Product Details

• Directors: Pamela Mason Wagner
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Letterboxed, NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Vision Video
• DVD Release Date: January 1, 2003
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000DHFG2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,178 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Reluctant Saint: Francis of Assisi" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

"Don’t make a saint of me," Francis of Assisi told a friend - even as his charisma and holiness were dazzling his contemporaries and generating a legend that has lasted almost a millennium. "Reluctant Saint" shows us a Saint Francis who transcends the image familiar to even the least religious among us: wealthy playboy, soldier, businessman, preacher, defender of the poor, mystic and - later - an inspiration to lovers of nature and the earth.

Filmed on location in Umbria, Italy where St. Francis lived and worked, "Reluctant Saint" captures all the violence, color, and mystery of Francis’ time - a time like our own, full of crisis, craving for reform and for a deeper, simpler, more personal faith. "Reluctant Saint" offers new insights into a life that has engaged the hearts and minds of millions over the centuries.

"Reluctant Saint: Francis of Assisi" is produced by Emmy-winner Pamela Mason Wagner and based on the biography of St. Francis by Donald Spoto, Robert Sean Leonard provides the voice of St. Francis, with additional narration by Liev Schreiber.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing Look At Remarkable Saint, June 24, 2005

By 

M. King (Illinois) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reluctant Saint: Francis of Assisi (DVD)

In this production, St. Francis comes out of the birdbath. He is seen more human like the rest of us than in many of the previous films about this remarkable saint. We see and hear of his struggles all throughout his life. We are told that even in the end of his life he considered himself to be a failure while at the same time able to demonstrate an amazing faith in God. Insights into his life and times as well as his personality helps to fill in a lot of the blanks that exist in many other works about St. Francis. This is a good resource for those well versed in the life of St. Francis and those who are just discovering him.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not a film--a docudrama, May 7, 2007

By 

Nomark Twain (Anytown, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reluctant Saint: Francis of Assisi (DVD)

I was expecting a biographical film like Brother Sun, Sister Moon. I had read Spoto's book and loved it. However, this is really a documentary, with only brief re-enactments of Francis's life. The bulk of the 60 minute content is clips from interviews with "experts in the field". So this is useful, but not what I would have purchased, if I had understood this before. Not a film--a short docudrama.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor, August 2, 2008

By 

M. DiRaimondo - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reluctant Saint - Francis of Assisi (DVD)

This film/ documentary did nothing for me, and was a bland and at times inaccurate portrayal of one of the world's Most Loved historical figures. Although I have done a large amount of reading and research on Saint Francis, I can honestly say that you can find out more about his life from "googling" him and reading two random web-pages. It is hard to imagine in 60 minutes any less could be said about St. Francis. Moreover, some of the information was completely false. In my opinion, and this is only my opinion, this film in no way illustrates the Life of a man who merged with God and became a Living Prayer himself. In others words, spend your money else where.