To be released in select theaters May 6, There be Dragons is a film that examines the stories of two childhood friends, the saintly Josemaria Escriva (Charlie Cox), founder of Opus Dei, and Manolo (Wes Bentley), a radical revolutionary and spy now living in bitter isolation.
Directed by two-time Academy Award-nominee, Roland Joffe, we are introduced to a Spanish journalist Roberto (Dougray Scott) investigating the life of the saint shortly after his death. Upon discovering the close connection between his father and Josemaria, at this time a candidate for sainthood, he reconnects with him in an attempt to discover the answers to his questions about both men’s lives.
Following a stern warning from his father to stay away from his past, Roberto begins to pursue ever more vigorously clues that would piece together their stories. His investigation takes him to the turbulent times surrounding the brutal Spanish Civil War beginning with his father’s time in the seminary.
Following a series of incidents combined with a festering desire for meaning in his life, Manolo leaves the seminary and joins the Republican Revolutionaries fighting against the Nationalist forces of the future dictator Francisco Franco. Josemaria would remain and eventually become a Catholic priest, at a time during which the Church falls under siege by the revolutionaries.
In his search to find his place in the world, Manolo falls in love with a fellow revolutionary. When his advances are rejected, his despair gives way to anger and selfishness. Josemaria meanwhile continues down the path that he believes that God has set for him and begins to formulate what would eventually become Opus Dei, a community that would challenge the old way of viewing God by claiming to find Him in the most mundane aspects of the human experience.
Manolo would go on to find satisfaction in worldly successes at the expense of others that would push him into a greater isolation and hatred for the world. At this point, he is visited by his former friend who reveals to him that he never stopped thinking or praying for him. A disgusted Manolo looks at him with contempt believing his actions to be folly and delusional while Josemaria continues to encourage him to find real love in his life, telling him that despite his past he still had the capacity to be a saint.
Leaving his friend and continuing to examine his own theology on sanctity Josemaria has a religious experience, coming face to face with Jesus in the workshop of Nazareth. He interprets this as a sign to incorporate all men and women, whether clerics or laypersons, into his new community. Josemaria lays the foundations of a religious community that now spans over 90 countries. Nearing the end of his investigation Roberto finally visits his dying father in a last attempt to finally redeem him for his past during the war from which he had be running from ever since its end.
From beginning to end, viewers will see the two distinct paths walked by these individuals and how they each deal with the trials and tragedies that beset them. This film portrays the drama of these two lives through all their pain and struggles and, ultimately, in forgiveness and redemption.
Felipe Campos is a sophomore theology major. He can be contacted at fcampos@nd.edu.
