Brother Sun, Sister Moon: Directed by Franco Zeffirelli (1972)

The movie Nazarin made me think of another famous film about a person who really tried to live the life of a 'real' Christian.  In the late 60s and early 70s there was a lot of interest in Jesus because the hippies claimed Jesus as one of their own.  They basically said, "How can you condemn us when we're basically living like Jesus?"  (I think they took lots of drugs though - not sure Jesus was into that :P So they were like Jesus but minus the drugs and sex.)

So there was lots of Jesus stuff in the late 60s and 70s.  You had, for instance, the Broadway musical 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and also the musical 'Godspell.'

Francis of Assisi is often considered one of the holiest or purest of Catholic saints - who seemed to try to emulate the life of Jesus.  He dedicated his life to poverty and lived simply and tried to show kindness to others. He was around in the 1200s and some say he 'saved' the Catholic Church, at that time.  During that period the Church was very corrupt and Francis showed that true Christianity was still possible within the Church.

This movie by Zeffirelli shows the struggles of Francis to be accepted by the church, and at the end (maybe the best part of the film) Zeffirelli seems to imply the church only accepted Francis for 'political' reasons. While Francis became the outward 'face' of the church, and demonstrated Christian values, the power mongers and money guys who really ran the church were able to continue their nefarious business trends. Francis basically became a 'front' for the Catholic Church.

The current Pope is calling himself 'Pope Francis the First' and he is acting as if he is 'the people's pope.'  Yet, it seems that he had a position of responsibility in the Argentinean Catholic Church during the period of time that the military junta there was killing thousands of students and protesters (the late 70s and early 80s).  At that time, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (aka Pope Francis) did not utter one word in protest and seemed to be friends with some of the military dictators who were killing people.  So maybe he has changed or maybe he is a good actor - who knows...who am I to judge? :P

In any case, here's the famous movie Brother Sun, Sister Moon.  There is only one version on youtube - it is in English but it has Spanish subtitles.  Francis of Assisi is the favorite saint in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries because he cared about the poor. That's why the current pope chose the name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUHrkV7L4R0