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So much average

Sick Product of a Sick System

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

OF GODS AND MEN tells the real story of a band of French Christian monks who continued to live in Algeria after the French gave that country its independence. They live in harmony with the local Muslim community, offering everything from medical skills to advice on love, but the coming of the Algerian Civil War ends that. The tension is ratcheted up as the countryside becomes militarised, with roadblocks and corpses appearing. The Islamist GIA turn up and demand the monks leave, or else they will be murdered. The monks discuss among themselves and after a lot of thought and debate they decide to stay. Eventually (spoilers) they are seized and beheaded, although the film carefully doesn't say by whom as nobody knows if the GIA or the government were responsible (especially as the DRS - Algerian intelligence - was manipulating the GIA throughout the war). It's a portrait of faith and humanity that is just subtle - thanks to fine acting and muted direction - enough to work, although the 'Last Supper' scene comes perilously close to over-doing it. It's a rare film that is serious about God, which makes this worth the watch alone.

'Of Gods and Men', inspired by a true story, tells of a group of Christian monks living in Algeria and trying to come to terms with the rise in Islamic terrorism, which threatens their way of life and indeed, their chances of even staying alive. But the film is very slow. The beginning is almost impossible to enjoy; once one comes to share a sense of the monks' dilemma, it becomes more interesting, but the pace is still glacial: there are a few visually powerful scenes which overstay their welcome simply by over-extending themselves. The depiction of the monks, and even (in brief glimpses) of the terrorists, is humane, but there's only so many scenes of men signing hymns that a film needs, and this one has too many of them.

Of Gods and Men starts out rather softly and rather reeks out the lonesomeness of the monastery. Then the story builds up well, with repeated moments of heightened tensions and subsequent moments of slow down. That way the story being told can be viewed as one not so scary. In a way, the movie succeeds in telling the story from the perspective of the monks themselves who have surrendered their lives to God long before they meet death. The movie portrays the relationship between the monastery and the surrounding community very nicely, in a way that many fanatics will get disgruntled with. The acting is a nice overall. The aura of stillness is balanced between all the monks, despite the varying levels of fear, tranquility and or anxiety among the characters.

By my title I mean one needn't be religious to appreciate this film. I watched it in three forty minute sessions on consecutive nights. I recommend such viewing because the dialog really needs to be absorbed and the movie lacks the thrills, suspense, etc., that lesser two-hour movies rely on. It's kind of like a classroom that you have to come back to after being refreshed and with a lesson you have allowed to sink in after a day. If I may give it away, the individual Trappist monks, in their sessions with Christian, each give convincing arguments for their decision to stay the course. Again, you need not be a believer. The key teachings of this film are of conviction and the need to give meaning to one's life. Courage is merely a by-product of this exercise of this conviction. Pacifism really has little to do with the group's motivation and tragic end. I can only do justice to OF GODS AND MEN by quoting Keats, "Beauty is truth and truth, beauty."