Film Review-There Be Dragons (2011)

There Be Dragons (2011)
Directed: Roland Joffé

Be warned to have a box of tissues ready for the end of the film. The film looks at fours stories-one of Manolo Torres (Wes Bentley) a soldier, his son Robert (Dougray Scott) a journalist, his mother Ildiko (Olga Kurylenko), who was a young Hungarian woman fighting with the International Brigades, and Josemaría Escrivá (Charlie Cox), the founder of Opus Dei who was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint. There are “themes such as betrayal, forgiveness, friendship, and finding the meaning of life in everyday life”.

The plot has been described as convoluted-but I don’t agree. The plot centers on Journalist Robert who finds that his father, from who he as been estranged, has a connection to the soon to be sainted Escrivá.  His father is dying and reveals some hard secrets to his son so that he will know the truth of his mother’s death and his role.

The movie is set against the backdrop of pre-civil war Madrid in the 1930s and earlier. Manolo and Escrivá were childhood friends-Manolo the son of wealth and Escrivá’s relationship and paths to the war are traced. While Manolo’s father is dying Ildiko works for the family but she is a radical and Manolo who blames the radicals for his father’s death kicks her out of his room as he dies. Manolo meets up with some right-wingers-not sure if they were falangists-but whom ever they are kidnap and Manolo kills the man he blames for his father’s death. He then goes undercover and “becomes” a communist. He sees Ildiko at a communist rally and she doesn’t know what to make of it. He is undercover almost the entire war, fighting with Republican forces.

Manolo is in love with Ildiko but she is in love with Oriol who we see earlier given the speech at the rally where they Manolo and Ildiko run into each other, which will have tragic consequences for everyone-including Robert.

While Manolo is on his path Escrivá at first refuses to become political but in the days/weeks running up to the war he, and his followers-not sure if this is the correct description, begin to see violence directed at other clergy and churches-he decides to flee Madrid after he witnesses the murder of a priest by a radical. Eventually he makes it to Andorra, though there are a couple of near misses on the way.

Meanwhile Manolo continues to fight with Republicans and we learn how Ildiko dies in the war and we learn that Manolo crosses his friend Escrivá’s path a couple of times, though unknown to the priest.

At the end of the movie Manolo gives Robert a letter he had prepared to give to Robert upon his death, but he changes his mind and Robert reads it while sitting by Manolo’s hospital bed. For the rest you will need to watch the movie.

John Paul II canonized Josemaría Escrivá founder of Opus Dei died in 1975, in 2002.

I watched this film a few years ago and it didn’t make an impression but the second time I found the move to be amazing in providing a look at pre-war tensions in Madrid between the three groups-left, right, and those in the middle. It didn’t shy away from the violence of politics such as the murder of priests, the protests, the extrajudicial killings by those on the right-the story far from being convoluted was moving and touching. For those of us into the Civil War it showed how battles and skirmishes were fought-or at least how I THINK they were fought.  The movie wasn’t successful at the box office-or critically but I think these critics and the public didn’t appreciate the complexities of the conflict and the choices people make under such trying times. No postal history that I noticed but there was a cool poster printed by the father and his supporters. I tried to locate an image but couldn't. I am going to watch again soon.