Author: Charlie Cox

Format: NTSC

Release Date: 29-05-2012

Details: Amazon.ca The horrors of the Spanish Civil War frame the beautiful visuals of There Be Dragons, from the director of The Killing Fields and The Mission. The movie starts in the present, as a journalist (Dougray Scott) researches the life of a sainted Catholic priest named Josemaria Escriva (Charlie Cox)--and discovers that his own estranged father, Manolo (Wes Bentley), knew the man in his youth. There Be Dragons slips to and fro in time, going back to Manolo and Josemaria's intertwined childhood and then to the war, in which Manolo was a spy for the fascist side and became obsessed with a Hungarian fighter (Olga Kurylenko) for the communists. The parallel childhoods of Josemaria and Manolo are full of overly literary conceits that are more confusing than poetic. But once the war begins, the story becomes in some ways more conventional (a love triangle on one side and Josemaria on the run from the fascists on the other) but also more propulsive, allowing director Roland Joffé's gift for sumptuous visuals to take hold. Truly, there are few moments in the movie that aren't suitable for framing. Viewers who can get over the mélange of accents (the lead actors are American, British, and Scottish, all playing Spaniards) and forge through the narrative muddle of the movie's first half will find a gorgeously composed exploration of moral failings and forgiveness. --Bret Fetzer

UPC: 777235016655

EAN: 0777235016655

Languages: English

Binding: DVD

Item Condition: New