"I really think the biopic thing so rarely works, because people's lives don't have a dramatic shape that can be satisfying" (Bill Condon)
Based on a true story...
Having seen the film last night with the 'promotional' Gospel message, it is hard to say 'I doubt most things' and yet even harder to claim 'I don't doubt any of these things?' Which things? Not so much the Gospel content but the ones executed here in the story about Raul Ries - the Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Golden Springs. The opening sequence of the 'in media res' approach may recall a rather detective story than a film filled with such an intense spiritual undertone. It is quite soon when viewers may realize that it is not a linear storytelling of some biopic (relief to some) but not as soon as they find it quite unrealistic and idealistic where 'swords will soon be turned into plowshares' and rifles into smiles. Can something of that sort catch the attention of a movie buff except for the introductory information...
based on a true story?
The introduction of young Raul is filled with such an intensified aspect of rebellion, frustration that one may foretell the sooner or later time for a change, for a transformation. Something cinema has offered since the silent period ... redemptive, mature message of ever present chance for a change of heart (just to recall the great classic PHANTOM CARRIAGE). Skeptical as the viewers may be at times, these films have not occurred failures. Some occurred laughable at least. It seems beyond make-believe efforts, however, to depict such a dramatic metamorphosis of the protagonist that recalls a Saint Paul-like figure and his 'Road to Damascus' experience in an encouraging way. A question will arise "how is the change executed by the director and the actor?" and the slightest naiveness will make the entire film a failure that you will soon want to forget.
We see Raul (Tom Silardi) as a truly furious personality, not only an ill-mannered one but a villain, a 'nuisance' in society, in family, in community. Life on the verge of gutter! Ready to say to his father "I'll kill you!" his everyday bread are fights, drugs, ignorance. He spits at all values and it seems that nothing or no one can make him a better person, not even Vietnam experience, not even his wife Sharon (Joy Vogel). Though skilled at Kung Fu, he uses the fighting techniques for absolutely different targets. And though he does not create any sympathy in us, particularly when he beats his wife, we get used to the way he is. The metamorphosis comes when he is going to shoot his wife and kids. At the religious program on TV he sees unwillingly and unexpectedly, a rifle slowly falls from his hand onto the floor. His heart is touched forever... Shock? Disbelief? Laughter? Forgive a skeptical viewer! Great credit here to the actor Tom Silardi who takes all pains to make it appealing...but, unfortunately, he does not manage to do so satisfactorily enough due to the screenplay. The scene is hardly believable and it is surely difficult to take it seriously. And that is where foregoing storytelling is at odds with any continuity or logic. The rest of the film fails to absorb as a 'make-believe.'
If FURY TO FREEDOM is worth seeing, then solely for the sake of Tom Silardi's performance.
Let me dare doubt Bill Condon's opinion...There is a satisfying dramatic shape in people's lives but movie makers should know how to adapt it to the screen, which is hardly the case in FURY TO FREEDOM.
Based on a true story...
Having seen the film last night with the 'promotional' Gospel message, it is hard to say 'I doubt most things' and yet even harder to claim 'I don't doubt any of these things?' Which things? Not so much the Gospel content but the ones executed here in the story about Raul Ries - the Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Golden Springs. The opening sequence of the 'in media res' approach may recall a rather detective story than a film filled with such an intense spiritual undertone. It is quite soon when viewers may realize that it is not a linear storytelling of some biopic (relief to some) but not as soon as they find it quite unrealistic and idealistic where 'swords will soon be turned into plowshares' and rifles into smiles. Can something of that sort catch the attention of a movie buff except for the introductory information...
based on a true story?
The introduction of young Raul is filled with such an intensified aspect of rebellion, frustration that one may foretell the sooner or later time for a change, for a transformation. Something cinema has offered since the silent period ... redemptive, mature message of ever present chance for a change of heart (just to recall the great classic PHANTOM CARRIAGE). Skeptical as the viewers may be at times, these films have not occurred failures. Some occurred laughable at least. It seems beyond make-believe efforts, however, to depict such a dramatic metamorphosis of the protagonist that recalls a Saint Paul-like figure and his 'Road to Damascus' experience in an encouraging way. A question will arise "how is the change executed by the director and the actor?" and the slightest naiveness will make the entire film a failure that you will soon want to forget.
We see Raul (Tom Silardi) as a truly furious personality, not only an ill-mannered one but a villain, a 'nuisance' in society, in family, in community. Life on the verge of gutter! Ready to say to his father "I'll kill you!" his everyday bread are fights, drugs, ignorance. He spits at all values and it seems that nothing or no one can make him a better person, not even Vietnam experience, not even his wife Sharon (Joy Vogel). Though skilled at Kung Fu, he uses the fighting techniques for absolutely different targets. And though he does not create any sympathy in us, particularly when he beats his wife, we get used to the way he is. The metamorphosis comes when he is going to shoot his wife and kids. At the religious program on TV he sees unwillingly and unexpectedly, a rifle slowly falls from his hand onto the floor. His heart is touched forever... Shock? Disbelief? Laughter? Forgive a skeptical viewer! Great credit here to the actor Tom Silardi who takes all pains to make it appealing...but, unfortunately, he does not manage to do so satisfactorily enough due to the screenplay. The scene is hardly believable and it is surely difficult to take it seriously. And that is where foregoing storytelling is at odds with any continuity or logic. The rest of the film fails to absorb as a 'make-believe.'
If FURY TO FREEDOM is worth seeing, then solely for the sake of Tom Silardi's performance.
Let me dare doubt Bill Condon's opinion...There is a satisfying dramatic shape in people's lives but movie makers should know how to adapt it to the screen, which is hardly the case in FURY TO FREEDOM.