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CHICAGO — Moviegoers this Easter season likely will not get what they expect when they sit down to watch “Paul, Apostle of Christ,” released in theaters March 23.
For starters, it is not a typical chronological recounting of a saint’s life, abounding in moments of heroic virtue. Forget any scenes of what made Paul famous: his vast travels for the sake of the Gospel, his establishment of fledgling Christian communities and his preaching in the Areopagus.
Instead, moviegoers meet Paul (James Faulkner) in Rome at the end of his life, elderly and imprisoned, frail and exhausted, awaiting his execution. This version of Paul, said writer and director Andrew Hyatt, was the result of much prayer and discernment.
The initial 160-page draft of the film, which was “an A-to-Z biography” of the saint, took Hyatt about three weeks to write. He spent the next eight months shaping it into a story suitable for the big screen.
“We asked ourselves, ‘What could we do to offer an audience a glimpse into the life of Paul and see what Paul has to say to the world at the end of his life?’” he said in an interview with Horizons.
Christians are familiar with Paul’s conversion, travels and preaching, said Hyatt, but “who was Paul at the very end?”
The answer to these questions resulted in the depiction of a wise, ascetic and mild-mannered Paul who, while convinced of God’s mercy and grace, is still burdened by memories of his past sins, namely his role in the persecution of the Early Christians.
Despite his haunting dreams, in his waking hours Paul bears down on God’s mercy and forgiveness, and on Christ’s call to love one’s enemies, remaining faithful to the Gospel until the very end.
The film is unique in delving into the Apostle’s inner, spiritual struggles to convey his greatest lesson: without God’s grace, we can do nothing.
Hyatt’s depiction of Paul is the result of hours of prayer and Scripture reading. The 35-year-old father of two grew up Catholic but walked away from the faith for several years while in college. Similar to many Biblical characters, however, God had other plans for Hyatt.
“I had a major reconversion to faith, very much like Paul’s Damascus experience,” he said, referring to the moment when a flash of light knocked down the then-Pharisee, blinding him and bringing him to faith in Christ’s divinity.
“I studied Paul’s life and the flaws that he had,” said Hyatt. “He was very open in his writings about his life.”
“I had always thought of Paul as angry and passionate,” he said. But, in reading Scripture and more than 40 books on Paul, he discovered a man “so in love with God and Christ that he put everything on the line for him.”
Hyatt, however, found some scholarly explanations about Paul to be “flat and weak.” Some scholars said Paul was referring to his limp and his poor eyesight when speaking about the “thorn in the flesh” that kept him “from becoming conceited” (2 Cor 12:8).
“There is no way this man, with what he went through, is crying out to God about his limp!” said Hyatt.
Prayerfully reflecting on the human, psychological elements in Paul’s story, Hyatt said he came to the insight that Paul’s “thorn” was his regret for having persecuted Early Christians.
“You can know fully you are forgiven and loved, but you still have your memory,” said Hyatt.
“Even at the very end, (Paul) must have been wounded by that,” he added.
A person’s regret and woundedness due to sin — though believing they are fully forgiven — urges them to “go out and to love others,” said Hyatt. “God drove (Paul) to keep seeking love and forgiveness.”
Hyatt said the inner struggles of Paul depicted in the film convey a common experience among Christians that, through one’s thoughts and memories, “the devil keeps trying to convince us that we are not saved and forgiven.”
“An audience can relate to (Paul) in this way, and what we’re trying to say (to the audience) is, ‘No, look at Paul and Luke. They are just like us, and we can do amazing things for God as well,’” he said.
Hyatt said he was “very disciplined” in going on 45-minute meditative walks each morning while writing the script and asking God, “Tell me what I am supposed to say.” He also prayed to St. Paul, asking him to shed light on the storytelling.
Having attended a Jesuit high school and college, Hyatt said he also practiced Ignatian contemplation, or imaginative prayer, in writing the script.
This method includes reflecting on Scripture and placing oneself in a particular Bible story or passage through the use of one’s imagination. Hyatt used this form of prayer, for instance, in imagining the dialogue between St. Paul and St. Luke (Jim Caviezel).
Hyatt said the film is rooted in Scripture, even though parts, including a subplot about the healing of the Roman jailer’s daughter, are fictionalized.
He also consulted Catholic priests, Protestant ministers and rabbis to ensure that the recounting of the story and the use of and faithfulness to Scripture were “accurate enough.”
“This is my faith and it is something that I take seriously,” said Hyatt, who also wrote and directed “Full of Grace” (2015) on the last days in the life of the Mother of God.
“Paul, Apostle of Christ” offers more than a saccharine retelling of a holy life, typical of many Christian films. Rather, it tells the story of a man who ran the race and, in the midst of constantly emerging and recurring struggles, bore down on God’s grace to win the prize.
This profound and introspective psycho-spiritual take on an elderly Paul, who most Christians likely have never contemplated before, makes the film worth the watch.
Caption 1: Andrew Hyatt, writer and director of “Paul, Apostle of Christ,” sits with a well-worn Bible during a video interview on the making of his Scripture-based film.
Caption 2: Writer/director Andrew Hyatt (with cap) speaks with actor Jim Caviezel (right) and actress Joanne Whalley during the filming of “Paul, Apostle of Christ” on set in Malta.
(Photo: 2018 CTMG. All rights reserved.)
As published in Horizons, March 25, 2018
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