I have been very busy in two ongoing investigations and have not had any spare time to post up to the standards you as my readers deserve. So pardon for the delay.
I’m not a moviegoer for the same reason I don’t watch much TV except for classics like “Perry Mason,” “The Untouchables,” “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza,” and “The Avengers.”
Most movies suck. Just like most TV sucks. They aren’t making pictures like “On the Waterfront” or “Judgment at Nuremberg” anymore.
But my wife and I did take some time recently to see “Paul, Apostle of Christ.”
ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIE
I’ve never been a big fan of Saint Paul. I admire him as a man of God and a martyr for the Faith. But his Epistles are not my favorite parts of the New Testament. He wrote more like a lawyer than an instructor, and he seemed prouder than the other Epistle writers. Luke is my favorite New Testament author, and I prefer the simpler epistles of Peter, John, and James to Paul’s works.
But the people who made this movie understood what made Paul tick, and what made him the Apostle to the Gentiles. They also displayed a lot of understanding about courage, revenge, and the purpose of Christianity.
The story line is as follows:
Paul is in prison in Rome, in the aftermath of the great fire Emperor Nero started to burn out the poor so he could build a larger palace in the burned-out area. The fire happened in 64 AD; it is now 67 AD.
(Note to the politically correct: I don’t use CE like we’re supposed to now. AD means “Year of Our Lord.” CE means “Clinton excuses” or “consume excrement.”)
The Romans were angry about the fire, so Nero blamed it on the Christians. This led to a savage persecution that saw Roman soldiers murder Christians on the streets, and round them up for torture and death in the Coliseum. Nero even had Christians rubbed with tar and lit afire to serve as human torches.
The Apostle Paul, who has come to Rome to appeal a conviction the authorities in the Holy Land slapped on him, is caught up in the persecution. He is not sentenced to death by being fed to wild animals in the Coliseum, but by beheading because he is a Roman citizen.
Luke (Jim Caviezel) arrives in Rome during this terrible time. He is writing the Book of Acts and wants Paul’s insights. Even though Luke knows Paul well and has worked with him, he wants to get Paul to tell his story from the beginning.
Paul and Luke. A still from “Paul, Apostle of Christ”
Luke makes his way to the shut-in and guarded Christian quarter of Rome. Aquila and Priscilla, the “first couple” of the Christian community, tell him about Paul’s predicament. They are worried sick. Aquila is thinking of spiriting the Christians out of Rome until the persecution dies down. Priscilla argues only by staying in Rome can they show the example of Christian love to the other Romans so they can become Christians and stop their wanton cruelty and licentiousness.
Luke bribes his way into the prison to interview Paul, and to seek his advice for the Christians in Rome. Luke is able to visit Paul daily, and the old friends reminisce as well as work on Paul’s story for Christians.
Luke was not one of the Twelve Apostles, or a replacement, like Matthias replaced Judas, or an apostle Christ specially commissioned like Paul.
Most scholars say Luke was of Greek origin, and grew up either in today’s Syria or today’s coastal Turkey, both regions full of Greeks in the days of Christ. Some say he was a Hellenized Jew, those who lived like the Greeks, but kept their Jewish faith.
Luke was a doctor and a man of science. My Jewish friends say that is proof Luke was a Jew.
Luke was a convert to Christianity, one who became Christendom’s most beloved author.
Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. He helped Paul extensively, and he was with Paul in Rome. He generally wrote about Paul in the third person, but occasionally he wrote “we” when he and Paul were among Greeks.
This has led many to suspect Luke was a Greek.
The movie’s creators take the stance that Luke was a Greek. The Romans call him “the Greek.” They also note that Luke is a doctor, which becomes crucial to the story.
During Luke’s first visit with Paul in the prison, Paul does not appear to give Luke any concrete advice for the Christians of Rome. Paul advises them to keep the faith, and pray to God that He will show them a solution. He says he is worried about “finishing the race” – dying nobly and not cowardly. Paul also says he is worried about being judged by God for all the sins he committed in persecuting the Christians before Christ called him to be the Apostle to the Gentiles.
Luke reports Paul’s words to Aquila and Priscilla and the other elders after each visit. They were hoping for more concrete advice.
Mauritius, the Roman officer who runs the prison, tells other Roman officers about Luke the Greek visiting Paul. One of his colleagues suggests Mauritius will win favor with Nero if he can find anything in Luke’s notes implying Paul or the Christians started the great fire, or were plotting against Nero. The prison officer knows the truth about the fire, but takes the advice. He has Luke’s interview notes seized and Luke jailed with Paul while he goes over the notes.
Meanwhile, Aquila and Priscilla entrust a young Roman boy who is a convert to Christianity to carry a message to another part of the city. Alert Roman guards spot the boy and kill him. This causes even Priscilla to waver.
Some of the young Christian men argue for revenge. The obvious problem was there were too many Romans for them to fight. But their justifiable anger over the murders of so many Christians blinds them somewhat to this reality. They argue angrily with Aquila and some of the other elders over this.
Back at the prison, the Roman officer concludes there is nothing suspicious in Luke’s notes, but he considers Paul foolish for his beliefs. He confronts Paul and Luke about Christianity. Paul says he has committed many sins but even with all the trials he has endured, God has given him a better life than he deserves. When Mauritius says in so many words Christianity is a religion for slaves, not free men, Paul says all people are slaves to something or someone.
Paul and Mauritius — still from Paul, Apostle of Christ
How right Paul was. Mauritius knows if he steps out of line with the Roman hierarchy, he will be killed without mercy. Mauritius’ daughter is gravely ill, the quacks in Rome can’t cure her, and his wife Irenica bitterly blames him for the girl’s impending death. Why? Because she believes their fake gods won’t answer her prayers for the girl because he is too easy on the Christians in his prison.
But Mauritius is still intent on releasing Luke the Greek.
While Mauritius and Irenica agonize over their daughter and argue with each other that night, the young zealous Christians strike the prison in an attempt to free Paul and Luke. They kill a guard, burst in, and find the two. Paul tells them to desist, and that they have harmed the good he has been trying to do. The young Christian fighters leave.
Mauritius is furious when he hears the news about the break-in. Paul and Luke tell him they didn’t plot the break-in, and they stayed to show good faith, but it is useless to argue. Mauritius rounds up some Christian men, women, and children to be used in the Coliseum as victims, and he throws Luke in with them.
The Christians know theirs is a painful and horrible and humiliating fate, to die in front of a leering mob of scum. Luke consoles them with Paul’s words about finishing the race. He tells them he and they will suffer some horrible pain, but only for a few minutes, then they will be able to live for eternity with Christ. Luke’s words hearten the doomed Christians.
Just before the cruel games begin, guards pull Luke out of the group of Christians and take him away.
The stadium prisoner gate opens, and the captives have to walk out and toward their deaths. Meanwhile, the guards take Luke to Mauritius, who confesses he is afraid his daughter will die and asks Luke for his help.
Luke asks Mauritius if he trusts him with the care of his daughter, given the Roman has just sent other Christians to their deaths.
Mauritius has no choice. Nor does Irenica, the Christian-hater. Luke diagnoses the problem as a fluid buildup, and cuts into the girl to drain it. The sound effect is something only a guy with a coarse sense of humor like me could appreciate. But Luke saves the girl’s life. Mauritius and Irenica’s trust is rewarded.
Luke gives Mauritius a list of medical items he will need to completely cure the girl, and sends him to the Christians, who are locked up in their quarter, to get them.
Mauritius demands entrance. The Christians are terrified, not only for themselves, but for Aquila and Priscilla. Mauritius says Luke has sent him for medical items. Aquila ensures he is given what he needs. The Christians have to trust Mauritius.
Luke cures the young girl. Mauritius apologizes to Paul about having the Christians killed in the arena. Paul’s life can’t be saved, but the other Christians might be able to live.
Mauritius is with Paul when the executioner kills him.
Somehow Roman guards turn a blind eye so many Christians can escape the city. It is implied this is the work of Mauritius. Their trust in him is rewarded.
Luke finishes the Book of Acts, and Priscilla and Aquila have Christian scribes copy it for distribution.
And Paul meets the doomed victims of the games in Heaven.
This movie is based on real history, but Bible trivia nitpickers will complain that Aquila and Priscilla, the couple who lead Rome’s Christian community, may have been somewhere else at the time of Paul’s execution.
An earlier pogrom against Jews, by the Emperor Claudius, was responsible for the couple leaving Rome for Corinth in Greece in the early 40s AD. Husband Aquila and wife Priscilla lived in Ephesus for awhile, returned to Rome, and reportedly left some time during Nero’s persecution. They would both die as martyrs sometime later.
Nitpickers will also complain about the script having Luke bribe his way into the prison to interview Paul. Luke knew Paul well, as the movie shows, and as the Book of Acts shows.
Paul’s and Luke’s refusal to leave the prison did not happen. The plot twist is likely based on the incident in the Book of Acts in which an earthquake opens the cells of a prison in Philippi while Paul and Silas are inmates there. Paul talks the jailer out of killing himself because all of the prisoners stayed put. There is no account of Christian avengers attacking Romans at that time to free Paul. In fact, the Apostle Peter admitted he was the Pope of the Christians and died crucified, head down, as he said he was unworthy to die head up like Christ.
Jewish avengers did attack the Romans in Israel from time to time, and the Romans made them pay for it again and again. In fact, Romans besieged and burned Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple just three years later, in 70 AD. A few years later, the Romans crushed Jewish patriots at Masada.
“PAUL, APOSTLE OF CHRIST” AND “QUO VADIS”
“Paul” is not the only film about the Church during Nero’s persecution. But it is the best I’ve seen.
I’m old enough to have read “Quo Vadis” and to have seen the 1951 spectacular as a rerun on TV when I was a teenager. Henryk Sienkiewicz, Poland’s greatest novelist, patriotically revolved “Quo Vadis, not around Peter or Paul, but around Lygia, a young woman who is daughter of the king of the tribe who lives in what is now Poland. Her father sent her to Rome in the reign of Nero as a hostage to satisfy a Roman treaty demand. He also sent her bodyguard to protect her. Lygia and her bodyguard Ursus (Latin for bear) become Christians while living in Rome under a very loose form of house arrest with the Roman couple who safeguards them for the Roman Empire.
A Roman general, Marcus Vinicius, lusts for Lygia and tries to carry her off so he can have his way with her. Ursus kills Marcus’ warrior accomplice and beats him down so thoroughly that he needs the medical help of the Christians to recover. Then Marcus begins to love Lygia instead of just want to take her in sex.
After the Great Fire, Nero’s wife, who lusts for Marcus, urges Nero to blame it on the Christians. Nero does, and starts the persecution of Christians. Christians urge Pope Peter to leave Rome to save the hierarchy of the Church, so he leaves. But Peter sees Christ on the road, and asks Him where he is going. (“Quo vadis” is Latin for “Where are you going?) Christ tells Peter He is going to Rome to be crucified again if need be. Peter, thorougly embarrassed, says he will go back and face Nero. Peter sticks his traveling staff in the ground and returns. The Romans crucify Peter upside-down.
Lygia (Deborah Kerr) in a tight spot — Quo Vadis still
Nero and his wife find out Marcus is friendly to the Christians. So they makes Marcus watch in the Coliseum while Lygia is tied to a post and a bull is loosed on her to gore her to death. Ursus grabs the bull’s horns, and pushes him back till the bull’s neck breaks. Marcus jumps into the arena to free Lygia from the post. The mob cheers for Ursus and Lygia, but when Nero will not free them, Marcus’ troops join him in the arena and Marcus announces General Galba is marching on Rome to depose Nero.
Nero flees to his palace, strangles his wife, then has his female slave help him commit suicide. Galba becomes emperor. Marcus, Lygia, Ursus, and other Christians leave Rome, and when they pass Peter’s staff, they notice it has flowered.
“Quo Vadis” was a novel and a film that had the satisfying aspect of Ursus killing the bull and Nero dying in agony after killing his evil wife. (I like revenge. A lot.) Quo Vadis was a great story and an epic film, but its focus was on fictional characters.
By the way, Nero was real. Galba was real. St. Peter was real. But he did not meet Christ while leaving Rome.
Nero was also real strange. He had his mother Agrippina murdered. He had his first wife Claudia Octavia executed in 62AD right after he married Poppaea, and had Claudia Octavia’s head presented to Poppaea. He “married” a freeman named Pythagoras in 64 AD while he (Nero) was dressed in a bridal outfit. Nero reportedly kicked his second wife Poppaea to death during her childbirth in 65 AD. Nero then had a boy named Sporus castrated and “married” him. Nero in 66 AD married Statilia Messalina, a female. She was lucky to survive him. Sporus and Nero’s secretary (male) helped him commit suicide when Galba marched on Rome to depose him.
A freak like Nero would be a producer star in today’s Hollywood.
“Paul, Apostle of Christ” focused on two real people, Paul and Luke.
The movie shows Paul as surprisingly humble and patient, penitent over his sins, and wondering if he is worthy enough for Heaven. The truly great, like Paul, and Peter, and Joan of Arc, and Mother Teresa, all had times when they doubted. Why? Because they all knew God does not grade on a curve. He has an objective set of standards for all of us. These truly great saints viewed their accomplishments as little and their failures as much. Their doubts showed how much they loved God and how much they wanted to be pleasing to Him.
The movie also shows Paul, not as a proud Pharisaic preacher, but as a charismatic and fervent man, on fire with zeal, but with a warm and generous heart. In those days, few people could read, but nearly all could listen. Paul could not have succeeded as an evangelist if he had not been charismatic, fervent, warm, generous, and real … and in the good graces of Christ Himself.
Ignore the picky details.
The film is a triumph on many levels.
It looks realistic, tells an honest story, and shows how hard it was to follow Christ in time of persecution.
The filmmakers filmed on the island of Malta, just south of Sicily. Malta has Roman ruins, and in parts still has the look and feel of the Mediterranean during Roman times. Malta is mentioned in Luke’s Book of Acts, as the place where Paul shook a viper off his arm into the fire after he and others survived a shipwreck.
Those who made the settings for the movie did marvelous work.
Jim Caviezel was great as Luke and James Faulkner was even better as Paul. Faulkner portrayed the heavyweight Apostle at the end of his life with a combination of certainty and doubt, joy and sorrow, fervor and gentleness, seriousness, patience, and a little humor when the situation merited it.
The actors who portrayed Mauritius, Irenica, Aquila, and Priscilla also did fine jobs.
Olivier Martinez, who played the arrogant and combative Mauritius, was remarkable for another reason. He is not a big man, but a combative and proud man who steps into the personal space of not only Paul, but of other Roman officers. I found out Martinez was a prizefighter, so this actor was combative by practice. His Hispanic accent is odd to the ear at first, compared to the tones of the other actors (American or British),but remember Spain was a vital part of the Roman Empire. So Martinez, who is of Spanish and French ancestry, is Latin in blood and belongs as much or more than the others. He added a unique touch to this film.
COMPARISON TO THE SITUATION TODAY
The movie “Paul, Apostle of Christ” is an action movie, but also an intimate drama about courage and faith.
The film gets you to think about your own life and what you are willing to risk for your beliefs.
Can the Christians persevere in their faith?
How does one handle the desire for revenge?
Is idolatry (faith in fake gods, career, money, lust, popularity, and the like) worth it, even when everyone else seems to be an idolater?
Is the fear of eternal punishment enough to get even the faithful to question their lives?
Or should a positive motivator, love for others as God loves each of us, or the desire to live in a manner pleasing to God as one of His children, be our prod for doing right?
All legitimately Christian and Jewish churches are under attack in America today, but not under the sort of persecution in the Roman era. However, the 20th Century saw the murders of tens of millions of Christians, almost all Catholics or Orthodox, by the Nazis and the Communists, and the murders of another six million Jews by the Nazis, and a lesser number by the Communists. The Nazis killed two-thirds of the Jews in Europe.
The late 20th Century and the early 21st Century have seen the murders of Christians, almost all Catholics and Orthodox Christians, by Islamist vermin.
RIP, Charlie. Prayers for your Dad and Mum.
RIP, Israel. Prayers for your Dad and Mom.
Formerly Christian Europe and some of our own states are secularist wastelands where corrupt judges and other corrupt politicians and Mengelistic doctors sentence children like Briton Charlie Gard and Californian Israel Stinson to death for having handicaps. This doesn’t even count the child sacrifice of tens of millions of children to abortion. We used to think it was barbaric to murder children.
In Britain, Scandinavia, France, and Germany, it is OK for Moslem interlopers to rape and molest girls, boys, and women. Spanish and Italian police and navy men have to knock down organized attempts to flood their lands with Moslems from North Africa and the Middle East. Only Eastern Europe, almost exclusively Catholic and Orthodox, unreservedly stands up for their women and girls and boys.
We who call ourselves Christians would do well to stand together, and search our hearts, minds, and souls on the issues “Paul, Apostle of Christ” raises.
We are not under Nero-style attack. Yet. We can and should do more to advance God’s agenda in the betterment of society. We need to live as if we have internalized Christ’s message. In imitation of Joshua and the Maccabees, we and our families should serve the Lord.
The movie is above entertainment. It is examination of conscience and instruction, art in the service of the Lord, the highest calling of a filmmaker.
See it while it is in the theaters, and get the DVD when it comes out. And prepare for your own examination of conscience and beliefs.
SHERLOCK JUSTICE
WE CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO BE YOUR OWN DETECTIVE.
