Review of There Be Dragons (2011) by Jpur — 21 Mar 2012

The film was selected from Red Box by my wife but as it happens I had been looking into Opus Dei because of Santorum's affiliation with, if not outright membership in, this strange organization. My appetite whetted for more information after watching the movie, I looked up Escrivas entry on Wickipedia. Although the Wikipedia entry mentions some of the controversy surrounding Escriva, the biographical details match pretty closely what we saw in the film. What I have come away with from my admittedly limited research is that to Escriva, when he was alive, and to the organization he founded, image is all all that matters. In protecting its image and that of its founder at all costs, Opus dei strongly resembles other "religious" cults like the LDS and Scientologists who have elevated their founders, the very human Joseph Smith and L. Ron Hubbard, to saintly status. Of the three only Josemaria could become an actual saint, a status he apparently aspired to even before his death. This film was a heavy handed propaganda schlock job commissioned and funded by Opus Dei. 18 of the 19 reviews appearing on this website pan the movie while 14 of 15 users thought it was great. Should I be surprised?

Notwithstanding the high marks given this film by the users, I thought it was a ;pretty bad and 18 of the 19 critics whose reviews appear on this site it thought so too. Since the film was conceived and funded by Opus Dei, it's not a stretch to conclude all or most of the user reviews were writen yu OD members. I have been looking into Opus Dei during the last week or so .