''James Carroll's Constantine's Sword'', or ''Constantine's Sword'', is a 2007

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

on the relationship between the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

s. Directed and produced by

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

-nominated filmmaker

Oren Jacoby Oren Jacoby is a director and producer of documentary films including; '' Shadowman (2017),'' '' My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes'' (2014), '' Lafayette: The Lost Hero''(2010), '' Constantine's Sword'' (2008), '' Sister Rose's Passion'' (20 ...

, the film is inspired by former priest James P. Carroll's 2001 book '' Constantine's Sword''.

Synopsis

The title page of this film shows the shadow of a cross, with "No war is holy" written across the

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

. ''Constantine’s Sword'' is the story of James P. Carroll's journey to uncover the roots of war. Carroll, a former Catholic

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

whose father ( Joseph Carroll) was a famous Air Force general, implies that there has been a relationship between religiously inspired violence and war, beginning with the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Emperor

Constantine I Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

in 312 AD. The counter balance to this view that most wars are political or economic in nature is not discussed, nor are the circumstances of attacks on European Christendom through the ages by hostile forces, secular or alien religions. Constantine was convinced that he had won a battle because he had followed the instructions of a vision, to inscribe a sign of the cross (the

Labarum The labarum ( or λάβουρον) was a '' vexillum'' (military standard) that displayed the "Chi-Rho" symbol ☧, a christogram formed from the first two Greek letters of the word "Christ" (, or Χριστός) – '' Chi'' (χ) and ''Rho'' (� ...

) on the shields of his soldiers. At the time most of Constantine's legionaries were Christians themselves including Constantine's mother St. Helena. In Carroll's view, this event marked the beginning of an unholy alliance between the military and the Church regardless of the fact that most members of a military belong to that particular country's religion. Carroll's thesis is explained as his father's supposed translation to Carroll's question as a boy of what the letters IHS stood for in churches, being the IHS monogram for the name of Jesus, as Constantine's vision of "In hoc signo vinces", "in this sign you will conquer", giving a fabricated union of state military with church dogma. Carroll focuses on Catholic and

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

anti-Judaism Anti-Judaism denotes a spectrum of historical and contemporary ideologies that are fundamentally or partially rooted in opposition to Judaism. It encompasses the rejection or abrogation of the Mosaic covenant and advocates for the superse ...

, and invokes the cross as a symbol of the long history of Christian

xenophobic Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

violence against Jews and non-Christians,Chris Barsanti
Constantine's Sword film review
at

Filmcritic.com Christopher Null (born September 7, 1971) is an American writer, journalist and entrepreneur. A former blogger for Yahoo! Tech, he was the editor of Drinkhacker.com, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Filmcritic.com, which operated from 1995 ...

. from the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

, through the

Roman Inquisition The Roman Inquisition, formally , was a system of partisan tribunals developed by the Holy See of the Catholic Church, during the second half of the 16th century, responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of a wide array of crimes according ...

and the creation of the Jewish

ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...

, to the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. Carroll also charges that there is an ongoing evangelical infiltration of the U.S. military, and that this has had negative consequences for

U.S. foreign policy The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...

. The film's final chapter, "No war is holy", concludes with views of military cemeteries as

Aaron Neville Aaron Joseph Neville (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer renowned for his distinctively smooth, vibrato-heavy tenor and a genre-crossing career that spans R&B, soul, gospel, jazz, country, and pop. He gained national prominence with hi ...

sings " With God On Our Side".

Technical details

*95 minutes *Languages in film: English,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

*Cast/Featuring:

Liev Schreiber Isaac Liev Schreiber ( ; born October 4, 1967) is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award as well as nominations for nine Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. Schreiber's early film roles incl ...

, pastor

Ted Haggard Ted Arthur Haggard (; born June 27, 1956) is an American Methodist pastor. Haggard is the founder and former pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and is a founder of the Association of Life-Giving Churches. He served as pre ...

Philip Bosco Philip Michael Bosco (September 26, 1930 – December 3, 2018) was an American actor. He was known for his Tony Award-winning performance as Saunders in the 1989 Broadway production of '' Lend Me a Tenor'', and for his starring role in the 2007 f ...

Natasha Richardson Natasha Jane Richardson (11 May 1963 – 18 March 2009) was a British actress. A part of the Redgrave family, Richardson was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaughter of Michael Redgr ...

Eli Wallach Eli Herschel Wallach ( ; December 7, 1915 – June 24, 2014) was an American film, television, and stage actor from New York City. Known for his character actor roles, his entertainment career spanned over six decades. He received a British Aca ...

*Director:

*Producers: Oren Jacoby, James Carroll, Michael Solomon,

Betsy West Betsy West is an American producer, filmmaker, and video journalist. With , she has directed four biographical documentary films focusing on American women: ''RBG'' (2018), '' My Name is Pauli Murray'' (2021), ''Julia'' (2021) and '' Gabby Gif ...

. *Supervising producer: Elgin Smith *Screenwriters: James Carroll, Oren Jacoby *Production company: Storyville Films *Studio:

First Run Features First Run Features is an independent film distribution company based in New York City. History First Run was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers in order to advance the distribution of independent film. In the 1980s, the company focused ...

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0902270, title=Constantine's Sword
Film's websiteRecommendation by ''Tikkun'' magazineAt Rotten TomatoesLink to production companyJames Carroll's Unholy Crusade: A Critique of the Film Constantine's Sword
from ''

First Things ''First Things'' (''FT'') is a journal aimed at "advanc nga religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society", focusing on theology, liturgy, history of religion, church history, culture, education, society, politics, literat ...

''
''Voices on Antisemitism'' Interview with James Carroll
from th
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
2007 documentary films 2007 films 2000s political films 2000s war films Films about antisemitism Anti-war films American documentary films Christian anti-Judaism Films directed by Oren Jacoby First Run Features films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films Constantine the Great and Christianity English-language documentary films English-language war films

Synopsis

Technical details

See also

References

External links