St. Patrick: The Irish Legend

I want to begin with agreeing and applauding placid-3's review. The historical inaccuracies, in my opinion, undermine the story's convictions. Reading a King James bible before it's creation, coupled with all the other miracles, would be less believable then Patrick obtaining a set of magical scrolls containing gold-glowing scripts of the gospels.

The next very bothersome inaccuracy is the blatant antagonizing view of the Druids at the time. In the beginning scenes during the Samhain festival the High Priest is heard praying to the "powers of darkness" as though he were praying to the Devil.

In truth, the "Gods of Darkness" are not evil aspects of their pantheon, but instead simply the deity of Autumn and Winter as a personification mirroring these seasons. The Druids were praying to a God closely related in aspect to Santa Claus, whom, before being indoctrinated into the Church as Saint Nicholas, was in fact, the Germanic/Pagan icon known as the Holly King.

Other issues were the depictions of animal sacrifice as somehow immoral. When, even in the Bible, Abel sacrifices his favored flock in praise of God. Animal offerings were common before Christ, and though lacking the "ceremony", existed even after Him.

Next is Human sacrifice depicted as frequently occurring, when this is confused with symbolic sacrifice. Had you known nothing of Catholicism, hearing of rituals where the flesh and blood of a man were imbibed, you would believe this to be atrocious cannibalism. In reality priests underwent a symbolic death personifying the daylight sun's departure. Bones discovered at holy sites were confused with human sacrifice simply by placement; the same could be concluded with this reasoning on bones in church yards.

Slavery now is an immense moral taboo, but back in that time was incredibly common and not as evil as the 19th century America's. Patrick being of Roman patronage would have had quite a few slaves, though they would be more conscript/peon then what we have come to consider slaves today. In reality, slaves of the time were any of the lower class that were indentured to a land owner and was provided protection, shelter, and food for labor. Without this in the harshness of the time period a person would surely perish; this should not be confused with the inhumane treatment and subjugation of slaves in later centuries.

As a fantasy or legend, the story is good, but just as the church is vilified so too are the aboriginal inhabitants of Ireland; just as a minority of Christians were bad and the majority, like Patrick, were good, the Druids should have been given the same treatment. It is debatable that Patrick's actions caused the civilization of Ireland to lose it's strength against invaders and subsequently open the door to centuries of new oppression, war and misery at the hands of outsiders.

As for all the magical delights, and scenery this movie is awesome. I'm always happy to see the fantasy genre grow and enthralled by it's connection to the Emerald Isles.

The historical truths of Patrick have been embellished like any Legend, but in turn the antagonists have as been exaggerated as well. It would have been nice to have seen two sides of the coin in regards to the Druids, and possibly less emphasis on them being barbarous and evil. They invented the first four walled room you know.

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.

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.

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.

I bought this movie for a dollar at the local library years ago and watched it for the first time today on St. Patrick's Day. The cast is great, the running time is short since it originally aired as a made for TV movie on what is now Freeform, and the plot is simple. The CGI is cheesy though. Definitely worth a rental.