MOVIES: Of Gods and Men

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TempleofTheSoul said:
EDITED: I found on Amazon “Of Gods and Men” already on Blu-ray/DVD… Is this the original movie? Does anyone know since it is in French with English subtitles… If this is the movie then I think I am going to buy i
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Hey, great! 🙂

It sure looks like the original movie, based upon the cover and the credits given to the director and the actors. However, I would point out that the DVD will not be released until July 5, 2011, so at this point Amazon is simply taking pre-orders.
 
Highly recommended. I saw it in one of the “arts” theaters here in Minneapolis.

I had the added advantage of not knowing how it was going to end. I hadn’t heard about this event beforehand and we stopped the trailer 30 seconds in (they always tend to give away way too much and ruin movies). The added dimension of never knowing whether or not the danger would fully materialize really made for a powerful experience for me.

Go see it.
 
I haven’t seen it myself, but a couple of my friends (devout Catholics, one being a religious) cannot stop talking about it 🙂 So I’d say yes!
 
I heard an interview with one of the actors on the radio - they played a few clips of the monks in the film singing the office. That alone was enough to convince me I needed to see it - it was very moving, made my eyes tear up while driving, almost had to pull over. It was very beautiful, made me think the Psalms were originally intended to be sung in French. It also reminded me in a very moving way of a retreat I had made to a Trappist monastery in Iowa years ago. I know the story is a sad one, but everything I know about the movie says that it portrays the monks and their life and death very well.
 
Dale_M said:
I do have a question, which perhaps those who have seen the film can answer. In a couple reviews, the reviewer expressed regret that the name of the film was changed. In the French original, it was called Des hommes et des dieux which translates as Men and gods. Yet the English language version reverses the title, putting the emphasis on Gods, rather than on men. The difference, claimed the reviewers, is that the French title focuses on the conflict between human understandings of god. My question for those who have seen the film: does this seem like an important distinction?
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I don’t think it matters to me, especially since we know what it is in French.

You might find this interesting, from the always insightful Father Barron:
“Of Gods and Men” is a quiet story of great courage and spiritual strength, but it is also a film with an edge—and this becomes clear when we meditate upon its title, taken from Psalm 82: “I said: You are gods, all of you sons of the Most High; Yet like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” This particular psalm represents the sovereign God’s judgment of false gods, those who have been mistakenly considered absolute. Yahweh states that these “gods” have failed in their task of assuring justice on the earth, that they have not defended “the lowly and the fatherless” or rendered “justice to the afflicted and the destitute.” Who precisely are these “gods?” Within the biblical framework, they are construed as supernatural beings, but we could also think of them as those political and military “powers and principalities” that make bold to govern the world in any age, usually through threats of violence. Up and down the ages, bully boys with swords or bombs or guns have acted as “gods,” exercising their power but doing precious little to ameliorate the human condition. The sovereign God, the true God, passes judgment on these pretenders to ultimacy and announces that they will “fall like any prince.”
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From Of Gods and Men

At first, I thought “Gods” was referring to the “Gods” of the different religions in the film, Islam and Christianity, but I believe Fr. Barron’s is the better interpretation.

I highly recommend the film. It is stunning. Both “quiet” and “edgy” as Fr. Barron says.
 
I just saw the film after waiting months for it to arrive locally. It was so understated yet so powerful and incredibly inspiring. I knew very little about the actual events and only wish I had known about them at the time. The film was a sobering reminder that our faith is today, as it has always been, under attack and that future saints live among us today.
 
This has been playing in SF and the East Bay rotating in different Landmark Theaters since it opened here at the beginning of Great Lent. It’s still playing in the East Bay, now in Berkeley, but seems to finally have stopped showing in SF. It also played for three days two weeks ago in a tiny theater near our parish, a theater which usually shows Chinese films. 🙂

I find it fascinating that it can show in the SF Bay Area this many weeks. Glory to God for all things!

Find a location here.

I’ve seen it twice and hope to go again while it is still on the big screen here.
 
The movie is wonderful! It only played in my area for two weeks. I told a friend at my parish about it and she told others and seven of us met at the theater to watch it together.

I wish movies like this would be shown longer in the theaters so more people would have the opportunity to see them.

There was no advertising whatsoever about this movie in my area. I happened to read about it on a blog.
 
Anne1964 said:
There was no advertising whatsoever about this movie in my area. I happened to read about it on a blog.
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Its a foreign-language film. They tend to be distributed on a shoe-string budget, and rely on word of mouth for advertising. If the Academy Awards would have named it as a nominee for best Foreign Language Film this likely would have raised its profile quite a bit.
 
Anne1964 said:
There was no advertising whatsoever about this movie in my area. I happened to read about it on a blog.
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There was/is no advertising here in the San Francisco Bay area either and yet it’s been playing over 13 weeks here! I find that fascinating.

The deacon at my Byzantine Catholic Church saw it the weekend it opened and told me about it, and I then also read about it on a couple of blogs. I posted it twice in the elist of that parish and twice in the bulletin of my Latin Church parish. I’ve seen it twice with different people each time, and I have a couple of friends who have seen it more times. The deacon in my Latin parish has a large screen TV. His wife and I went together the second time I saw it and she’s all set to show it on their big screen TV as soon as the DVD comes out. 👍
 
5Loaves said:
is wife and I went together the second time I saw it and she’s all set to show it on their big screen TV as soon as the DVD comes out. 👍
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I just checked Amazon.com and the US release is still scheduled for July 5. It apparently will be sold as a DVD/Blu-Ray combo package for about $27.

However, the DVD and Blu-Ray are already available in the UK. And the Amazon.com has apparently imported some of the Blu-Ray discs from Britain. So, if you are willing to pay a premium, and your Blu-Ray player is able to play discs from outside of North America (I admit, I don’t understand how the various Region codes work), the US Amazon will sell you a copy for $43, right now.
 
Contra_Mundum said:
Has anyone see this film?
imdb.com/title/tt1588337/

I absolutely loved it. Amazing.

Any thoughts?
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Why is there still so much love for the Slave Power (the antebellum South/Confederacy)?

Like Nazi Germany it was a short lived regime that lost its major war (and deserved to lose) ceasing to exist in the process.

-AngryAtheist8

P.S. Please ignore this post.
I got the film in question confused with another movie.
 
Who could be surprised the movie was not publicized in SF? I heard about it on a film awards show, when they did the best foreign language film segment.
 
foolishmortal said:
Who could be surprised the movie was not publicized in SF? I heard about it on a film awards show, when they did the best foreign language film segment.
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Foreign language films, with subtitles, rarely have big advertising budgets because the market for such films tends to be limited. Most Americans are not interested in seeing sub-titled movies.

As such, distributors of such films depend heavily on word of mouth (such as this site) and movie reviews. A quick check of Google shows at least four reviews (two in the SF Chronicle, two in alternative weekly newspapers) of the movie in San Francisco during the past few months.
 
It is now out on DVD and I just saw it. Definitely rent it, if you get the chance. The subtitles are easy to follow, since the film has a measured pace, and the acting is good.
 
Of Gods and Men is now on Comcast OnDemand. I watched the movie last night and it was very good. The fact that there was so much chanting in the movie is another added bonus. 👍

God bless
 
I love this movie. Fortunately, I was able to see it here in Florida.

God bless,
~Rae
 
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