St. Patrick: The Irish Legend

This is a decent telling of the life of Patrick from teen, to Irish slave, to Bishop of Ireland, to Patron Saint of the Irish. It gives a lot of information and background on the legend of the man who becomes the saint. It's starts off pretty good, but turns a little too unbelievable towards the end when he starts using magical powers. At one point, he chokes a man like Darth Vader using the force. It's just a little too over the top. The cinematography of the Irish countryside is beautiful.

**1/2 (Out of 4)

St. Patrick is probably one of the best known saints in the Western World, and certainly America's most revered one, his shamrocks and greenery covering New York and other great cities on his day. But even those devote Irish who proudly parade in or out of uniform, will learn something about the man who brought the Gospel to Ireland, in this splendid biopic which takes Patrick as a young Christian Scot who is captured and taken to Ireland as a slave, only to fall in love with these heathen people, and dedicate his whole life to save them from paganism.

The film is supported by a splendid cast, but its principal merit is the sensible, unobtrusive way in which it mixes the human, heroic story of the man, with the necessary miracles of the saint, and his duel of prodigies with the heathen druids is casually inserted in the more factual story of his labours, not without catering to the Irish by depicting a rapacious "British church" in perhaps the only departure from strict historical truth, since Patrick lived long before the English considered themselves such. Which doesn't prevent Malcolm McDowell from adding another splendid villain to his gallery, as the ambitious and autarchic Bishop Quentin.

OK, despite what I'm about to say, I enjoyed watching the film. Nothing, however, is perfect, and this piece suffered from as much ignorance as I have seen in any attempt to recreate the early Middle Ages. I was a monk for many years, so maybe I know more about such things than I should. Still, it looked as if the producers were trying without knowing how to try.

For instance, when Patrick, upon his return from slavery, asked his father for "a Bible", he was asking the impossible. There was no such thing available. The most he could have gotten would have been a bound book of the 150 Psalms, or maybe--since his father was, as depicted, a patrician landowner--a book containing the four Gospels. The story omitted any mention of the fact that Patrick's father was, himself, a deacon in the Church.

Further, there was no "arduous course of studies" for the priesthood, and people didn't have to travel to Gaul for training and ordination, though some, indeed, did. Training and ordination normally would have been undertaken by the local bishop.

Then, when Patrick said to Bp Quentin, "In Matthew, the 16th chapter, verses 19 and 20...", that, too, was impossible. The Bible wasn't divided into chapters and verses until the 17th century, by Archbishop Ussher. What Patrick *should* have said would be more like "Remember the words of Our Lord which we read in the Gospel for the 2nd Sunday in Lent..." Oh, and the grammar of the quoted Biblical passages--pronouns and verbs all mixed up? Homer Simpson does just about as well. (It's not hard to look something up and copy it out right.)

By the way, Patrick was far from ignorant of Latin, as portrayed in the scene with Bp Quentin. He wrote Latin poetry, and his autobiography (as partly read in a later scene) was written in fairly decent Latin.

Now--the vestments. It looked as if the producers had raided all of the costume shops in Lower Manhattan, and a few of the church sacristies, and tossed together whatever looked good to them--none of it the least bit authentic.

Bishop Quentin's getup was the worst--a modern Byzantine chasuble and a 15th-century Venetian Doge's cap. The copes worn by the other bishops and Patrick were of 18th-century design, which persisted down to fairly recently, when the flaps on the back began to be restored as proper hoods--and these were topped off in the film with 16th-century Canterbury caps! The white surplices worn by the messengers and acolytes and the white albs worn by the slaughtered flock of newly-baptized came right off the shelf of Guardian Church Goods on 7th Street. Pfui.

As I said, enjoyable enough, but it could have been way better if the producers had simply asked me!

This film essentially begins with the story of "St. Patrick" (Patrick Bergen) when he was a teenager living with his parents in Britain. One night he decides to witness a Druid ceremony and while participating in it a band of slave traders appear and take him to Ireland to sell on the slave market. He is then bought for 3 gold pieces and put to work tending his master's flock of sheep all by himself. It's at this time that he humbles himself before the Lord and begins to have visions which tell him of events that must transpire. After 6 years in slavery he is then guided onto a passing ship and taken back to Britain where his parents give a feast in his honor. However, their joy is broken when he tells them that he is being called upon to become a priest and join a monastery. But that's only part of his destiny. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that, although somewhat entertaining, the truth is that I found it rather disappointing. I say this because I had been hoping to see something more historically accurate than the myth and magic presented. As a matter of fact, some of the scenes were simply too preposterous and unrealistic to be believed. And it was all so unnecessary. That said I have rated this movie accordingly. Slightly below average.

With the English church looking to remove his hold over the Christians in Ireland, Patrick sits down to write his life story, starting with his kidnapping into slavery in his teens, his discovery of God and his return to Ireland as a missionary for the Church.

Here's one film that you can pretty much guarantee that you'll be able to catch at least once a year somewhere on cable, not because it's good but mainly because it's one of very few films I can think of about St Patrick. I knew things were going to be rocky from the first five minutes where Patrick confronts a group of heathens and stops their worship by using `his' powers to melt their gold statute and then shatter their rock alter. It played like he was a wizard rather than a priest and, I know the legends maybe do that, but the way the film portrayed him really brought out that side of things.

This telling sucks a lot of life out of the legend and I do think that the story of St Patrick is better told by word of mouth than by this film. The second weakness is that everything is so damn worthy and reverent. I didn't expect jokes but everyone is reading delivering their lines like they are reading the word of God – the young Patrick is especially guilty of this crime. It isn't terrible but it has all the usual flaws of a TVM.

The cast are OK on paper but are only average at best. Bergin is too reverent and really comes across like a lead weight than a character. The support are also too much of cardboard cut-outs and really could have been replaced by anyone doing Oirsh clichés. Malcolm McDowell is actually quite good because it is apparent from the off that he is overplaying and having a bit of fun – at least he brings a bit of sorely needed energy to the film.

Overall if it wasn't for the fact that it is tied to a particular day then I doubt this film would get much of an airing. If you can put up with all the TVM weaknesses then it is still an interesting legend but you really have to dig to find the gold here.