Thomas Merton Movie “Monk on the Run” (2022), 83 minutes
Director: Jacquie Plews
Thomas Merton, writer, poet, mystic, monk, activist, pioneer in Buddhist Christian dialogue and traveler, was among the most famous Catholic thinkers of the last century. This film is a two part recapitulation of his life and the themes of his life. The first part is recollections by his admirers, friends and acquaintances and clippings from some of his presentations. In Part II (Winter Rain: Six Images of Thomas Merton ) Michael Moriarty presents an intimate view of Merton in the form of a long soliloquy. He begins with his entry into monastic life at a historic moment when Pearl Harbor had brought the U S into the World War. His early life marked by the untimely loss of his mother, his troubled youth and the various phases of his life as writer, student of religions, his interactions with Eastern religions, and his controversial involvement in socio political movements are depicted. The film begins with Merton’s arrival at the remote Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky which satisfied his yearning for “a simple and romantic life.” Here he would spend the rest of his life dedicated to deep contemplation, writing and occasional journeys outside especially to satisfy his yearning to know diverse religious traditions outside Christianity. Born of Welsh artist parents in France, Merton was baptized in the Anglican Church. The family migrated to the U S during World War I. He and his brother lost their mother in their childhood. He graduated in languages and English literature and made friends with many prominent artists and academics of his time. His exploration of religions, finally led him to the Catholic Church and into monasticism. He earned his reputation as a writer and went on to write about 60 books in 20 years including his autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain.
The movie gives us a glimpse into his inner journey encouraging each of us to take the real journey in life – the inner journey of growth. In the closing sequences we are given glimpses of his inner conflicts and the tensions between his religious identity as Father Lewis and the public persona the writer ‘Thomas Merton’, treated with self-criticism and humour.
Our Lady of San Juan: four Centuries of Miracles (2021) 122 minutes
Director: Noé González
Cast: Mau Lopez, Alex Peña, Alejandra Yáñez, Frank Rodríguez, Humberto Fuentes, John A. Webber.
This is a dramatization of the famous legend surrounding Our Lady of San Juan, Guadalajara, juxtaposing it with the experience of miraculous healing and restoration in a Mexican working class family. The story of San Juan goes back to the early colonial era, when travelling Franciscan missionaries installed a wood carving of the Virgin by a Nochiztleca tribal artist which was shifted to Mezquitilan in 1542 where the statue was devoutly preserved in a mud walled chapel by a tribal couple. In 1623 a trapeze artist and his family passed through the village. Legend says that during a performance, the little daughter of the family fell off and was killed. The native woman who guarded the Virgin statue laid it on the dead girl and prayed, resulting in a miraculous restoration to life. Since then the place has grown into a centre of pilgrimage and innumerable miracles were reported from there, inviting worldwide attention. St John Paul II visited the shrine in1990. The film retells the old legend in much detail, involving a dashing circus man and his adventurous romance with Maria, the daughter of an impoverished Spanish aristocrat trapped in debt by a scheming slaver. The horseman rescues Maria and they marry. He travels around Mexico as a circus performer, and later experiences the miraculous restoration of his dead daughter. This story runs parallel to the story of the alcoholic Pancho and his wife Carmen the hardworking tailor in a clothes factory in the city. They have frequent quarrels over Pancho’s irresponsibility and drunkenness. Pancho loses his job and still refuses to give up his drunkenness. Things take a worse turn when their only daughter the beautiful and talented Gabriela is found with an incurable heart disease requiring costly and prolonged treatment. Gabriela is clinically dead. But she has an out of body experience in which she meets the Virgin along with her dead hospital mate Pedro who had died earlier. The film highlights the force of faith, “a driving force that is greater than human will which allows us to perform colossal tasks” as the film declares at the opening.
Prof Gigy Joseph
To subscribe to the magazine, click Subscribe
