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One of the best faith-based films ever made


My last movie for 2016 that I saw, There Be Dragons, turned out to be one of the most elegant, touching, powerful movies I have seen in a long, long while. An incredible story of faith persevering despite the most hostile of environments, and clinging on to humanity amid war, the Spanish civil war in this case. Roland Joffe is fast becoming one of my favorite directors, though topping The Mission is hard to do. He really knows how to create both vast spectacle and focus the narrative on the personal story, without sacrificing either.

Charlie Cox, who I find terrific as Daredevil, is also incredible here as a Catholic priest, later saint, who deals through some of the most difficult questions about faith I've seen posed on film. In fact this is one the finest faith-based films I have ever seen, which is a genre that is generally difficult to get right. It is never preachy or overbearing, but showcases how when religious figures/clergy are actually good people, they can serve as the last bastion of hope amid darkness and misery.

This film succeeds where a lot of other war-time epics fail, in that it actually delves into the questions of morality, religion, right and wrong, that really hold up the story.

Highly recommend this one. The hate it gets is in one part from people who wrongly believe that films are supposed to be historical textbooks, and in another from the type of people who targeted faith in the story itself - those who mindlessly lash out and want to tear down anyone of a religious standing, as they mistakenly see them as symptoms of a corrupt system.










Arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhBWDzkqEPY

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