movies

Scorsese’s Next Film?

by Tim Muldoon

There have been rumblings about director Martin Scorsese making a film of Shusaku Endo’s magnificent historical novel Silence, about Japanese martyrs of the 17th century.  Now it seems that the rumor may become a reality, according to Spero Forum. In a preface to Endo’s book, Scorsese writes perceptively about faith: How do you tell the [...]

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A Good Camino

by Jim Manney

I went to see the new movie The Way this week, and I can warmly recommend it.  It’s one of those movies that causes you to ask “How can they make an interesting movie out of that?”  Recent examples are Moneyball (statistical analysis changes the way front office executives put together baseball teams) and The [...]

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Of Gods and Men

by Tim Muldoon

Yesterday I accompanied a group of 50 Boston College students to see the film Of Gods and Men (Des Hommes et Des Dieux), the story of the kidnapping and murder of the monks of Tibhirine, in Algeria, in 1996. (I’ve also written on this film here.)  It’s a beautifully told and acted story: the film [...]

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Catholic Storytelling

by Jim Manney

Frank Cottrell Boyce, a renowned screenwriter, writes about film and  faith on the website of the British Jesuits.  (Boyce wrote the splendid film Millions, about a boy who talks to saints.) Conventional storytelling is all about consequences, about the merciless chains of cause and effect; but the great religious stories – The Prodigal Son, for [...]

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What Does Love Look Like?

by Tim Muldoon

With Valentine’s Day coming up I’m taking the initiative to get folks thinking about love.  Here’s a clip that I sometimes make reference to in my classes, from the 1997 film As Good As It Gets. If you can’t see the video, click here. Ignatius wrote that “love shows itself more in deeds than in [...]

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Karate and Ignatian Spirituality

by Tim Muldoon

I recently took my girls to the drive-in to see the remake of a film I enjoyed when I was younger–The Karate Kid.  Now, several days removed from seeing it, I find myself struck by how much it resonates with a key Ignatian theme. First, a note for parents: there are some hard scenes for [...]

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Links for the Weekend

by Jim Manney

Paul Campbell, SJ, talks about his personal prayer practices. (“The most important thing I do is to see a spiritual director.”) Jim Martin, SJ, on sexual abuse and the Sacred Heart. How the St. Louis Jesuits changed liturgical music. (“One person credits them with wrecking the liturgy and the next person credits them with saving [...]

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“You Always Called Me Sonny.”

by Jim Manney

I love the movie “The Apostle.” It shows people of faith as real people without airs and pretense, and it shows how God can use a very flawed man to do good things. In that it gives me hope. In this scene, Sonny Dewey, a pentecostal minster played by Robert Duvall, rages at God in [...]

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The Mission: Repentance and Forgiveness

by Jim Manney

I recently watched “The Mission” again. It’s based on the tragic story of the Jesuit mission settlements in Paraguay in the 17th and 18th centuries. Here is an unforgettable scene depicting repentance and forgiveness. Some background to the scene. The repentant sinner is Rodrigo Mendoza, a Spanish adventurer played by Robert De Niro. He has [...]

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The Jesuit on the Waterfront

by Jim Manney

James Fisher, a professor of history at Fordham, has just published On the Irish Waterfront, the story of the New York/New Jersey waterfront, which was run by the Irish mob for the first half of the 20th century.   A review is here.  America magazine has made a video of the author talking about the book. [...]

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