In this presentation Austen Ivereigh explains the power of the recent movie There be dragons by Roland Joffé. It is an epic drama about hatred and forgiveness and deals with the friendship of two persons during the Spanish civil war: one is a historical saint Josemaria Escriva, the other persons are mostly fiction but representative of all of us.

1. by Austen Ivereigh

2. Key messages answer questions
What is the film about? What is it trying to say?
Why is it important?
Messages which Messages which shrink
expand curiosity curiosity / alienate
Target audience

3. An epic film about a Spanish saint
made by Roland Joffe

4. A film about Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of
Opus Dei, the organization made famous by the
Da Vinci Code

5. A film about the horror of war,
and the search for peace

6. The story of a man’s search for the
truth about his past

7. A film about the clash of twentieth‐
century ideologies

8. A story of love and jealousy set
against the background of war

9. A film with a Christian message
about the power of forgiveness

10. A film about a father and a son, and
the truth that has to be faced in order
to overcome what is between them

11. A film about priesthood

12. A film about holiness, and the way it
ripples out and transforms the world.

13. What is the film saying?

14. • Tells the truth about the human
condition / society / us
• Dramatises the choices we face
• Forces us to choose

15. Violence: resentment, jealousy,
rivalry, anger. Surrender to
dragons. Seek revenge, “justice”.
Scapegoating. Sacrifice of
others.
Peace: confront dragons;
forgiving victim; self‐control,
discipline, reconciliation; ‘the
pain stops here’. Love. Sacrifice
of self.

16. THE TRUTH ABOUT VIOLENCE
Human beings as creatures with
mimetic desire enter into rivalry
• Competition
• Resentment
• Jealousy
• Rivalry
• Power
• Pride, isolation
“My Dad had more cars.
But he had more Dad.”

17. Civil War as cycle of mimetic
contagion
• Desire for justice and a better world
“How hard it is to escape cycles of
• Mutual desire
hatred and resentment and violence”
• Fall victim to scapegoating
(RJ)
• Sacrificial mechanism
• Fratricidal violence ‐‐ demonisation
• Each side mirrors the other
• Moral decay of ideals
“I didn’t know whose side I
was on any more”.
“Our leaders fight among themselves
and give us nothing … We are being
sacrificed.”

18. RJ states the problem
“If this passionate love is based on an ideal, or on an
idealization, if it is accepting of only one model of human
behaviour, how does it avoid slipping into bigotry and
demonization? Since the Enlightenment this has been a
major question.”

19. ‘Crowd’ or ‘mob’ formation
• Loss of individuality
• Loss of responsibility
• Ecstasy of the crowd
• Passivity
• Victimhood
• Scapegoating
“The ecstasy of belonging to a
crowd … there’s no better
feeling”.

20. Forgiveness as escape from cycle
“The withholding of forgiveness is the one thing that
won’t be forgiven” – seminary rector
“Unwavering love for every person, on any side, even if they are wrong …” [JM]
Empathy reverses dehumanisation:
“Because they see us as part of a system which causes them hardship and pain.”
Brings freedom: “But he’s freed you from that now .. Chance to mend
something that’s broken.” (Leila)

21. Obedience to God’s will frees man
from slavish obedience to crowd /
cycle of violence
Manolo’s father’s
death‐bed scene.
(God’s will)
v.
JM praying: Open my
eyes ... Do you have a
purpose for your
donkey?
“Around the time that Josemaria got a call from
God, I got a call from a friend of my father’s …”
“A Communist strike killed my father. Now it was
my turn to strike.”

22. The dragons of mimetic contagion
•Manolo has followed his dragons.
•Ildiko and Oriol failed to realise there were dragons.
•Only JM has recognised and overcome his dragons and can
be a source of healing in the world.

23. The same truth exists in families
• Family ‘civil wars’
• Feuds and rows – hurts and wounds harden
into principles.
• The violence of rejection

24. TBD presents a choice
• Are dragons myths or are they real?
• If real, do I wish to slay them or be carried by them ?
• Which path am I on? Ignorance, violence, or love?

25. Could you forgive?

26. Could you become a force of love?

27. Could you join TBD’s three‐step
programme?
1. Accept you have dragons (JM to
companions: recognise the desire for
revenge)
2. Combat them through forgiveness
(requires self‐control, discipline,
empathy)
3. Help to heal the world through self‐
giving love

28. What the film is about
There Be Dragons is an epic tale of revolutionaries and saints in a
time of civil war. It is a story of love and heroism amid
jealousy, hatred and violence ‐‐ and a heartbreaking drama
about the power of forgiveness to break the chains of the
past.

29. What the film shows
In the story of two childhood friends who take radically
different paths, Roland Joffé holds up a mirror to the way
human society fragments through rivalry, scapegoating,
and hatred.
He names the “dragons” which underlie the ideological clashes
and wars of the twentieth century – and wars and conflicts
today. He shows how ideals become idols, and human
sacrifice is a part of western civilization.

30. The film’s message
He shows us how to escape from that tragic cycle through the real‐life
example of a priest, later declared a saint by the Catholic Church.
JM refused to take sides, even as priests were killed and churches
torched. Joffé uses that example to say: it is possible not to pass on
the pain. It is possible to be a forgiving victim, and break the cycle
of conflict.

31. Unmissable
TBD is a cinematic phenomenon, a once‐in‐a‐generation epic
which unmasks the truth about the human condition, and
shows that peace really is possible. It makes you feel the cost
of forgiveness, and the peace it brings.
In the world today. In our families. In our lives.

32. The effect or power of TBD
•Great art: tells the truth. Compelling. Heartbreaking.
•Unmasks an uncomfortable truth about the human
condition.
•Shows a way out of the vicious cycle of hurt and
revenge = violence
•Forces us to contemplate that choice in our own lives
and families.

33. Appendix Trailer of There will be Dragons,
the movie of Ronald Joffé about the Spanish
John F. Coverdale speaking about the civil war Civil War:
http://www.youtube.com/user/josemariaescriva#p/a/u/1/oK1NANzzZ0M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z17OEqbrOOQ

34. About Saint Josemaria about this presentations
The presentation can be found at:
CSR:
Culture Science and Religion
http://www.slideshare.net/CSRsource
Group:
http://www.josemariaescriva.info/
CSR: Dragon
http://www.slideshare.net/group/csr-dragons
Editor: Alfred Driessen
Driessen.Alfred@gmail.com