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Movie Takes
The Way
It’s not exactly a religious pilgrimage, but it does treat religion with a certain respect.
In case you were worried, the New York Times review of Emilio Estevez’s The Way will reassure you that “This is not an ‘inspirational film’ in the usual, syrupy sense.” Phew! Dodged a bullet there, didn’t we? One can well imagine that the “syrupy” sort of inspirational film would be offensive to the sensibility that these days informs the arts pages as well as the other pages of the New York Times. But, then, the quotation marks around “inspirational film” seem to be meant to imply — I can’t think what else they are doing there — that there is no such thing as an inspirational film anyway: only the kind that strives to be inspirational and fails. Inspiring the New York Times, we may as well admit, is something probably better not even attempted.
Mr. Estevez’s film, for which he also wrote the screenplay, is about a medieval pilgrimage — the one to Santiago de Compostela in Spain — which is still made by thousands of pilgrims today. Many, if not most, do so in a spirit of Catholic piety, but The Way is not interested in them. Fortunately, as the Times reviewer writes, “none of these people are [sic] overtly finding God on this trek.” How about covertly finding God? He doesn’t know, but I guess that that would be OK. “The beauty of the movie, in fact, is that Mr. Estevez does not make explicit what any of them find, beyond friendship. He lets these four fine actors convey that true personal transformations are not announced with fanfare, but happen internally.” So how do we know that they happen at all? Forget fanfares, where is the beauty in not knowing something?
The first of the four fine actors is Martin Sheen as Tom Avery, a California ophthalmologist whose son (Mr. Sheen’s real life son, who is also the writer-director, Mr. Estevez) has been killed by a storm on the first day of the pilgrimage. His purpose in making it had been obscure but, so far as we know, was only a part of a more general Wanderlust that made him drop out of graduate school, aged nearly 40. Being a globetrotting bum subsequently becomes the ideal Tom aspires to when, after arriving at the beginning of the camino in Saint-Jean-de-Luz in France to collect the body, he decides on impulse to do the pilgrimage himself. He claims his son’s gear — including a backpack with, for some unexplained reason, the flag of the Japanese Navy on it — has the body cremated and then walks the 500 miles to Compostela carrying his ashes.
Along the way he meets Joost (Yorick van Wageningen), a fat Dutchman trying to lose weight, Sarah (Deborah Kara Unger) a bad-tempered and stand-offish Canadian trying to give up smoking, and Jack (James Nesbitt) a loquacious Irishman (in the movies, of course, there is no other kind) with writer’s block. The four of them walk and have adventures together for most of the journey, all of which would look like a lot of fun, but for the fact that all four of them have secret sorrows which they have not divulged to anyone and which are meant retrospectively to explain the reasons for their pilgrimage. For, inevitably, the secrets emerge in the course of the journey, along with conflict and camaraderie, a common taste for the unpilgrimlike comforts of home and for gypsy merry-making.
Tom’s secret sorrow, of course, we know already. It’s that his son has died and he is carrying his ashes to Compostela — and, as it turns out, beyond. But for some reason Tom doesn’t want anyone else to know this. Making it a secret at least produces a certain symmetry with the other pilgrims, however, each of whom has a damaged soul and so must be in need of some kind of spiritual healing. To that end, as you might be pardoned for supposing, there is a whacking great church at the end of their journey in which we see bits of what might be a rather moving service of some kind taking place. Especially memorable is the part where a massive thurible or incense-burner called in Galician a botefumeiro, suspended from the cathedral dome by a pulley, is swung on heavy ropes up to the ceiling of the north transept and down to that of the south from their central crossing by eight priests in red robes. This really happens in the cathedral at Compostela.
Yet even though we see one of the pilgrims there with teary eyes, the film offers no other indication that anything spiritual, let alone any healing, is going on in it. Never mind. As David Carr, another writer for the New York Times, puts it, “Each member of the ad hoc tribe finds something he or she needs along the way.” See if you can guess what it is. I’ll give you a hint. Mr. Estevez goes out of his way to suggest that, whatever two of them have found, it is not what they set out to find. Sarah does not quit smoking, Joost doesn’t slim down. The former insists she was never really intending to quit, the latter that he needed some new clothes anyway. Bingo! Obviously, what they have found is a New Agey contentment with who and what they are. “I think the movie reminds us that we each have to embrace our brokenness,” Mr. Sheen told Mr. Carr. “We live at a time when we are supposedly supremely connected by technology, but I don’t see it. This is a film about very different people walking together who find a way to connect with each other.”
Oh, so that’s what they needed. But why the pilgrimage, then, rather than a TV reality show — or a bowling team, for that matter? All congratulations to Mr. Estevez for treating religion, insofar as there is any in his movie, with a sort of distant respect. The Irishman does briefly allude to recent scandals in Ireland, where churches became “temples of tears,” as the reason why (he says) he doesn’t go in them anymore, but what we actually see of Catholic belief and believers, although not offering anything either we or the characters “need,” does not reflect negatively on them either. What religion offers to most people — and, I would guess, to most pilgrims — makes no appearance here. Like those inward “transformations,” if any, it is invisible. But whatever it may be, I feel safe in saying that it is not a feel-good, Oprah-like therapeutic dose of self-esteem but something altogether different.
About the Author
James Bowman, our movie and culture critic, is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of Honor: A History and Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture, both published by Encounter Books.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (23) | Leave a comment
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Herman| 10.26.11 @ 6:44AM
I would like to make the pilgrimage to Sant Iago
de Compostella, legendary site of St.James the
Apostle, often depicted on horseback.
LindaF | 10.26.11 @ 7:34AM
Sadly, Sheen is a fervent, but confused Catholic. I do admire his fortitude in sticking with his religion, despite the prevailing attitude in Babylon, but I do wish he would actually learn a little about what the Church actually teaches.
As opposed to the trendy, "feel-good" messages of the Church's UnFaithful.
David T| 10.26.11 @ 5:05PM
By his own admission, Mr. Sheen leans toward the "social justice" side of the Church, much too heavily in my estimation. He credits the radical priest Daniel Berrigan as his spiritual inspiration.
Pray for him.
PJ| 10.26.11 @ 8:19AM
Mr Bowman,
Thank you for the review. I was hoping the movie would have some intelligent, entertainment quality instead of the usual crap that is being shown today. You proved me correct.
I knew a man who recently made this pilgrimage. He & those he encountered on the hike were looking for some meaning in their lives. In that sense the movie sounds reasonably accurate.
I've seen clips of this movie. There's no violence, blood, or sex----- very unusual for today.
I hope to see this movie not only for cinematography quality, which looks great, but also to see how rugged the hiking trails are. Someday I would also like to make to make this pilgrimage.
BTW, This was the 1st time that the bishop allowed a movie production company to film inside the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. So it is a real treat to see the gigantic, swinging thurible.
Crack Smoker| 10.26.11 @ 8:44AM
Winning! Oh wait, wrong Sheen.
And, one more time again, I must point out a complete lack of any transgressive cross-class, inter-racial, trangendered, same-sex "romantic" scenes exclusively composed of women. Another artistic failure and personal dissapointment... That thought hegemony thing clearly runs deep!
Tina B| 10.26.11 @ 9:21AM
Call me cynical but methinks Martin and Emilio are not the most shining stars in the Hollywood horizon, having left brother Charlie flapping in the wind like he is.
A full time job might be to help their son/step-bro
back to some true reality by the grace of the God Martin claims to believe in. I really thought this film would have been a vehicle which might be efficacious in guiding one in the right direction, and NOT the New Age Way.
Petronius| 10.26.11 @ 11:53AM
Thee BBC sent feature correspondent David Lodge on this trip in 1992. He cozied up to the hikers, bikers, drifters, escapists, and trekkers marking the Camino off their to-do lists. He made all the stops with local legends, stalked haunted ruins, and wrung everything out of the route except the one that ought to matter. If I was going to try it, I would do it the only way it's supposed to be done; the whole thousand + miles "A pie'd"; on foot and in its own pre reformation Catholic idiom. One can gain a Campostella patent walking only 1/10 of it, but man's capitol is integrity without which legitimacy is nonexistent. The start points are Notre Dame de Paris, Vezalay in Burgundy, LePuy in Auvergne, and Arles in the Midi. From these it's "do or don't do. There is no try." Also bear in mind, (groan), that the words of Frank Oz are simply a given. A pilgrimage is a devotion, not a contest with one's self. Cut! That's a wrap.
C Smith| 10.26.11 @ 1:36PM
"The Way" hollywood will never find:
Mat 7:13 Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby.
Mat 7:14 For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.
Act 4:12 And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name [Jesus Christ] under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Seek| 10.26.11 @ 3:32PM
Oh, really? God told you all this? Amazing.
Simon Templar| 10.26.11 @ 3:39PM
For CSmith, yes. For you, no. Liberalism is your god and your salvation. He has his faith and you yours. So, keep your smarmy remarks to yourself and learn some of that tolerance you are so famous for...
Margie| 10.26.11 @ 5:18PM
What, Seek, you don't believe in God?
Simon Templar| 10.26.11 @ 3:47PM
What is all together different is it an honest portrayal of different types of people, their struggles, their personal beliefs, and their personalities without making arrogant and politically correct judgements about any of them one way or another. There it is, reality, what is needed is respect, live and let live, and a willingness to look at each other. It speaks for itself, and it speaks quietly.
Margie| 10.26.11 @ 5:16PM
Well Simon, Jesus came for division. He says so Himself.
Those who love His Words, and obey them, and those who do not.
The sheep and the goats.
If one has not the fear of God in them, they are lost.
And those of us who do have the fear of God in us, buy His Grace and mercy, have the command by Him to preach His Gospel to the World!
"Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." Lk, 12:51-53.
That's just the way it is.
Tina B| 10.27.11 @ 1:01PM
Aabsolutely right, Margie.
Christ was anything but polically correct, and anything but tolerant of unrepentant sinners. He came to divide those who repent because they fear God and hate their sin nature, and those who don't. Christ showed no tolerance for sin, and we are to follow His Way.
We are only sinners saved by His grace ourselves, and have no reason for pride. But Christians are not all about everyone having peace on earth anymore than Christ was.
"Peace on earth and good will to men on whom His favor rests." That's how the Scripture and the Christmas message reads.
Tina B| 10.27.11 @ 1:01PM
typo, politically correct, sorry
POST American| 10.26.11 @ 10:59PM
-------'80's Show' meets OUTWARD BOUND-------
------------TAVISTOCK OP ALERT!--------------
Meanwhile, as psychopathic Global
USURY moves to CON-solidate, 33rd degree Freemason,
PAT ROEERTSON spits in the face of
Christ uttered doctrine (now OK to dump
your spouse with Alzheimer's!) -----the
LONG masonically infiltrated Vatican,
under the leadership of POPE Benedict Arnold
--is hailing the advent of authoritarian
WORLD GOVERNMENT.
---------Really kiddies ---bring it up to speed.
----------HUAC meets NUREMBERG 2012----------
----------------NOW DO YOU GET IT?---------------
------------------------------OH, YOU WILL
Nick| 10.27.11 @ 1:27AM
"under the leadership of POPE Benedict Arnold
--is hailing the advent of authoritarian
WORLD GOVERNMENT."
The Holy Father did no such thing. Do you believe everything the MSM spoon-feeds you? Try doing some research. Start here:
http://www.ncregister.com/blog.....2011-10-26
POST American| 10.27.11 @ 4:39AM
"---The Vatican has been thoroughly
infiltrated by Masonry since the 1950's
--if not earlier."
-MALACHI MARTIN
Putting aside the FACT that the EEL-eat
loves 'in your face' word play as they
bring it on (POPE BENEDICT ARNOLD)
----any study of the contemporary
Vatican's NO SHOW on such things as
Luciferian Theosophy ---GMO food and
genetic diddling --and, most central, the
ABOMINATION that is INTER-national,
EUGENICS mongering USURY, will
bring ANYONE to the same conclusion.
--------------THEY ARE ---ON BOARD.
---------------------CASE CLOSED-----------------------
Nick| 10.27.11 @ 7:28PM
Malachi Martin was a laicized priest, and a foolish writer. May God have mercy on his soul.
Quote him in vain.
POST American| 10.31.11 @ 12:22AM
----The record, the very signs on the ground,
speak for themselves.
EVEN NOW Pope Benedict 'Arnold'
(---told ya' they love word play) is calling
for world government, a world bank,
and the trans-humanist agendas of
Luciferian EUGENICS.
USURY as an ABOMINATION central
to church doctrine. The ONLY episode in
which Christ hurls his rage ---is AGAINST
the moneylenders ---within the temple.
He was KILLED for this.
USURY, esp. INTER-national USURY,
is blatantly TREASONOUS and a prime
mover of TYRANNY.
USURY reduces all of life to sums and
numbers, worships tech and its own
devices, and exalts X--speed--iency, and ultimately
cannabalism and GENOCIDE.
It KNOWS it's criminal, even damned,
and hence, psychopathically seeks its
own immortality, its OWN creation
---the clones, the chimeras, the homunculi.
The Vatican's been ever more understanding,
ever more 'CALM--PLY--ant' regarding
all of this.
Of course, core church doctrine always
posits the greatest, the final threat, to
Christ emanates from WITHIN the
earthly church establishment.
--------------THIS IS ETERNALLY SO----------------
Nick| 10.31.11 @ 2:09PM
"EVEN NOW Pope Benedict 'Arnold'
(---told ya' they love word play) is calling
for world government, a world bank,
and the trans-humanist agendas of
Luciferian EUGENICS."
This is simply not true. Only those who are ignorant, and only read headlines, believe this nonsense.
For those who enjoy knowing the truth, the facts are very easy to find:
http://www.ncregister.com/blog.....2011-10-28
HokenTaka| 12.9.11 @ 12:16PM
It is absolutely amazing how you right- wing fanatics can be so blinded by your outright hatred of Obama that you can actually dilute yourselves into thinking that everything he does is wrong and harmful to the country Dating Online
HokenTaka| 12.9.11 @ 2:21PM
It is absolutely amazing how you right- wing fanatics can be so blinded by your outright hatred of Obama that you can actually dilute yourselves into thinking that everything he does is wrong and harmful to the country Dating Online