Blessed Duns Scotus: Defender of the Immaculate Conception is a short and insightful movie which centers around the life of Duns Scotus, the renowned medieval scholastic, and his defense at the University of Paris of the Immaculate Conception. Adriano Braidotti won the Best Actor award at the International Film Festival of 2011 for his portrayal of the titular character, and the movie also claimed the Best Film prize at the same event. The film was released by Ignatius Press on October 3, 2011 and received resounding praise by it’s audiences.
My husband and I watched the film together, killing two birds with one stone as I both prepared for my film review and had a great date night. I popped popcorn and readied chocolate ahead of watching the film, eager to meet Duns Scotus whom I had observed from afar in my philosophy and history classes.
The movie starts with what seems a controversial piece of paper being passed around to different university professors at the University of Paris. The next scene shows a Franciscan, who we quickly deduced to be Duns Scotus, discussing different theological and philosophical concepts with his students. Duns Scotus is then approached by an official, bearing the mysterious document, and then proceeds to reveals what is written on it while his students sit nearby. This seemingly insignificant paper sends Duns Scotus on a journey, which is briefly touched on in the movie, to England as it is now unsafe for him to reside in France. The second half of the movie covers Duns Scotus' successful defense of the Immaculate Conception at the University of Paris after his two-year exile in England. His solid devotion to our Lord and Mary, often displayed in his actions throughout the movie, left me inspired.
Duns Scotus’ defense of the Immaculate Conception was the pivotal scene in the movie. The reason it came about was a disagreement on his position with a Dominican teacher at the University of Paris. The Dominicans held to St. Thomas Aquinas’ belief that Mary was not immaculately conceived but only received special graces from God to be born without sin. So when Duns Scotus proudly states his position they are enraged and demand a debate. Even though the Dominicans were proven wrong in the end, many of them for centuries held to Thomas Aquinas' position and it was not until the 1800’s that Mary was officially declared immaculately conceived by the Church.
Even though I tend to avoid dubbed movies, as the mouth motions and words do not always fit and are often a source of distraction, I found this movie well worth watching even when dubbed. The English voice actor for Duns Scotus was perfect in his inflections and tones, and Adriano Braidotti did a fantastic job portraying Scotus' personal joys and sufferings. Sometimes other characters felt like they took away from the movie due to unnecessary side scenes, but this was not overly disruptive. My husband at one point cringed at a certain romantic yet cheesy scene, but I kindly reminded him that "..it probably sounded better in Italian."
All in all, I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in events regarding the Immaculate Conception or curious about Duns Scotus. My star rating is 4 out of 5!
Blessed Duns Scotus: Defender of the Immaculate Conception can be purchased at: https://www.ignatius.com/Blessed-Duns-Scotus-P35.aspx
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