Review Of Gods and Men (orig. Des Hommes et des Dieux) [2010] | poetslandscape

MPAA (R) CNS/USCCB (A-III) Roger Ebert (3 stars) Fr. Dennis (3 ? Stars)

IMDb listing

CNS/USCCB review

Roger Ebert?S evaluation

Of Gods and Men (directed with the useful resource of Xavier Beauvois and cowritten with the aid of manner of Xavier Beauvois along facet Etienne Comar) is a French movie (with English subtitles) about the real tale of the Cistercian monks of the Abbey of Notre Dame d?Atlas in Algeria who were kidnapped and killed via Muslim extremists for the duration of Algeria?S civil battle in the Nineteen Nineties.

This is a reasonably complicated tale and the movie-makers do a spectacular process in offering it.

What were those clergymen led by means of way of Fr. Christian (played thru Lambert Wilson) doing in Algeria to start with? Well their Cistercian brothers got here to Algeria throughout 1800s within the route of the French colonial generation to setup a monastery. Like Benedictines of antique, they truly prayed, worked the land, furnished easy offerings to the human beings of the place and a village sooner or later grew-up beneath the monastery. This is precisely the identical missionary method that the Benedictines used in the route of Europe over a millenium in the past and the identical fundamental approach that the French Jesuits (the Black Robes) used to evangelize in Canada. (I?Ve frequently belief that the pleasant missionaries were, in truth, the French).

What became the life of the Cistercian priests at their Abbey in the geographical place of now independent Algeria with a although secular authorities however an overwhelmingly muslim population? Again, the film especially offers the rhythm of existence of the priests of their community.

Note to Hollywood: This movie need to be required viewing for all people wishing to write down a good screenplay approximately a Catholic rectory, non secular community, or convent. The many scenes of the rhythm of the priests? Spiritual existence are top notch. And I myself have lived that rhythm at severa organizations as a religious priest. The severa community meetings (meetings of the priests) have been slight and sober. Again, they have been outstandingly portrayed. I?Ve participated in such intense, sober deliberations with friars from my Order from across the world.

A further note to every

Is the movie a propaganda piece? If it is, I’d be hard pressed to see on behalf of whom. The French don’t look good and are universally blamed for starting the whole mess in Algeria as a result of their handling of the colonial era. The current secular Algerian regime is portrayed as being fundamentally and perhaps irredeemably corrupt. The Muslim extremists are portrayed as violent but also as having been victimized. Only the monks and the villagers below are portrayed in a reasonably positive way but only after a thorough examination by the movie of why the heck they were there in the first place. After all, Algeria was a Moslem country before the French arrived.

Still a case can certainly be made for a group of people who buy some land, build a community, live in peace, take care of their needs and even some of the needs of their neighbors. Why not just leave them in peace? Be it in Algeria, France, the United States or Tibet or Saudi Arabia.

Of Gods and Men offers a great message, well presented and well acted, leaving one with much to think about.

<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>