A new movie documenting the life and last days of St. Paul and starring James Faulkner (Downton Abbey) and Jim Caviezel (Passion of the Christ) opens in theaters on March 23.The new film, written and directed by Andrew Hyatt and distributed by Sony, tells the story of St. Paul (played by Faulkner) who undergoes a transformation from persecutor of Christians to devout follower of Jesus Christ. The film documents his last days in a Roman prison awaiting execution by Emperor Nero while being guarded by an ambitious prefect known as Mauritius who can’t understand how such a broken old man like Paul could be such a threat. During this time, he is frequently visited by St. Luke (played by Caviezel).
Set in the Mamertine Prison in Rome, the film begins with Luke entering the city of Rome after the Emperor Nero burns half the city to the ground and then blames the Christians. He orders the persecution of Christians which sets of the long and bloody pogrom that included tying Christians to crosses, dousing them in oil, then setting them on fire to light the streets of Rome at night.
Scenes such as these are why the movie has been given a PG-13 rating.
The movie also looks at the intense soul-searching Paul underwent as his life drew to a close and how haunted he was by past misdeeds as a persecutor of Christians during his days as Saul of Tarsus. He recounts all of his travels and travails to St. Luke, who eventually incorporated this into the Acts of the Apostles.
In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Caviezel discusses the complexities of playing the part of an important Gospel writer who spent most of his life “behind the scenes” and not nearly as visible as the apostles. This definitely made the role much more challenging for him than when he played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ.
“I read the Acts of the Apostles and started lifting little clues here and there, and I went to Mass and prayed on them,” Caviezel said. “I think one part of it is that he was a physician, and he had this particular lifestyle — he was wealthy, and he left it all. Why? He saw Paul speak. Was it Paul who spoke, or was it Christ speaking through him? I believe it was the latter, and that changed his life. So that’s kind of where I started.”
At the time of the interview, Caviezel thought the hard-hitting film would be rated R. “ . . . [W]hen you read about the grisly things that Nero did, what do you do? How do you show that? Or don’t show it … maybe you just talk about it. But we chose to show it, just like The Passion of the Christ. This is the reality of it. Also, the reality is Jesus saying, ‘Do not be afraid — I go before you always; you see greater that is in me than is in this world’.”
Visit the website for more information and to find a theater near you.
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