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Interview: ‘Calvary’ Director John Michael McDonagh
/ June 17, 2014
On July 3rd The Guard Director John Michael McDonagh will be offering fans a follow up film in Calvary.
Set against the bleak backdrop of Ireland, Calvary centres around well-intentioned priest Father James (Brendan Gleeson) forever shocked by the confrontational folk of his small town, especially one who confesses plans to kill him in response to the abuse scandals of the church.
Calvary joins a long list of recent films approaching topics of faith and spirituality, and The Connect Press caught up with McDonagh to find out how he applied his curious sense of humour to the difficult subject matter, and why he thinks film-makers are increasingly choosing the narrow road.
What was it that drew you to tell the story of this tormented priest?
I was just assuming that there’d be a lot of films made dealing with the scandals in the church, and ‘bad priests’, and as I was [sitting in a pub] with Brendan Gleeson making The Guard, I said “we should make a film about the exact opposite, about a good priest. And everyone around him was bad,” I thought that’d be an original idea, and he said “well if you write it I’ll play it.”
You are dealing with quite a serious premise, yet bringing in great comedy, how did you strike the right balance between the two?
When I wrote it I just wrote straight ahead what I wanted to write, I didn’t think too much about it. It’s only when you’re editing and you’re trying to manoeuvre your way between the two tones you [pay attention]. Sometimes it’s really dark, and then in the next scene it’s really funny. So it was more in the editing, moving those scenes around that I tried to make [those transitions] smoother. But I think that’s the style of my writing, people either like that or they don’t.
The character of Father James is really central to it all, sitting in a small village with a lot of eccentric people, a lot of different issues going on – why did you place him in that kind of town?
Well I think when you’re dealing with a character who’s a good man, who’s essentially decent, you don’t see that in films very often. And I guess the reason why is that you need some kind of conflict to drive the narrative. When you look at a lot of the blockbusters it’s usually the villain who drives the movie, so I thought “a good man, if he can’t drive the movie, we’ll get all these really weird characters around him, and they will drive it, and he will have to react to them.”
…I mean you’d be hoping you wouldn’t arrive in a small town in Ireland populated by all these people in one place at one time, you’d drive straight out the minute you arrive really. So it’s a heightened reality, for dramatic effect. To get the comedy and the drama.
The tile of the film, ‘Calvary’, obviously a word that means a lot of different things to different people, what was the link to the story for you?
I guess it’s somebody taking on the sins of the world in a way. Somebody who’s prepared to suffer for everyone else, and suffer for the sins of others.
It seems like more film-makers are approaching ‘faith on film’ topics if you’d like to call it that, with Noah, Heaven is for Real, Exodus and so on coming out, why do you think they’re so popular at the moment?
There’s a line in the film that one of the characters has where they say to the priest “Your church is dead”, or “Your church is over”, and he says “My church will always be around,” meaning people will always deal with spiritual issues, whether they believe in God or not. We all want to know why we’re here, and “are we adrift in a godless universe, or does our life mean something?”, so that will always be there.
…And I think maybe people have got bored of the same old stories and they want to deal with stories that are saying something a little bit more than just run-of-the-mill action or comedy. [Calvary] has action and comedy and a thriller element, but there’s obviously something underpinning it that makes it a bit deeper.
Was there a question you were really trying to answer with this script?
I don’t think there was a question I was trying to answer, but looking back there are [all these films] that try to deal with deeper issues, “Is there a God?” “How do we deal if there isn’t?”, and you just don’t see that in the movies anymore – usually because it’s quite boring. So I knew if I could maybe deal with those ideas but do it in a funny way, or use a thriller storyline, I might actually be able to come up with something quite original. And I think [Calvary] is. Whether people like the film or not, I think it’s un unusual movie that they haven’t seen in a long long time.
Calvary opens in Australian cinemas on July 3.
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