Roland Joffe's "There be Dragons" aspires to the tradition of the great epic films, charting the life stories of Catholic priest Jose Maria Escriva (who became a saint) and Fascist spy Manolo Torres set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Yet in contrast to the great epic films, my reaction to "There be Dragons" was quite mixed.
The first ten to twenty minutes of this movie - which deals with the childhoods of these two men - is quite boring and probably could have been edited out. Then as Jose Maria and Manolo make the transition to childhood, their lives go in two different directions and the result is that this film consists of two different stories that have no relation to each other. The story that works is Jose Maria's. If you put all the Roman Catholicism aside, this movie is essentially about a man's struggle to stay a good person under very trying circumstances. We see Jose Maria endure one tragedy after the other and resist the temptation of giving in to hatred and anger - and we are fascinated, not least of all because Charlie Cox plays him so well.
Unfortunately, Roland Joffe chose not to focus solely on Jose Maria and, because of this decision, "There be Dragons" suffers. For example, there is a dramatic scene in this movie where Jose Maria learns from his brother that the Red brigades are killing priests. Then in a later scene, we see Jose Maria make a dramatic escape from the church to avoid being lynched by the Reds. But the movie never takes the time to explain why the Reds are killing priests all of a sudden. Instead, Joffe's script is content to explain the killings in one line of dialogue: Jose Maria explains to his colleagues, "They hate the priests, because we are part of the system that makes them miserable." Somehow I think the anti-clericalism in Spain during the 1930s was the result of more complex factors than that.
Another problem with "There be Dragons" is that Manolo's story does not work. To begin with, we are never told why Manolo embraced Fascism or decided to become a spy, though apparently it had something to do with how his father died. Secondly, Roland Joffe relies heavily on war scenes in order to dramatize Manolo's life, which would not be a problem except that his latest treatment of war does not move with the times. Francis Ford Coppola captured the horror and insanity of war in "Apocalypse Now." Joffe's earlier film "The Killing Fields" makes the war in Cambodia seem very real with its gritty documentary look. The first twenty minutes of Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" is a magisterial and shockingly authentic depiction of the landing on the beaches of Normandy. We feel the tension of the soldiers as they approach the beach and see some of them vomit. We see the hail of bullets come their way and kill many of them even before they land on the beach. We see soldiers screaming out in pain and their organs and blood strewn everywhere. These scenes are so brilliant precisely because they succeed in capturing the essence of war. But the battle scenes in Roland Joffe's "There be Dragons" do not even come close to that standard. Joffe is actually directing a war film that is not that different from the black and white, shoot 'em up war films of the 1940s and 1950s, which tended to sanitize war rather than capture its essence. As a result, the battles scenes in this movie are remarkably boring.
Finally there is no pay off at the end of this film. I was led to believe that Manolo had a deep, dark and devastating connection to the Jose Maria's life. You could have fooled me! As I came to end of this film, I saw nothing deep, dark, or devastating about the connection between these two men, which was tenuous in the beginning and non-existent at the end. In fact, I was truly baffled about why Roland Joffe decided to tell two life stories instead of one. With "The Killing Fields" at least there was a connection between Dith Pran (Ngor) and Sydney (Waterson) which even thousands of miles could not sever. Yet in this film, you get the sense that you are dealing with two people, Jose Maria and Manolo, who would be perfectly content if they never saw each other again. Lastly, I was baffled that Joffe decided to make a film about this particular saint's life. Throughout the movie, I have not seen Jose Maria do anything out of the ordinary or remarkable to make him stand out as a saint. In fact, "There be Dragons" could have been about a simple man experiencing the Spanish Civil War and working through the emotional trauma of that war and it would still have worked. So overall a very mixed review for me.
5.7/10
The first ten to twenty minutes of this movie - which deals with the childhoods of these two men - is quite boring and probably could have been edited out. Then as Jose Maria and Manolo make the transition to childhood, their lives go in two different directions and the result is that this film consists of two different stories that have no relation to each other. The story that works is Jose Maria's. If you put all the Roman Catholicism aside, this movie is essentially about a man's struggle to stay a good person under very trying circumstances. We see Jose Maria endure one tragedy after the other and resist the temptation of giving in to hatred and anger - and we are fascinated, not least of all because Charlie Cox plays him so well.
Unfortunately, Roland Joffe chose not to focus solely on Jose Maria and, because of this decision, "There be Dragons" suffers. For example, there is a dramatic scene in this movie where Jose Maria learns from his brother that the Red brigades are killing priests. Then in a later scene, we see Jose Maria make a dramatic escape from the church to avoid being lynched by the Reds. But the movie never takes the time to explain why the Reds are killing priests all of a sudden. Instead, Joffe's script is content to explain the killings in one line of dialogue: Jose Maria explains to his colleagues, "They hate the priests, because we are part of the system that makes them miserable." Somehow I think the anti-clericalism in Spain during the 1930s was the result of more complex factors than that.
Another problem with "There be Dragons" is that Manolo's story does not work. To begin with, we are never told why Manolo embraced Fascism or decided to become a spy, though apparently it had something to do with how his father died. Secondly, Roland Joffe relies heavily on war scenes in order to dramatize Manolo's life, which would not be a problem except that his latest treatment of war does not move with the times. Francis Ford Coppola captured the horror and insanity of war in "Apocalypse Now." Joffe's earlier film "The Killing Fields" makes the war in Cambodia seem very real with its gritty documentary look. The first twenty minutes of Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" is a magisterial and shockingly authentic depiction of the landing on the beaches of Normandy. We feel the tension of the soldiers as they approach the beach and see some of them vomit. We see the hail of bullets come their way and kill many of them even before they land on the beach. We see soldiers screaming out in pain and their organs and blood strewn everywhere. These scenes are so brilliant precisely because they succeed in capturing the essence of war. But the battle scenes in Roland Joffe's "There be Dragons" do not even come close to that standard. Joffe is actually directing a war film that is not that different from the black and white, shoot 'em up war films of the 1940s and 1950s, which tended to sanitize war rather than capture its essence. As a result, the battles scenes in this movie are remarkably boring.
Finally there is no pay off at the end of this film. I was led to believe that Manolo had a deep, dark and devastating connection to the Jose Maria's life. You could have fooled me! As I came to end of this film, I saw nothing deep, dark, or devastating about the connection between these two men, which was tenuous in the beginning and non-existent at the end. In fact, I was truly baffled about why Roland Joffe decided to tell two life stories instead of one. With "The Killing Fields" at least there was a connection between Dith Pran (Ngor) and Sydney (Waterson) which even thousands of miles could not sever. Yet in this film, you get the sense that you are dealing with two people, Jose Maria and Manolo, who would be perfectly content if they never saw each other again. Lastly, I was baffled that Joffe decided to make a film about this particular saint's life. Throughout the movie, I have not seen Jose Maria do anything out of the ordinary or remarkable to make him stand out as a saint. In fact, "There be Dragons" could have been about a simple man experiencing the Spanish Civil War and working through the emotional trauma of that war and it would still have worked. So overall a very mixed review for me.
5.7/10