Little Green Tracs

Film Review - The movie The Way

The Way stars Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez and was written, directed, and co-produced by Emilio Estevez. Sheen plays Tom, a California optometrist who travels to France to collect his estranged son’s remains played by Estevez who died crossing the Pyrenees Mountains while walking the Camino de Santiago from France to Spain. Tom decides impulsively to continue his son’s journey and walk the nearly 800-kilometre pilgrimage to Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage that for more than 1000 years millions of other people from around the world have done.

So begins a soulful and spiritual journey as Tom spreads his son's ashes along the length of the camino and while doing so, forms a loose family of fellow misfit pilgrims; Canadian native Deborah Kara Unger, as a divorced Canadian woman, James Nesbitt as an Irish author and Yorick van Wageningen, as a goofy Dutch pothead. Along the way, we learn more about each of these troubled characters, as they stumble their way to the final destination of Santiago. Nevertheless, Martin Sheen’s character Tom carries the movie as he discovers more about himself and the son he had lost and then finds again. 

The Camino de Santiago serves a perfect backdrop and guide with the rugged mountains of the Basque country, the beautiful wide-open barren plains of the Meseta, spectacular cities of Burgos, Leon and Santiago, and misty hills of Galicia.

Some camino junkies might be critical of the film on how it glosses over the other elements of the Camino, such as blisters, sore feet and tired muscles. However, as a two-time veteran of the Camino; first walked it in 2007, and more recently in 2011, and as a veteran of the Via Francigena in Italy, I can say that the movie provides an honest account of what a modern day pilgrimage is all about. Eventually, we learn that there is no right or wrong way; that that journey just as in life, is as important as the destination. We do not choose our lives but we should prepare to live them.  

You might describe the Way as a modern day Wizard of Oz tale of discovery. It proceeds along at a pedestrian pace with gentle twists and turns as this motley crew of four transverses northern Spain in search of redemption and salvation. You will not find action packed cinematography filled with violence and high tech wizardry. Instead, the movie portrays that time-honored importance of good storytelling that seems to be so lacking in most Hollywood style movies.

The Way is a simple story of a grieving father coming to terms with the loss of his only son - a father who ultimately honors his son’s wishes by walking the Camino de Santiago on his behalf. It is a film for all ages and I highly recommend you see it.

The movie The Way opened up in Toronto November 4th and will open in other major cities in Canada November 11th.

Update: The Way opens November 11 at the following theatres:
 
Ottawa - Bytowne Ottawa
Halifax - Empire Theatre Bayers Lake
Winnipeg - Globe Landmark Cinema
Calgary - Globe Calgary
Vancouver - Cineplex Odeon International Village and Empire Esplanade
Victoria - Odeon Cineplex
It is still showing at the Cineplex Odeon Varsity (+VIP), Grande Sheppard, AMC Winston Churchill and Kennedy Commons all located in or just outside of Toronto

 

The Movie – The Way – Is Coming to Canada!

The movie The Way, staring Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez, opens in Canada in Toronto and Vancouver November 4th

The film will subsequently open on November 11th in Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria, Ottawa, Halifax, and Winnipeg. The movie is being distributed by Mongrel Media and will be shown at the Cineplex theatres throughout Canada.

If you have done the camino, or are planning to do it, or simply want to be inspired to do something great in your life, then this is a “must see” film. 

The movie stars Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez and was written, directed, and co-produced by Emilio Estevez. It is also stars local Canadian native Deborah Kara Unger, as a divorced Canadian woman, James Nesbitt as an Irish author and Yorick van Wageningen, as a goofy Dutch pothead.

Martin Sheen plays Tom, an American doctor and widower who travels to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to recover the body of his estranged adult son (played by Emilio), who was killed accidentally during a storm while walking The Camino de Santiago (The Way of Saint James). Driven by his profound grief, Tom decides to finish the 800 kilometer pilgrimage his son began, taking his son's cremated remains with him and spreading them along the historical trek - from the Pyrenees in southern France, to Santiago de Compostela in northwest of Spain.

While walking “The Camino” Tom meets other pilgrims from around the world bearing their own unique burdens, each of them, seeking for greater meaning in their lives. The film centers on an unlikely quartet featuring the main protagonist Tom, a gregarious Dutchman (played brilliantly by Yorick van Wageningen) a Canadian with an attitude (Deborah Kara Unger) and an Irish narcissistic travel writer (James Nesbitt) who is experiencing writer's block.

Together these pilgrims experience community in the journey together as they learn from one another. Tom’s inner healing is gradual, as is his journey from agnosticism back to faith again. The words of his son come back to him as he learns to let go of his California-country-club life and discover the difference between "The life we live and the life we choose."

Camino de Santiago and the Via Francigena – A few years later

It has been just over four years since we walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain. In that year, 114,377 walked or biked the entire network of Camino trails to Santiago, (nearly 100,000 along the famous camino frances route) and received their Compostela.  Another estimated 400,000 to 500,000 also traveled sections of the way but did not arrive in Santiago or they did not receive their Compostela.

The number of people traveling the Camino continues to rise steadily. Last year in 2010, being a Holy Year, saw 272,135 pilgrims arrive in Santiago.  There is no indication of the number of people that just simply walked or biked a section of the path but did not received their Compostela but a rough guess is that nearly one million did some or all of the Camino last year.

An interesting statistic is that most of the pilgrims are Spanish; nearly 70% - followed a smaller group of Germans, Italians and French. North Americans make up a very small percentage of those do the Camino

Another interesting statistic is that approximately 25% only walk the last 100 km into Santiago. Another 50% or so start somewhere in between Santiago and France for example. Very start in places like St Jean P. Port or Roncesvalles.

This year, the numbers have dropped but by early indications, 2011 will see approximately 180,000 pilgrims arrive in Santiago via the Camino, a 50 increase in just four short years!

With the movie, The Way released this year, staring Martin Sheen and produced by Emilio Estevez, one can only assume the number of people wanting to walk the Camino will explode in numbers!


/>Meanwhile in Italy Europe’s other great pilgrim trail the Via Francigena quietly grows in popularity. There isn’t the same level of official records kept as you see in Santiago Spain, but in 2008 when we walked the Via Francigena, an estimated 500 people arrived in Rome and received their Testimonium. More interesting was that only 1,000 people for the entire decade prior to 2008 had arrived in Rome. Therefore, you might conclude 2008 was a banner year for the Via Francigena!

Further, in 2010, some estimate that the number of pilgrims arriving in Rome has risen to nearly 1,000 people. And others estimate that maybe another 1,000 walked some section of the Via Francigena but did not arrive in Rome; an increase of 100 - 200% in just two short years!

However, these numbers are still less that those that traveled the Camino in Portugal, the Camino Norte, the Via de la Plata and Camino Primitivo in Spain in 2010. It is even less than those that walked the Le Puy route in France, the Via Jacobi in Switzerland and maybe the Jakobsweg in Austria and a probably a number of less known trails in Germany. 

Nevertheless, it is impressive in many ways.

Still, like the Camino in Spain, the majority of people traveling the Via Francigena are Italians and most travel that last 100 plus kilometers into Rome through Lazio. Only dozens of people walk the entire distance through Italy.

The Via Francigena in Italy in many ways is and remains today, an elusive, barely discovered, almost secretive trail.