A Celestial Journey: Exploring 'The Saints'
In this program, ‘Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints’, the viewers are introduced to extremely inspiring characters, who became saints in world history. The series focuses on personalities like Joanne d’ Arc, Francis, and others and their passion, which they extended towards Christianity and their willingness to go to the extent needed to be called a saint. Here is its goal to shine a light upon the human and the divine dimension of life of the saints. This is perhaps an intentional attempt to make the audience reflect on what it means to have faith in the super natural and the courage that these figures portrayed.
This makes the cast give a gravitating but realistic performance showing the virtues and vices of each of their characters. A special commendation is worth giving to Milivoje Obradovic who portrays the character of Francis of Assisi as humble and devout. The directors effectively transition from one saint’s story to another, in a way that makes each part feasible for a series while providing the necessary substance of each episode.
The music is well incorporated within the narrative and in fact, it adds to the materialism of the show bringing heavenliness in the dramatic cinemas. The music is divine which contributes a lot to the tension by creating another layer of sacredness to the story.
The visuals are divine as every shot is chosen carefully to depict not only opulence of the saints but also grime of their surroundings. With regards to visuals it is majestic providing a haptic feel that mirrors the actual journey of the saints with graphic sensibilities.
The period settings are looked into with a great detail, and the garments of the times are portrayed most accurately. Rather than making the use of special effects almost theatrical, the series skillfully takes the audience to the times and places of these historical characters. These effects are applied minimally and serve more as a reinforcement of the overall experience.
The manner of editing is very well-done, and does not detract from the saint’s story, but instead gets the point across and educates the masses. Timing is helpful in respecting audience’s attention and guidance for each storyline.
The rate of the series is slow and suitable to the holy nature of the series, enabling one to follow each storyline to the depth it deserves. For instance, it gives the viewer a chance to think of great price those characters paid. It is written in a very intelligent manner with philosophical and theological implications being shown throughout the series.
Some may argue that the pacing of ‘The Saints’ is quite slow and may prove rather tedious for audiences who are not used to such slow progression of events in a series. However, documentary type may not be to the taste of viewers who are expectations pomp and craves drama. It is one of the most inspiring spiritual, religious and inspirational stories of sacrifice and triumph of the human spirit. It is quite an inspiring scene in every sense of the word, evoking both thought and emotion in the viewer.
