[Gocamino] [saintjames] The movie The Way"

Tue Sep 14 12:59:52 PDT 2010

Hi,
As far as I know the movie has been shown is some church organizations, but I don't know where it presently may be seen in the US.
About six years, or so, ago, walking around the Cathedral in Santiago I saw Martin Sheen, alone, walking behind the altar and looking at the images in some of the chapels there. Then I heard him ask, in perfect unaccented Spanish, a few questions about the chapels from a priest that was going by.  A few minutes later some women approached him and asked him: "Aren't you a famous movie star?" and he replied "just a pilgrim".
He had walked the Camino at that time with a grandson (who met a young Spanish woman during the pilgrimage and later became engaged to her) and, presumably, the seeds for the movie were plated there.
I, too, would love to see the movie.  If I find out where and how it may be seen I'll post the information.
Hugs!
Rosina

-----Original Message-----
From: P HENDERSON <tabellarius at shaw.ca>
To: saintjames at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 1:55 pm
Subject: Re: [saintjames] The movie The Way"

Dear Rosina:
hank you for your feedback regarding the above film. My story is true because I 
ost my youngest son Marcus very suddenly in 1993. It took me some time to start 
o heal and I did eventually walk the Camino in 2006 to dedicate both sons 
Simon and Marcus]. I enjoyed the experience, pleasure of meeting new people 
rom all walks of life, and at other times the journey was arduous for a 65 year 
ld. Would like to do it again so plan is to get into better shape. I had an 
ccident during a  Peru mission that I took this summer.
Would love to see the film. Any idea the best way to achieve this.
ake care. pamela henderson [BC  Canada]

----- Original Message -----
rom: Rosina <Blaroli at aol.com>
ate: Monday, September 13, 2010 3:51 pm
ubject: [saintjames] The movie The Way"
o: GoCamino at oakapple.net, saintjames at yahoogroups.com
c: bantonk at msn.com, katja.eder at arcadia.at, goldie at aon.at
> 
 September 13, 2010 
 'The Way' Puts 'Christian' Films to Shame
 Emilio Estevez directs his dad, Martin Sheen, in a film about 
 grief, love, faith, community
 by Kenneth R. Morefield
 (Editor's note: Ken Morefield is at the Toronto International 
 Film Festival. )
 I became acquainted with grief at a very young age. As a result, 
 for significant periods of my childhood and even into young 
 adulthood, I felt I knew something my peers didn’t. Now in 
 middle age, I understand intellectually that more of my peers 
 have had what is a very common life experience, but because of 
 the experience of formative years, I’m still always surprised 
 when the representation of grief in art–particularly art from 
 those who are not yet in their twilight years–rings true.

 There’s not a whole lot about Emilio Estevez’s The Way that 
 doesn’t ring true. Given the fact that the film tackles some of 
 life’s deepest emotions and largest themes–grief, love, faith, 
 community–that’s quite a compliment. 
 Martin Sheen plays Tom Avery, an American ophthalmologist who 
 receives word that his son has been killed while walking the 
 Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage trail in the Pyrenees mountains 
 between France and Spain sometimes referred to as The Way of 
 Saint James. Perhaps impulsively or perhaps in desperation, Tom 
 decides to walk the pilgrims’ trail himself, to finish the 
 journey his son began.
 Obviously, such a role calls for an actor of immense talent, 
 both to convey the depth and layers of feeling of a parent 
 mourning his child and to eschew the more melodramatic 
 histrionics that would cause such material to become overly and 
 overtly sentimental. Sheen, one of our national acting 
 treasures, is perfect for such a part, bringing it gravity but 
 also dignity. I love that in introducing a movie about fathers 
 and sons, rituals and traditions, Estevez chose to describe 
 Sheen by borrowing from another famous director, John Huston, 
 talking about his own father. “He never tried to sell you 
 something.” The film needs that kind of iconic confidence at its 
 center, because for long periods Tom, in his grief, goes inside 
 himself, and the film must have the confidence to let him, to 
 allow us to be one of the community with him, each broken in his 
 or her own way, each striving for understanding, light, and hope.
 Do you want to know one thing that is true about grief? Movies 
 tend to think that what we remember and treasure in our hearts 
 are the big gestures people make to acknowledge the hugeness of 
 our loss. But that’s not the case. What stays with you are 
 scores of small kindnesses from people that remind you that life 
 is worth living, that in our sadness, our emptiness, and our 
 poverty, most people can be very, very decent. “To be kind,” 
 George MacDonald once wrote, “neither hurts nor compromises.” It 
 may be the only thing that doesn’t.
 Estevez talked rather self-effacingly at the Toronto 
 International Film Festival of not directing his father, of 
 surrounding himself with talented people and “getting out of the 
 way.” He did direct, Sheen insisted. It’s easy enough to see how 
 both descriptions are true. In a post-Cahiers film world, we 
 take certain theories of auteurship for granted. Our picture of 
 the director is of someone who, Hitchcock-like, plans and 
 controls every detail of the film in his head. Estevez spoke of 
 making a film about community by making a community, using 
 natural light, shooting in Super 16 and making technical choices 
 appropriate to the thematic content of the film. These are 
 directorial decisions that shape the film and were appropriate, 
 but the creation of a community of like-minded people pursuing a 
 goal should not be underestimated. The care and compassion these 
 people have for each other reaches beyond performance and says 
 something about the material’s and location’s ability to affect 
 actors and not just vice-versa. I wish he hadn’t used the device 
 of having the father occasionally “see” his dead son, but–as one 
 viewer stressed to me–that (hearing/seeing those who are absent) 
 is an experience, hinted at by other characters in the film 
 which is not uncommon to those who are grieving.
 In circles in which I sometimes converse, there have been, for 
 as long as I can remember, discussions about Christians in the 
 art, about how to get more films that are faith friendly and 
 about the corrosive moral effects of “Hollywood” or the 
 “Hollywood culture.” Every now and then, though, I’ll run across 
 a song like Leonard Cohen’s “If It Be Your Will” or a film like 
 The Way, that not only puts “Christian” films to shame but that 
 makes me exasperated at the whole notion of “Christian” as an 
 identity politics genre. If you want more great Christian art, 
 go find great artists and support them in their desire to speak, 
 write, and represent the truth. Hollywood is made up of 
 people–many of whom, it turns out, are more complex, 
 interesting, and thoughtful than we might guess based on nothing 
 more than a quick glimpse of their IMDB filmography.
 One audience member at the Toronto Film Festival who had done 
 this pilgrimage himself spoke glowingly of how the film’s latter 
 scenes captured perfectly the experience of arriving in Santiago 
 de Compostela. The Way is the first non-documentary film granted 
 permission to film inside the church, and the scenes of the 
 pilgrims arriving, how each responds to the rituals, to each 
 other, and to the dawning realizations that they are neither the 
 first nor the last to walk the path they’ve walked or bear the 
 burdens they’ve borne, is as deeply moving and passionately 
 spiritual a moment as you are likely to get in commercial, 
 narrative film. You know what would be a little miracle that 
 would make me happy? If Christians who wanted to “send Hollywood 
 a message” with their pocketbooks would eschew boycotting the 
 next “R” rated slezefest that gets them all tied up in knots and 
 try the reverse for once. Pick up the phone and call your 
 favorite studio and say, “I’ve got $10 and I really want to see 
 this movie.”
 Hey, it’s worth a try. Turns out The Way–here’s the 
 kicker–doesn’t yet have a major distribution deal.
 The Way is funny, sad, somber, and, above all, true. It is life-
 affirming in most of the best senses of the phrase. It’s easily 
 one of my favorite films of the year thus far. If you get an 
 opportunity to see it, seize it. You won’t be sorry. It you 
 don’t, that’s okay, too, just so long as you promise not to 
 complain that there’s nothing but sex and explosions at the 
 multiplex these days.

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