Customer Reviews

Saint Francis

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ignatius Press has released onto the American market several brilliant Italian films about Catholic saints (St. Anthony of Padua, St. Rita, etc.), but this is not one of them. Although Raoul Bova is a wonderful actor (please see him in "Karol: The Man who Became Pope"), he is not that great in this movie. The movie is way too artsy and drags on forever. It is an inaccurate portrayal of Saint Francis and shows him as some sort of leftist revolutionary turned religious. It has a false premise of Saint Francis becoming religious after spending time in jail where people are tortured to death for reading the Bible. Therefore the film promotes Protestant propaganda that the Catholic Church withheld the Bible from the common people (in fact the Bible was read at every Mass and most people could not read--so they obtained their knowledge of the Bible from hearing these readings at Mass. The Bible was also translated into every major European language and approved by the Pope centuries before the Reformation). It also shows the false idea that poor people were not allowed to enter the church for Mass--which is a complete falsehood. Saint Ignatius Press should not be promoting this film, as it is not orthodox Catholic and promotes false stories about this humble Catholic saint. Not to mention that it is completely boring.

Brilliant and innovative directing. Superb cinematography. Magnificent acting and script. Unique portrait of Saint Francis, capturing his mysticism and his inevitable aloneness among those who cannot understand mystics but only admire them and be inspired by them. Production values were very simply fabulous. The scenes between Francis and the Pope are masterly and unforgettable. Highly recommended. You come away wanting to know more about this giant of a saint so revered by Catholics and Protestants alike. A true portrait of a man on fire with the love of God, and the love of God's creation. The film manages to capture the sheer rapture of Francis as he is transformed by his ever deepening understanding of his vocation. --- The portrayal of Clare is sensitive and beautiful, but may not be entirely historically accurate. But this really doesn't matter. The film offers an experience of Francis that is priceless.

Having already seen Claire and Francis, and been disappointed with its tendency to avoid and ignore the miracles of Francis (though it pleased me in most other respects,) I decided to try out this film, and was honestly shocked when it made virtually all of the same mistakes, and more besides.

One scene with birds is shown, but aside from that, there are no miraculous occurrances in this film, or at least, nothing that a skeptic wouldn't be able to logic away. That was the first problem that struck me, although it was more because I'd noticed it in Clare and Francis than for any other reason. In retrospect, the film had a lot of other issues as well.

Aside from the painful lack of any on-screen visions or healings, and only a brief view of the stigmata, the film has a tendency to overword everything. Statements that should be quick and easy are instead drawn out and bizarre, giving enormous opportunities for the actors to ham it up. Worse yet, what they have to say hardly ever focuses on God, or on the way of God directly, and comes across more as pseudo-religious and psychological garbage than any kind of real people's problems.

Francis himself is frequently depicted as being utterly insane, and even when he starts to get respect from Rome, this doesn't really diminish. The actor who plays him makes every effort to make the man seem unnaturally euphoric and obsessive, as if he were continually either high or angsting throughout his entire ministry.

Seemingly trying to compensate for this, the film takes great pains to depict great pains. It's on pain, first and foremost, that this film fixates, and the cinematography goes to a lot of trouble to focus on that element; with rampant grays and browns; refusing to dip into a single shade of blue or green once the main part of the film is underway. One gets the impression that the director was agonizing, and wanted the viewers to, but although the art direction agonizes, and the characters sometimes do, we are hardly ever shown what they're agonizing over; what was so terrible that they suffered that much?

I loved the Passion of the Christ, because I understand pain, and the pain of Jesus was perfectly believably portrayed, and quite understandable. This film didn't manage that. One is left with the impression that its characters are merely angsting for insignificant reasons, compared to what they've put up with already.

I think that the mood of this film was making some attempt to make the character seem tortured, like Padre Pio did, without actually giving the character an antagonist to torture him, but regardless, it came across as feeling very phony.

Due, in part, to the cinematography, and in part to the lack of miracles, and of course, in part to the lack of charisma that the character was given in the script, I'm afraid that Francis didn't really stand out from the other characters at all. I didn't find anything human, religious or inspiring about this film at all. If you want to see this movie, don't. Watch Clare and Francis instead. It's not perfect, but it does everything that this movie does, except that it gets it right. If I can find a better film about Saint Francis than Clare and Francis, I'll be sure to tell everyone I know, but this ain't it.

I like this movie overall. It is in depth and the characters are developed well. A much better movie than any other St. Francis movie out there. Far from perfect, but enjoyable for those who love St. Francis.

This is the worst movie I have ever seen on the life of St. Francis. It was composed of some things that are not even in any life of St. Francis. There were several people watching it with me and we all wanted to shut it off but kept waiting to see if it would get better but it only got worse. When it ended everyone was shocked that it could be over and without really portraying a true picture of his life. What a waste of money.

Although visually sumptuous, gritty and sensual, this film has several problematic characteristics that prevent it from being either an enjoyable or edifying portrayal of St. Francis.

In the first place, a_very_blatant Protestant plot element is inserted in the movie, with an apparent Waldensian St. Francis meets in prison. The man is there because he translated the Gospels into "the common tongue" and is then brutally tortured for such "heresy", but not before he passes his ragged Bible to Francis, whose faith is awakened by this first introduction to the Word of God.

The second problem is that the movie does not attempt to attribute any sort of supernatural explanation to Francis' actions, but instead gives a naturalistic depiction of his life. God does not speak to Francis here. The closest we come to anything miraculous was when Francis and his brothers saw a large flock of birds. Even his stigmata is played down to resemble nothing more than scrapes on his hands. It is also hinted at that it is self-inflicted, since the movie earlier showed us Francis intentionally grasping a thorny stick as hard as he could, and wounding his hands.

The third issue is that Francis' personality is just warped in this movie. He is portrayed as a delusional, self-harming, neurotic lunatic, an amiable simpleton at best. He is frequently shown crying, moaning, rolling around the ground in pain, spitting up blood. It is none-too-subtly hinted at that he was nuts.

The fourth problem is that the movie is interminable. It is almost 3 hours long. If it contained any sort of plot development or dramatic tension, that would have been bearable, but with Francis mostly just acting strangely, it was not a pleasant experience.

The movie isn't all bad, as I said. It is beautiful to watch, and so far as I can translate Italian, the acting seemed powerful to me. I was glad it didn't obscure Francis' faith, as Zefferelli's proto-hippy Francis seemed to do. However, the problems I elucidated above ruined it all for me.

We have had this film for over a year now. If we would have read the other reviews listed we may not have gotten it. That
would have been a mistake. This is a very good rendition of the Saint: Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone. With other films
on this beloved Saint such as: Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Claire and Francis, and such; this film does depict his loss of
vision, the wounds of Christ he bore on his body, and the illness which ended his life. There are so many things that could
be added which happened to him, that it could get really long and overdone. This one has the right amount of happenings.
They could have made the wolf scene, which occurred at Gubbio, more like what actually took place. At least the wolf is
included in this filmed version. Any time you are going to try and create a production true-to-life, there are going to be
offsets. You cannot get everything onto the screen, but you can do what you can do. This is one of our favourites on the life
of Saint Francis. Though we did not order this online, for we did not have internet at that time in 2009, we thought we
would say something about it. If you like Saint Francis really well, whether you know little, much or nothing about him, try
out this film. It is more accurate than some. Very good, in our humble opinion.

I was thrilled to discovered the many high-quality, inspirational films of saints' lives made in Italy and published by Ignatius Press, and have been watching them as quickly as I could get my hands on them. In the process, I have learned much about saints with which I was completely unfamiliar (St. Rita, St. Anthony of Padua) and been inspired anew by saints I already loved (Padre Piu). Unfortunately, this one was more disappointing than inspirational, as it seemed to take many liberties with the story of St. Francis (at least, as I have understood it), and while I know St. Francis did at many times strike his contemporaries as merely insane, that should not be the impression one gains from a spiritual biography! Too often here, Raoul Bova as Francis seemed merely over-the-top mad, possessed by an imbalance in his brain chemicals rather then inspired by God. There is a great deal of panting, thrashing in agony, and groaning - and considerably less of the contageous joy that must have been present for his message to spread as it did. There are occasional beautiful moments, so it's worth a look, but I feel I'm still waiting for a great St. Francis film (though compared to this, "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" looks pretty good and also has that wonderful confrontation with the Pope!).