John Wycliffe: The Morning Star

A beautiful portrait of last part of life and posterity of a great man, one of fundamental figures of early Reform for educational purposes. And as good remind of a page of Christianity history ignored, for different reasons, by the large public.

As low budget film, it can be criticized with generosity.

But, in some measure, this is the basic virtue of it - to be a correct, fair, inspired adaptation of a biography , defining its major traits , proposing fair form of message of John Wycliffe. And, sure, giving the opportunity to. Peter Howell to create a touching, sensitive and wise crafted image of his character.

It's almost cliché today to regard Martin Luther as the father of what would come to be known as the Protestant Reformation of the church. That description may well be accurate, but it should be noted that the Reformation had some grandfathers as well, one of whom was John Wycliffe.

Wycliffe was a giant of his day - a renowned scholar and theologian and a very brave man who stood against the powerful religious and civil authorities of the day to proclaim what he perceived to be a true gospel - a gospel of God's grace offered to all without the intervention of the church being necessary. A giant though Wycliffe may have been, this movie that bears his name doesn't measure up to that standard. It's certainly not a lavish production. It's a wee bit grainy and the production values aren't noteworthy. The dialogue at times is a bit stilted, and it's quite slow moving at times, seeming much longer than its 75 minute run time to be honest. Historically, though, it's reasonably accurate in its portrayal of Wycliffe's life from his days as a teacher at Oxford, through to his condemnation as a heretic, his death and then the desecration of his body years later. The "hot button" theological issues of the days are all brought out - from indulgences to the fate of babies who die without being baptized to the doctrine of transubstantiation. There's a brief look at Wycliffe as a social reformer, sympathizing with the plight of oppressed English peasants but refusing to support violent revolution. There's also the account of the act for which he's probably most famous: the decision to make the Scriptures accessible to the "common man" by translating them into English.

No one will mistake this for a masterpiece. It does, however, feature a good performance from Peter Howell as Wycliffe. Howell came across as believable and earnest in the part. For those with an interest in the pre-Reformation reformation, this will be a very interesting watch.

I cannot understand why Hollywood has not produced epic films about the lives of the English Reformers. In so many cases, you have a single man standing against the world, willing to take a stand against corruption. In the case of Wycliff, it did not cost him his life, but it came close several times. This lower-budget, but still outstanding portrayal of Wycliff is worth a careful watch to get acquainted with his life and work and his stand for Christ and the Bible, during an age of corruption. There are several poignant moments where Wycliff answers problems in the world around him with skillful application of Scripture. I watch this movie at least once a year, along with "God's Outlaw" (about William Tyndale) and introduce others to it often.

This movie tells John Wycliffe's story from the time of his teaching days at Oxford though the desecration of his body after his death. This was a period when great spiritual darkness prevailed and the power of the Papacy was very immense. There was no true preaching of the Word of God and most people never saw a Bible. The movie is rather slow but gives a good overview of John Wycliffe's life and the challenges he faced in the name of the Lord. The period costumes are realistic and the movie was filmed in many of the actual locations. The running time is 75 minuets but this still seemed a bit too long thanks in part to long cuts lasting 20 to 30 seconds that show little action such as Wycliffe walking through England on his journey.

Occasionally in history, there are people who are so transcendent that you marvel at them. Consider John Wycliffe and his teachings. During the later years of the so-called 'Dark Ages', he was an amazing lone voice for reason and reform--during an era when no one else before him really cared about such things. The Catholic Church was THE unchallenged authority in the West--yet Wycliffe, a mere professor, stood up against this huge machine. Now by the time of Martin Luther, 150 years later, there had been several other religious dissidents--but Wycliffe did not have them and their examples--making him a truly extraordinary man.

This film is about Wycliffe and his stance against Church abuses. Unfortunately, it completely ignores most of his life and picks up in his latter years--once his heretical teachings came to the Church's attention. I don't blame the filmmakers and assume this is mostly because of time constraints AND because information about his earlier years is probably rather scant. After all, historians tend to focus less on the formative years but on the more famous period of great peoples' lives.

Peter Howell plays Wycliffe. I was very surprised when I saw him because he looked just like contemporary pictures of the religious leader. He also did a nice job putting across Wycliffe's character--such as in the very touching scene where he gently talks with a woman whose child had died. I have no idea if this event actually occurred to Wycliffe and I'd like to assume it did because it showed wonderful strength and gentleness.

"John Wycliffe: The Morning Star" does a decent job explaining the doctrine espoused by Wycliffe and the Lollards (a name given to his followers). However, I might have preferred if it had been more explicit in these beliefs. It does emphasize Wycliffe's belief that the Papacy is NOT the ultimate authority, that the Bible must be translated into the common vernacular of the day, and that we are justified by faith. It doesn't discuss his views on closing the monasteries or some of his other teachings--but does cover most of the major ones. And, interestingly, these are almost identical to those proposed by Luther many, many, many years later.

Overall, this is a film that would probably excite religious folks and historians. Sadly, I doubt if others would watch it--though he was too extraordinary to be forgotten by most others. The film, while not as long and detailed as I might have liked, is exceptionally well made (with very nice costumes and sets) and well worth seeing. This production clearly appears to have been a labor of love.