Religious movies are very hard to produce. Often, the green-screen is too obvious, the acting is wooden, the dialogue is forced (keeping slavishly solely to what to the speeches and conversations recorded in the Bible is destined to exacerbate this), the miracles can end up looking like they are simply cheap camera tricks, etc. The 2014 Noah movie exemplified some of the problems…
I found none of this in the movie Paul, Apostle of Christ. It presents a real, believable story. Malta stands in well for Rome. The actors have cut their acting teeth on other projects.
But, apparently, this film is not going to come to commercial screens in New Zealand. So my friend, Fr John O’Connor, took the initiative of hiring a small theatre to have a private showing. He filled that, so booked a larger one; filled that, so booked a larger one still; finally, he booked the largest theatre which holds 450 people!
It was a wonderful event – thanks Fr John – to be together with so many Christians watching this imaging of Paul in prison telling his story to Luke. If you get the chance to watch it, do so. I will be buying the DVD.
ps. Fr John’s initiative also raised $2,000 for St. Vincent de Paul.
Fr John O’Connor’s blog post (Food for Faith) about the event.
Facebook’s Page: Food for Faith
The movie’s official site.
The movie’s facebook page.
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It’s available for pre-order on iTunes.
Many Blessings