Brother Sun, Sister Moon
Picture: B- Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: B-
Franco Zefferelli’s Brother Sun, Sister Moon fell right
after his successful Romeo and Juliet
(1969) and established the director has a very skillful and literate individual
capable of capturing drama and historical events on celluloid. Brother
Sun, Sister Moon (1972) involves St. Francis of Assisi, who is a merchants son that has recently
discovered God and because of this he throws away possessions, lives in
poverty, and gathers devote followers as he tries to rebuild a church on the
outskirts of a city.
While the story itself is
bland the film looks beautiful and its images tell the story more than the
characters. Some might even say that the
film has some connection with the hippie generation of the time, which is an
odd realization especially with Godspell
coming out a year later. Zefferelli’s
next film would be the mini-series Jesus
of Nazareth (1977), which until the recent release of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, was one of
the more realistic and favored version of the crucifixion of Christ.
Apparently, The Beatles
were asked to originally star in this film, which would have at least made the
film more known, but as years have passed this film has been tucked away into
the recesses of cinema. This is a
moralistic film though, which deals with the idea of taking away personal
worldly possession in order to pursue a higher goal, or higher life. By doing so, Francis becomes admired as
anyone would that is capable of living a life with the people rather than above
the people.
Paramount has given us the pleasure of issuing the film for
the first time ever on DVD with the original 1.85 X 1 aspect ratio preserved in
a moderately good anamorphic transfer.
Detail is average as is the overall contrast level. Colors seem slightly muted, while darker
scenes suffer and softness becomes more prominent. The film is well photographer with this DVD
offering a glimpse of that film-like appeal. Only the films original mono mix
is presented on the DVD, but given the dialogue origins of this film, it’s
understandable. Even the music (by
Donovan) is subtle in this film.
No extras make for a hard
disc to recommend unless you are already a fan.
Not that extras are necessary for a DVD release, but in most cases they
are worthwhile and take your buck the extra mile.
- Nate Goss
