Synopsis
Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps through the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay … come what may. This film is loosely based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping in 1996.
Of Gods and Men is a powerful film about faith and doing what is right. The strength of the story comes through a single decision if the monks should stay after construction workers were brutally murdered by a Muslim extremist group. While certainly one can argue that the ‘waiting’ portion of the film brings the most uncomfortable feeling, as you know the monks are going to eventually be captured and kidnapped. This movie doesn’t focus on that point very much it tries to show the viewer the ‘why’ they waited when they had so many opportunities to run away. Seeing that in action is far greater than seeing the kidnapping.
Director/writer Xavier Beauvois did a fantastic job with building the central point of the film, which is ‘why the monks were in North Africa’. He builds a great story through the people of the village that the monks are trying to help and through the monks’ religious beliefs that are powerful. While certainly there is a time and place for the ‘kidnapping’ portion of the story, it’s refreshing to see the strong part of the film fully focused on what’s important; why they were there. What this ends up doing is making the kidnapping portion of the story far more disgusting and despicable. When you see the trail of monks led off into the snowy mountains, you’re right there with the villagers asking why it happened. At that same time you’ll also understand why the monks had to stay, which was they came to North Africa to spread their religion and their strength to a village that desperately needed it.
Anyway, I felt the story certainly did its job and accomplished what it set out to do.
Is the film flawed? Well, much like humanity as a whole, the film isn’t perfect. It struggles at times with controlling individual pockets of stories with characters. While there are only a handful of monks that are vital to the story, including Michael Lonsdale’s Luc the doctor, who the extremist group is very interested in (as several of its members have been hurt in firefight); the story really doesn’t handle each human element of the monks very well. Each character has a unique factor that makes them individuals, but they never truly go into detail when it comes to these stories. It’s like the filmmaker is afraid to make the movie more than it is, but gives you a taste of what it could be had they decided to go that route. If Beauuvois had told the stories of each monk then this movie might have been much better than it already is. Not to say the film is not good without these character stories, but there was room for them and they could have built the monks up a little bit better. Ultimately, what this does is that it helps develop the characters and gives them a polished definition to who they are, which is something that the film could have benefited from. I realize that by putting more depth to the individual characters might hurt the overall message of the film, but it would have strengthened the final act and made it far more powerful.
As for the Blu-ray portion of the film, the visuals vary. I’m not certain of the film stock that was used when this film was originally shot, but it does was out a bit. There are heavy blues, blacks and whites that dominate the frames. They all benefit from the HD upgrade, but at the same time they’re not really spectacular to see in 1080p. There are some really gorgeous moments, mainly the moments where the monks are along at night in their prayers and moments like when it’s really sunny and they’re in town visiting folks, but most of the film is just a bit washed out. There isn’t a lot of graininess or artifacts, but it’s not colorful and gorgeous either. This Blu-ray was the first time where I couldn’t find anything wrong with the transfer, but also couldn’t find a lot to praise. It was a very odd experience as a reviewer, but this is what the Blu-ray offers. Granted the film is trying to reinforce through these ‘washed out’ visuals how positively isolated and living on the edge the monks, and this town, truly are, so it’s fitting in a way.
As for features, you get a couple of nice featurettes:
– The Sacrificed Tibhirine: Further Investigation
– Merrimack College Augustine Dialogue IX with Author John W. Kiser
Fans of the original novel will positively adore these features, as they give you a bit more information about how this situation came to pass. While there isn’t a lot here, and I would have loved to see commentary, but having commentary and subtitles together would require a lot of reading, these features do the trick. Much like the monks the Blu-ray gives you neither more nor less of what you need.
