Paul, the Apostle of Christ (4/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 117 minutes

PG

St. Paul the Apostle, AKA Saul of Tarsus, is not only the most important ordinary human being in the history of Christianity, he is also one of the greatest, and most quoted, writers who ever lived. His life, and what he accomplished, have fascinated untold generations. Without him, there is little doubt but that Christianity would not have succeeded.

Although his deeds are memorialized through his letters, now known as epistles, and the book of the Bible entitled “Acts of the Apostles,” quite a bit is known about his ministry, but nothing is known of the last couple of years of his life which he spent imprisoned in Rome. When I heard about this movie I was hoping that it would bring more light about his amazing years of ministry and his relationship with the original apostles, like Peter, who knew Jesus.

Instead this movie is almost totally a complete fiction about his last few weeks on earth. This is a shame. It is based almost solely on a mention in one of his last letters when he was in prison and he wrote that “Luke is here with me.”

Luke (Jim Caviezel, who was last seen in a Christian epic playing Jesus going through his passion) is pictured as a man much younger than Paul (James Faulkner), and this could be true since neither man knew Jesus personally. In the film he is helping to write Paul’s bio which became the aforementioned Acts’.

But to ignore what is known about this fascinating man to invent a speculative story that is totally devoid of truthfulness and historical accuracy results in us still knowing very little about him.

The film shows the Romans grotesquely burning Christians alive, using the pyres to light the streets of Rome. Contrasted with the contrived story, this has some basis in fact because the Roman historian Tacitus wrote, “Mockery of every sort was added to their (Christians) deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.” Was this hyperbole? Who knows, but at least it has some basis in fact.

Worse than not delving into the facts of Paul’s life is the absurd B story about the Roman who ran the prison, Mauritius Gallas (Olivier  Martinez), having a daughter fighting for her life while he was torturing Paul and Luke, a physician, who could help Gallas’s daughter, and was visiting Paul constantly. Would Mauritius ask for Luke’s help? This tale is sheer nonsense, a Hollywood twist not appropriate to the seriousness of the subject.

While the film does show the dire straits in which Christians found themselves under the mad Emperor Nero, this was very disappointing. I know no more about Paul than I did before.