Photos by David Alexanian, Copyright 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>I became acquainted with grief at a very young age. As a result, for significant periods of my childhood and even into young adulthood, I felt I knew something my peers didn\u2019t. Now in middle age, I understand intellectually that more of my peers have had what is a very common life experience, but because of the experience of formative years, I\u2019m still always surprised when the representation of grief in art\u2013particularly art from those who are not yet in their twilight years\u2013rings true.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s not a whole lot about Emilio Estevez\u2019s The Way<\/em> that doesn\u2019t ring true. Given the fact that the film tackles some of life\u2019s deepest emotions and largest themes\u2013grief, love, faith, community\u2013that\u2019s quite a compliment.<\/p>\nMartin Sheen plays Tom Avery, an American\u00a0ophthalmologist who receives word that his son has been killed while walking the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage trail in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain sometimes referred to as The Way of Saint James. Perhaps impulsively or perhaps in desperation, Tom decides to walk the pilgrims\u2019 trail himself, to finish the journey his son began.<\/p>\n
Obviously, such a role calls for an actor of immense talent, both to convey the depth and layers of feeling of a parent mourning his child and to eschew the more melodramatic histrionics that would cause such material to become overly and overtly sentimental. Sheen, one of our national acting treasures, is perfect for such a part, bringing it gravity but also dignity. I love that in introducing a movie about fathers and sons, rituals and traditions, Estevez chose to describe Sheen by borrowing from another famous director, John Huston, talking about his own father. \u201cHe never tried to sell you something.\u201d The film needs that kind of iconic confidence at its center, because for long periods Tom, in his grief, goes inside himself, and the film must have the confidence to let him, to allow us to be one of the community with him, each broken in his or her own way, each striving for understanding, light, and hope.<\/p>\n
Do you want to know one thing that is true about grief? Movies tend to think that what we remember and treasure in our hearts are the big gestures people make to acknowledge the hugeness of our loss. But that\u2019s not the case. What stays with you are scores of small kindnesses from people that remind you that life is worth living, that in our sadness, our emptiness, and our poverty, most people can be very, very decent. \u201cTo be kind,\u201d George MacDonald once wrote, \u201cneither hurts nor compromises.\u201d It may be the only thing that doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Estevez talked rather self-effacingly at the Toronto International Film Festival of not<\/em> directing his father, of surrounding himself with talented people and \u201cgetting out of the way.\u201d He did direct, Sheen insisted. It\u2019s easy enough to \u00a0see how both descriptions are true. In a post-Cahiers<\/em> film world, we take certain theories of auteurship for granted. Our picture of the director is of someone who, Hitchcock-like, plans and controls every detail of the film in his head. Estevez spoke of making a film about community by making a community, using natural light, shooting in Super 16 and making technical choices appropriate to the thematic content of the film. These are directorial decisions that shape the film and were appropriate, but the creation of a community of like-minded people pursuing a goal should not be underestimated. The care and compassion these people have for each other reaches beyond performance and says something about the material\u2019s and location\u2019s ability to affect actors and not just vice-versa. I wish he hadn\u2019t used the device of having the father occasionally \u201csee\u201d his dead son, but\u2013as one viewer stressed to me\u2013that (hearing\/seeing those who are absent) is an experience, hinted at by other characters in the film which is not uncommon to those who are grieving.<\/p>\nIn circles in which I sometimes converse, there have been, for as long as I can remember, discussions about Christians in the art, about how to get more films that are faith friendly and about the corrosive moral effects of \u201cHollywood\u201d or the \u201cHollywood culture.\u201d Every now and then, though, I\u2019ll run across a song like Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cIf It Be Your Will\u201d or a film like The Way<\/em>, that not only puts \u201cChristian\u201d films to shame but that makes me exasperated at the whole notion of \u201cChristian\u201d as an identity politics genre. If you want more great Christian art, go find great artists and support them in their desire to speak, write, and represent the truth. Hollywood is made up of people\u2013many of whom, it turns out, are more complex, interesting, and thoughtful than we might guess based on nothing more than a quick glimpse of their IMDB filmography.<\/p>\nOne audience member at the Toronto Film Festival who had done this pilgrimage himself spoke glowingly of how the film\u2019s latter scenes captured perfectly the experience of arriving in Santiago de Compostela. The Way<\/em> is the first non-documentary film granted permission to film inside the church, and the scenes of the pilgrims arriving, how each responds to the rituals, to each other, and to the dawning realizations that they are neither the first nor the last to walk the path they\u2019ve walked or bear the burdens they\u2019ve borne, is as deeply moving and passionately spiritual a moment as you are likely to get in commercial, narrative film. You know what would be a little miracle that would make me happy? If Christians who wanted to \u201csend Hollywood a message\u201d with their pocketbooks would eschew boycotting the next \u201cR\u201d rated slezefest that gets them all tied up in knots and try the reverse for once. Pick up the phone and call your favorite studio and say, \u201cI\u2019ve got $10 and I really<\/em> want to see this movie.\u201d<\/p>\nHey, it\u2019s worth a try. Turns out The Way<\/em>\u2013here\u2019s the kicker\u2013doesn\u2019t yet have a major distribution deal.<\/p>\nThe Way<\/em> is funny, sad, somber, and, above all, true. It is life-affirming in most of the best senses of the phrase. It\u2019s easily one of my favorite films of the year thus far. If you get an opportunity to see it, seize it. You won\u2019t be sorry. It you don\u2019t, that\u2019s okay, too, just so long as you promise not to complain that there\u2019s nothing but sex and explosions at the multiplex these days.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There’s not a whole lot about Emilio Estevez’s The Way that doesn’t ring true. Given the fact that the film tackles some of life’s deepest emotions and largest themes–grief, love, faith, community–that’s quite a compliment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1555,"featured_media":11146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,441],"tags":[442,443,444],"class_list":["post-2394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-festivals","category-toronto-international-film-festival-2010-film-festivals","tag-emilio-estevez","tag-martin-sheen","tag-the-way"],"yoast_head":"\n
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