Constantine's Sword

Constantine's Sword refers to the Christian Cross, the vision of which caused Constantine the Great, to cry out the timeless words " In Hoc Signo Vinces" (in this sign, you will conquer.) transforming a symbol of love and peace into an icon of war. James Carroll, an ex Catholic priest, looked at this side of his religion in his acclaimed book of the same title published in 2001. Having read the 750 pages covering the two millenniums of Christianity, fascinated by the writers ability to weave facts into a tale as absorbing as the best work of fiction, I was intrigued to see whether he could condense such a rich tapestry of history into the time limits of a commercial documentary.

He couldn't; but the film that was made captures the essential message of the book,while adding a new more important role of social commentary on the America that only came into existence after the book was published. With the multi-front assault on the very concept of a "Wall of Separation between Church and State," lead by right wing evangelicals, this film immediately jumps to the forefront of the intellectual resistance to this transformation of America.

Constantine's Sword has two distinct threads. The first is the history of Christianity as a force of oppressive xenophobia, culminating with the abetting of the worst crime of our time, the holocaust. The other thread is in the present, focusing on the resistance of a single family, that of Mikey Weinstein, who challenges the evangelical dominance of a single institution, the U.S. Air Force Academy. Left on the editing floor, dictated by the time constraints of the medium, was adequate connecting tissue between the two. The real story of the aggressive evangelizing of the Air Force cadets is that of the future, with footage not accessible; a future that this film is attempting to prevent.

Compared to centuries of atrocities by Christians against Jews, vividly shown in the film by descendants of some who suffered, the stress of the young Weinstein men at the academy is trivial. What is not trivial, is the change in tone within the current administration that encourages such actions, leaving the unasked question: if this is happening now, what will the future bring. With this film, James Carroll has continued his career of self sacrifice that began by going against his beloved father, a three star Air Force general, in opposing the war in Viet Nam, a breach that was never healed. I can only imagine how it pained him to see vital elements of his book excluded from the film in order to give it visual impact.

They chose a prominent evangelical minister to present the argument for the legitimacy of aggressive evangelizing at the academy, who did so, with charismatic forcefulness. This provided the only moment of ironic laughter from the audience, as the minister was Ted Haggard, who later was publicly disgraced by exposure of his personal sexual hypocrisy. In the 21st century, America's political direction will be shaped at least as much by market share, by exposure to competing messages, as by the intrinsic merit of underlying ideas. The laughter at Haggard's words just may distract from the the profound message of the connection between past and future that Carroll is making. But then again, this segment may bring more people to see a film that otherwise would be too heavy for a night out at the movies.

In a world of sound bite politics, this film is a serious study of a religious revival that is transforming our country, and as a global power, affecting the world. I give it my most enthusiastic recommendation with a single condition- that anyone who is moved by this film, as you will be, also go out and buy the book-- and take the time to savor every word.

Went to see this film with great expectations - Carroll's massive book with the same title is fascinating to say the least - a brilliant writer with exceptional knowledge of his topic. But the film is a far cry from the book; actually, I found the documentary quite tepid, adding little to facts, otherwise, very well known. The antisemite aspects in Christianity are highly complex issues, treated, for some unknown reason, in a simplistic manner in the film (which, again, is not the case of the book, a grand incursion into the subject). Anyone with even a slight interest in history will find the film lame and a bit boring. He attempts to touch on various points and, in my opinion at least, loses himself by aiming at various targets at once.

In regard to the rise of the Fundamentalist Christian Right, which is progressively taking over America and its Government, I would suggest another documentary, the excellent "Camp Jesus" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/), which is way better than "Constantine's Sword" at getting the message across - in Carroll's case, stick with book and skip the film, which doesn't do justice to Carroll's genius.

The protagonist of this convoluted and intellectually stimulating documentary is John Carroll, once a Catholic priest, now a successful writer and the father of two grown children. The film dramatizes Carroll's best-selling 770-page 2001 book of the same name exploring reasons why he left the priesthood. Chief among these is the Church's historical role in the persecution of the Jews. According to Carroll, the New Testament falsifies what is known of history in depicting Jews as Christ-killers, and the Church's culpability all grows from there. Moreover Constantine, the Roman emperor who converted to Christianity, transformed the cross into a sword and Christianity got blood on its hands in the Crusades and the Inquisition; but it got a lot worse when Hitler came along and the Vatican stood by and watched. As the Kirkus review put it, the book 'Constantine's Sword' is essentially the "first 2,000 years of Catholic-Jewish relations retold as a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end—at Auschwitz." Perhaps Carroll's most eye-opening point is to remind us that the Nazis were Christians.

To appreciate the film, you have to flow along with Carroll's personal journey and also humor director Jacoby's sometimes tired methodology. Scene after scene is a trite setup where Carroll poses some question, goes somewhere, and gets canned answers from some local expert. It's a device that's been used thousands and thousands of times. Luckily the material is controversial enough to keep things lively anyway.

Carroll's father went from a Chicago slaughterhouse to became so successful as an FBI agent that he was promoted to Edgar Hoover's inner circle and became an Air Force general involved in high-level intelligence planning. Hence John once considered attending the Air Force Academy. So he tells us as he drives there--then dives into descriptions of how Mel Gibson's arguably anti-Semitic 'Passion of the Christ' movie was so heavily promoted at the Academy through evangelicals, cadets felt obligated to attend--and how Jewish cadet Casey Weinstein met with constant anti-Semitism, and how his father Mikey, also an Academy graduate, felt compelled to sue the Air Force for discrimination. Delving into the shocking penetration of evangelical proselytizing at the Academy, Carroll interviews the square-jawed rictus-smiling Colorado evangelical mega-church leader Ted Haggard, evidently a key figure in these machinations.

It's hard to recount in a few paragraphs how it all fits together; maybe it doesn't. No; it does. But many--particularly orthodox Catholics--would hotly dispute the accuracy of some parts. For them, the fabric comes undone.

Anyway, Carroll traces the history of the Emperor Constantine (voiced here by actor Liev Schreiber) as a seminal moment, when the state and Christianity were interwoven, when the Pope became a secular as well as religious leader. The cross became the main symbol of Christianity, with its bloody associations and its sword-like shape and anti-Semitic overtones (if you see the Crucifixion as the fault of the Jews), and the Crusaders went out and massacred Jews in a string of communities in the East.

Another story Carroll tells is that of St. Edith Stein (voiced by Natasha Richardson), a 20th-century Jewish convert to Catholicism who begged for protection from the Nazis in a letter to Cardinal Pacelli, but got no answer and died in the camps. Pacelli became Pope Pius XII, who was called "Hitler's Pope" or "Hitler's Cardinal" for his early friendliness to the Nazis and failure to speak out against the Holocaust. This is part of Carroll's personal story because St. Edith lived in Germany and Carroll's family also lived there while his father was chief of staff of the United States Air Forces in Europe. There were nine children in the family, by the way, which impressed the Pope when the family had an audience. Carroll's time in Germany alerted him not only to St. Edith Stein but to the holy relic of The Robe kept at the Cathedral of Trier, said to have been worn by Jesus at the time of the Crucifixion, which Carroll declares a total fiction. Did he think it authentic when he first saw it in his youth? How much did he really believe, and how much does he just choose to bring up now to strengthen his main indictment? That's not so clear. But What a tangled web we weave (to coin a phrase) when first we practice to believe.

The subject of the papacy leads Carroll to Rome and its ghetto--for which the Vatican was directly responsible, and whose history he presents along with some interesting personal interviews with members of old Roman Jewish families.

Carroll's own fraught time as a Catholic priest was from 1969 to 1974; the (disapproving) Kirkus review asserts that he "remains an angry 1960s-era Catholic." He was galvanized politically by the anti-war movement and stood in protests with Father Daniel Berrigan. His father, on the other hand, ever more deeply involved in the military establishment, headed the Defense Intelligence Agency during the Vietnam era, which led to conflicts.

Follow-ups at the film's conclusion include the information about Mikey Weinstein's death threats since he brought suit against the Air Force; complicity of high officials in the US military in religious proselytizing; the resignation of Ted Haggard from his mega-church under a cloud of scandal for drug abuse and a three-year affair with a male prostitute; and information about how the present Pope Benedict XVI has waffled on the issue of Jewish guilt in the scapegoating of the Jews issue.

Carroll ends with a speech about how the world of religion is a "lake of gasoline." If you pitch one match in it, it can fire up. In this context it seems a pity Carroll spends so much time about his personal concern with the troubled relations between Judaism and Christianity, when it is the old conflict with Islam that looms largest nowadays. This limitation is due to the fact that Jacoby and Carroll, even though they did some updating, are basically working with a pre-9/11 source.

This was an excellent documentary by a former Catholic Priest into the actions of his Church, the evangelical movement, and politicians over the years to discriminate and kill in the name of Jesus.

It starts with an overview of the indoctrination of Air Force cadets at the military academy and the resulting bigotry and discrimination against Jews and those who will not accept the views of Ted haggard (the preacher who was caught in a sex scandal) and other Christo-fascists. The film ends with another visit and the attempts of the Academy to cover up what is going on and dismiss the report on the takeover by the evangelicals.

James Carroll spends the time in-between visiting Germany and Italy and other places he had seen in his youth as a military dependent. he reminisced on holy sites and relics. he gave a good history of the Catholic Church and it';s relationship with the Nazis and how they contributed to the persecution and death of the Jews.

Those wanting to see how Jews were persecuted and how our political leaders are infusing religion into politics would be well served by this film.

Seldom does one find themselves mesmerized by the sheer intelligence of a documentary, but in Constantines Sword the film makers articulate exploration of the all encompassing question of religion and it's place in the world is breathtaking. The film exposes, quietly and without manipulation, an underlying and unhealthy historical familiarity between the modern evangelical Christian movement and previous fervent Christian crusaders. Their anti-Semitic nature perfectly presented.

The film expertly navigates its way through complex historical and philosophical religious concepts, made easy through the very personal story of James Carrol. Part narrator part subject Carrol's view of the world is one we wish all men could share.

Pitch perfect, expertly edited, researched and directed Constantines Sword is a truly remarkable documentary, one that could only be born of such conservative times.