My Anglican cum Lutheran grandfather was a projectionist when this movie came out and said he hated the movie, complained that St. Francis was a crazy hippie. I finally had a chance to see it last night, and while my grandfather wasn't exactly wrong, I don't think he knew much about Francis of Assisi, the 12th century Italian visionary. Zeffirelli's depiction of the life of St. Francis is touching and beautiful. The art direction and cinematography are stunning -- the colours of nature and of the Bishop's court are rich and vivid, unlike the clothing of the Poor Brothers of San Damiano and the poor they served. Donovan's soundtrack works perfectly, and Alec Guiness as Pope Innocent III is wonderful. Maybe Francis was a bit of a crazy hippie, but he was just what the Church needed. Inspiring movie!

If you want to know more about life, war, religion, the church, God, St. Francis, love, parents, children, devotion, humanitarian care, community living, aesthetics, ethics, metaphysics, etc. ad absurdum... then absolutely this is a VERY good film to incorporate into your reservoir of learning experiences. For me, the thing which most stood out was what it reveals about the spirit of man (or God - as you will) in relationship to the Roman Catholic church, in terms of teaching and inspiring I feel that is its greatest contribution; but there are very many other great things about the film... at least a dozen probably, and that is all before even getting to the superb qualities of overall direction, costumes, sets, acting, music, experimentation of techniques, SCRIPT WRITING!! ...etc. etc. etc. O.K. No more holding back, I really liked it.

A narcissistic portrayal of St. Francis' enlightenment and fully equipped with a melancholiac rural beauty of the nature, the ramifications are generally benign, albeit for recreation only.Structurally this is a prequel of Rossellini's THE FLOWER OF ST. FRANCIS (Francesco, giullare di Dio 1950), divided rightly by the before/after of Francis' pilgrimage towards Rome, at once with radically opposed visual punches, a perfect set for a double-feature, color Vs. black and white, lavish versus austere.The nearly non-Italian cast (excludes Valentina Cortese) is dubbed with Italian in the version I watched yesterday, it inevitably thwarted the fluency of the film, which, as a matter of fact, could be mostly paid no heed to as the performances are ludicrously overblown, particularly Graham Faulkner's Francis, Zeffirelli's personal preference triumphs in this film in every respect, the unrealistic beauty of St. Francis and his apostles is to meet the eyes only! Alec Guiness did an unanticipated role as the Pope Innocent III in the rear part of the film, where the setting in Rome evokes the similar tableaux in the ever-famous Chinese Monkey King story when he encounter the emperor of all-gods in his palace (the west-east correlation is unbelievably tangible!).So, personally I cannot endure the over-dramatic enactment of this biographic film, however the narrative clings closely to the story itself, while the cinematography of the bucolic Assisi is captivating enough to engross me attentively, yet my deepest sympathy is that the epiphany which I expected had never arrived.

Francis of Assissi depicted as the first hippie. That's not really a ridiculous comparison. After all, Godspell depicts Jesus and the Apostles as hippies, as well, far more annoyingly, I may say, than Zefferelli depicts these characters. I actually started off really enjoying this picture. I thought it was sweet, lovely, and beautiful. It helps a lot if you like Donovan. I know that he's kind of dopey, but I've always found his mellowing tunes quite pleasant. None of his songs here are among his best (in fact, not a one appears on the anthology I own, which contains other work on soundtracks), but they're pretty good. Unfortunately, the film never really goes anywhere. It plateaus early and only reaches a little further in its climax, when Francis and his followers ask the Pope (Alec Guiness, in what amounts to a cameo) to bless their order. The only really good Francis of Assissi movie I've seen is Roberto Rossellini's The Flowers of St. Francis.