FILM REVIEW
SAINT JOHN BOSCO: MISSION TO LOVE
Produced by
LuxVide in association with RAI, Blue Star Movies, and the Salesians (2004).
Directed by
Lodovico Gasparini. Starring Flavio Insinna, Lina Sastri, Charles Dance, and
Lewis Crutch.
English or Italian
vocal, with Spanish or English subtitles option. Color. 200 minutes. DVD.
Includes
behind-the-scenes features and a viewers guide.
When Saint
John Bosco: Mission to Love was first shown on Italy’s
RAI-TV, according to reports it drew a greater audience than soccer games over
those two nights—no mean feat in Europe. “This
just NEVER happens in Italy!”
remarks an Australian Salesian working in Rome.
“Italians thought this film was just the best thing since sliced bread.” Ignatius
Press has finally brought to part of the English-speaking world this
long-awaited production. (It appears that Ignatius did not secure world-wide
rights.)
Mission to Love tells Don Bosco’s story
in dramatic and lively fashion. After an opening scene based on conflict with
his archbishop, it flashes back to his life in Becchi. He narrates to his
mother a part of his first dream, meets Fr. Calosso and starts to study, has
numerous confrontations with a large, angry Anthony, leaves home to study for
the priesthood in Chieri, is ordained, goes to Turin and learns of the
difficulties met there by young farm boys trying to make their way, and starts
up his Oratory with Fr. Cafasso at his side. And it proceeds straightforwardly
to the point where we started, and beyond, up to the firm establishment of the
Salesians, who will continue the saint’s work.
More than
the earlier Alessandrini (1936) and Castellani (1987) films, Mission to Love brings home the great
challenge that young Don Bosco must have faced in reality as he entered Turin’s
jails or traveled the city streets to meet troubled or idle youngsters. There’s
no “I want Don Bosco!” (Alessandrini) but plenty of “Get lost, priest!” Of
course he eventually wins over many of these toughs, and the dramatic day’s outing
from the Generala jail is recounted here as in both the older movies.
This newest
version does a much better job than Castellani’s film of showing why the
Oratory faced opposition from some people in authority. On the part of the
prefect of the city, there’s fear of revolution, very clear here. On the part
of hard-driving employers, there’s the fear of awaking youngsters to workers’
rights. The anticlericalism of the late 1840s and 1850s also comes forth, with
a strong emphasis on Don Bosco’s place at the side of “the people,” among the
poor. None of that appears in the oldest movie, Alessandrini’s, which was
purely celebratory in honor of the saint’s recent canonization. There are no
assassination attempts, as in Castellani, and, alas!, no Grigio this time.
The source
of Don Bosco’s conflict with his religious superior, the archbishop, is
presented a little more clearly than in the Castellani film. That, too, was
entirely lacking in Alessandrini’s. We see here the early friendship between
the saint and the archbishop as well as its breakdown. The archbishop is
zealous to train priests, is anxious not to appear to be Don Bosco’s
creation—Don Bosco having proposed to Pius IX his appointment—and an
unfortunate anonymous pamphlet publicizes their dispute. Don Bosco accurately
describes (to the Pope) the archbishop as “ardent,” and the archbishop
describes (to his clergy) Don Bosco as “proud,” though Salesians would prefer
to say “convinced he was right,” or perhaps “persistent.” We see Don Bosco
abase himself, in obedience to the Pope, to end the conflict just moments after
the archbishop has called him proud.
Gasparini’s
film, unlike the older ones, introduces Dominic Savio, portraying well his
eagerness to practice holiness and the esteem he earned both among his peers
and with his mentor. We also encounter as real characters and not just names
thrown at cassocked figures (in the style of Alessandrini), a few of the early
Salesians: Rua, Cagliero, Buzzetti, with some evidence of their varying
personalities.
Gasparini
gives some prominence to St. Francis de Sales that was missing in the earlier
movies, as patron of the work and, very evidently, the source of the name
“Salesian.”
One of the
movie’s great strengths is the role of Mama Margaret: as teacher of young John,
as strong mother in the family at Becchi, and as companion and mother of all at
Valdocco.
An even
bigger strength is what one viewer calls the film’s use of the ipsissima verba of St. John Bosco, his
very own words. We hear them in the dialog between the two saints, Bosco and
Savio, and in numerous other dialogs, as well as in the priest’s catechism
lessons. They concern the path of holiness, the means of educating the young,
making oneself loved, forming good citizens of heaven and the nation, and more.
One sees—or rather, hears—the influence of Salesian scholar Fr. Aldo Giraudo on
the script.
The
telescoping of real history in this movie is not unlike what Castellani did in
1987. But here the story seems easier to follow. What’s telescoped: pretty much
everything that happened in reality between 1844 and 1882. Did one not know the
story—Vicar Cavour’s suspicions, revolution and war, Dominic Savio, the
cholera, Mama Margaret, the long process of proposing and solidly founding the
Salesians, the many dealings with Pius IX, and the whole Gastaldi affair—one
might suppose all of this to have happened in, perhaps, a decade. As the
current film ends, essentially, with ecclesiastical approval of the
Congregation (1864, in fact, and long before Don Bosco’s battles with either
Archbishop Riccardo di Netro or Archbishop Gastaldi), both Fr. Cafasso (†1860)
and Mama Margaret (†1856) are there to beam with joy. We could also observe
that the crucial roles of Fr. John Borel and Fr. Cafasso are rolled together
into one. In the two earlier movies, Fr. Borel got all the credit for assisting
our Founder; he doesn’t rate even a mention in this one.
One
understands of course that this telescoping is a valid and often necessary
cinematic technique. The story is far too complex, the characters far too many,
to portray “as it really happened,” especially in the limits of one movie.
The
conflicts that Don Bosco had with both civil and religious authorities were
dramatic and real. One may well ask why Gasparini felt the need to fictionalize
the names of his opponents. Vicar Michele Cavour becomes Prefect Clementi—who
is diabolical, until his deathbed conversion, or at least until he observes Don
Bosco weeping over Savio’s death—in a way that Cavour wasn’t. Then Clementi
morphs into Urbano Rattazzi and arranges for Parliament to suppress monastic
orders and, on his deathbed, advise Don Bosco about how to get around the law
of suppression when he founds his own congregation. Archbishop Lorenzo Gastaldi
becomes Cardinal Lorenzo Fassati—with the added risk of confusion with the
Oratory’s great benefactors the noble Fassati family, as well as the actual
Cardinal Archbishop of Turin Maurilio Fossati (1931-1965).
There are a
few minor quibbles: While it’s refreshing that throughout the movie the priests
are anglicized as “Father So-and-so” (instead of “Don” Calosso, “Don” Cafasso,
and “Don” Fassati), it’s disconcerting to hear “Father Bosco” over and over.
And why, then, leave the personal names in Italian: Giovanni, Domenico,
Lorenzo, Margherita…? One ought to be consistent in anglicizing or not. And one
would think that someone would have taken the trouble to teach the English
speakers (actors and dubbers) the correct pronunciation of Salesian. Although the Oratory is supposed to be within Turin—and in
reality the Valdocco section certainly wasn’t densely settled in the 1840s and ’50s—one
sees it here as miles out into the country.
A good part
of the film was originally spoken in English by English actors—playing Colosso,
Cafasso, Clementi, Savio, most of the lads, for instance. The lines originating
in Italian (John, Margaret, Fassati, Pius IX, the baker, the printer) seem, for
the most part, to have been dubbed well into English. If one uses the version
with English subtitles, though, one will find the script considerably condensed
from torrential Italian to very pithy
English.
To sum up: Saint John Bosco: Mission to Love does a fine job
presenting Don Bosco’s mission and personality and gives an adequate impression
of the very difficult times. Even with the filmmaker’s literary license, one feels
the authenticity. It’s worth the price of admission—or of the video.
The
viewer’s guide supplied by Ignatius Press includes a description of the film, a
sketch of Don Bosco’s life and dreams, an interview with Flavio Insinna (the
film’s Don Bosco) from ANS, discussion questions, and a very short list for
further reading.
Saint John Bosco: Mission to Love is
available directly from Ignatius Press (http://www.ignatius.com).
March 16, 2007
