A prisoner of its time period.

Scoopy

Once upon a time, as legend would have it, there was a time when we set aside our material concerns and lived in harmony and brotherhood. This was not in the time of Francis, but in that period from the Summer of Love until the Nixon resignation. Although this period encompassed about as much of the seventies, we now refer to it as "The Sixties".

Much good came of this time, but there were also many simplistic expressions of its spirit. Such is "Brother Sun, Sister Moon", which is not really about Francis at all, but uses Francis as a metaphor to express the ideals of the Flower Power movement. With his love of nature, and his will to eschew the trappings of material acquisition, Francis was the patron saint of the Woodstock era. In essence, this movie is "Hair" without the hair.

Viewed through today's more cynical prism, the movie seems laughably naive. I didn't laugh, but I cringed in embarrassment many times. I think the worst moment must be the anachronism when Francis and his little congregation sing Donovan songs at their country Mass (this is contrasted to the somber, opulent, silent ritual of the "official" Mass in town). In effect, they start to sing along with the musical score. Remember "folk masses"? Francis invented them.

Donovan, the ultimate hippie, wrote the entire musical score and I must say it is the single worst score I have ever heard in a movie. What could have possessed Zefferelli to use this music exclusively?

The script is among the worst I have ever encountered. It is nothing but the cliches ripped from the "Lives of the Saints" that can be found in any Catholic elementary school library. There is not one original or thoughtful moment. The acting catches no complexities or nuances at all. Francis and Chiara are straight out of a high school play ... an idealized concept of innocence like the faces in a Keane painting. Any Franciscan viewing this movie would question his vocational choice of belonging to an order founded by a simpleton.

The good news is that the movie was filmed by Zefferelli. Whatever other faults it may have, it ranks as among the BEST filmed movies you'll see. Virtually any single frame could be extracted and made into an award-winning photograph. There is no randomness, nothing is left to chance. Every camera angle, ever zoom, the placement of every extra in every frame is perfectly calculated and choreographed. Watch it in stop-motion, and you'll be dazzled by the composition of each image. (Incidentally, I think the real St Francis would probably have said "you may set up your camera, but we'll just be ourselves")

If I had a brilliant period script, I would gladly hire Zefferelli to film it. Unfortunately for Zefferelli, Shakespeare didn't write a script pertaining to this subject.

score 1/10

Scoopy 22 October 1998

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0127587/