SOUND REPLY - THE WAY | KAIROS GLOBAL | JUNE 2019

Author: Joseph Anthraper

In a world that is increasingly becoming smaller with technological advancements, and where virtual reality and augmented reality is far more significant than truth itself, it is ironic that an ever-increasing number of humans walk this planet with no real, enduring relationships, either within or without. In the cacophony of noises that surround and submerge us, maybe more than at any other time in human history, men and women are increasingly passing from this world having failed to ask those fundamental questions that has vexed humanity from time immemorial – “who am I”? “Where am I going” or “what is the destiny of my life”?

‘The Way’ is a 2010 drama written and directed by Emilio Estevez with Martin Sheen playing the lead role of Dr Tom. The movie is a tribute to the (approximately 900 km) traditional pilgrim route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, popularity known as the ‘Camino de Santiago’ (or ‘The way of St. James’). The Camino has been a prominent Catholic pilgrim route for over a thousand years and over the centuries, many millions have walked this popular pilgrim route starting from the French side of the Pyrenees for a variety of reasons – not least as a means to deepen and grow in faith in the one who has asked his followers to take up their crosses and follow in His narrow path.

Dr Thomas Avery is an American ophthalmologist who is very comfortable with his life, until one day he receives the unexpected and shocking news that his only son Daniel has been killed in a storm in the Pyrenees, while on his Camino pilgrimage. Tom, a lapsed Catholic, travels to France with the primary intention of retrieving his son’s body and meets up with the extremely helpful French police officer of the town, who is a devout Catholic and who apprises Tom of the Camino and the significance of what Daniel was up to. Having had a rough relationship with his son while he was alive, Tom remembers one of the last conversations he had with Daniel, when Daniel suggested that they both take a trip across Europe, a father-son trip. Since this is his only chance to do that, Tom decides to walk the Camino de Santiago with Daniel – with Daniel’s backpack and his ashes as company.  

Although not interested in companionship and though he prefers to walk alone, Tom quickly meets Joost from Amsterdam, who is walking the Camino to reduce his weight, Sarah the chain-smoking Canadian, who is on the Camino to rid her of her smoking, and Jack, the Irish writer, who is writing a travelogue on the Camino in the hope that it would help him get over his writer’s block. The rest of the movie chronicles the experiences that Tom and his would-be friends encounter on the Camino, making him confront the question of the purpose and direction of his life.

The Way is a movie that stays very faithful to representing the true experience of the Camino, with an abundance of Catholic motifs and themes. And though none of the main characters in the movie has faith, or is walking the Camino with a religious motive, in a subtle and gentle way it portrays the ripples of grace acting in the lives of people around, as in the unlikely presentation of Joost as the one who has a near-conversion experience at the end of the pilgrimage. At the end of the movie, each of us is left with a longing – a deep desire to one day walk the Camino, and that I think is the greatest testament to how well the movie has been made.

Joseph Anthraper lives in Southampton with his wife Mahima and kids Anna-Claire, John-Paul & Samuel, and loves reading, movies and apologetics. He is part of the Kairos Global Editorial Council.