinion about a directing style. As 'persecution' goes, isn’t that a little more thorough than, say, being denied a writing credit on 'Hellcats of the Navy', as happened to Bernard Gordon? … Even today, we continue to draw a distinction between Nazism and Communism—between the bad evil and the good evil …"
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Posted Friday, September 11, 2009 5:46 PM By Rick
When I began studying religious history, the first truth that was obvious was that the media which controls MOST of the publishing of history books hates the church and has distorted the truth. I found that I was forced to obtain history books from other countries to get anything that approached the truth! It is interesting that some of the most accurate books came out of Spain! The truth is that it is nearly impossible to obtain the truth via the media's corrupt version of history! The liberals in New York and their compadres in Hollywood will do anything to defame Christ's Church. I refuse to be associated with or provide my money to these evil heretics. We need to vote with our money and do everything possible to veto their existence by boycotting their products.
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Posted Friday, September 11, 2009 5:55 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
Charles O'Connell,
Since Albin is a friend of mine, I will call him to discuss what you have written. However, I did not get my information from a Professor, but from people who actually lived through and survived it.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
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Posted Friday, September 11, 2009 6:00 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
Anne,
I last visited Spain with the well known and loved Fr. Aloysius Ellacuria, CMF. At that time I saw children playing in the streets, women dressed modestly (two piece bathing suits were forbidden for women, now they have nudity), and to my observation they were much happier and freer than they are now under the socialist.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
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Posted Monday, September 14, 2009 4:22 PM By Grisha
In 1998 I spent several days in Novgorod Russia, a few hundred miles from St. Petersburg as a guest of the local Jewish community. I asked if they were occupied during the war. I was told they were occupied by both German and Spanish troops. Survivors said that the Spanish (Blue Division) soldiers were crueler than the Germans. Their explanation was that the Germans were just drafted and the Spanish boys signed up out of an ideological dedication to Fascism.
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