Film Report

Film Report

The name of the film that I watched was The Secret of Kells. The movie was first released on January 30, 2009 in France and on July 17, 2009. The main actors were Evan McGuire, Christeen Mooney, and Brendan Gleenson. The movie is derived from Celtic mythology and the original Book of Kells from Ireland.

The movie begins with a young boy named Brendan, the nephew of Abbot Cellach, as he runs after a white goose. Shortly after, he hears of the tales of the Book of Iona and is quickly mesmerized by the story. Later on, a visitor, the author of the Book of Iona, comes to the monastery. The visitors name is Aidan of Iona. Brendan quickly takes a linking to Aidan and later goes into the forbidden forest in order to collect green berries for ink. In the forest, Brendan meets and befriends a fairy named Aisling. After he returns, he learns of the Eye of Collum-Cille, a crystal needed to complete the book, and the only way to retrieve this crystal was to take it from the monster known as Crom Cruach. Brendan, summoning his courage is able to venture back into the forest with the help of Aisling, and retrieves the crystal. He then later is able to continue the writings of The Book of Iona. Although, peace does not last long, the Vikings arrive and tear apart the monastery, leaving Brendan and Aiden on the run. They continue to work on the Book of Iona and once it is complete, Brendan travels back to Kells and is reunited with his uncle.

The first theme of world history, human environment interaction is shown trough the use of weapons. The Vikings used wood for their arrows. Also in Kells, the Abbot used natural resources such as wood and stone to build his wall. The next theme of word history, culture, is shown by the repetition of Gothic arches, swirls and patterned scripts which relates to the Celtic roots of the story. The politics and government theme seemed to be shown through the relationship of the citizens versus the Abbot. The Abbot seemed to be the lord of the land. People in the land seemed to use agriculture as a means to make a living. This economy was a free market economy. The last theme of world history, culture, was evident in the fact that no women seemed to be allowed in the scriptorium. This may have been because this time period was a time when women were not really educated. This would relate to this social structure.

The essential question that this movie relates to is: How do wars change nations? The interaction between the people of Kells and the Vikings changed the city of Kells. People were forced from their homes, and the monastery was burned to the ground.

This movie was a fictionalized story of the creation of the Book of Kells. This movie did depict the housing, such as the peasant huts and the gothic towers, and even the clothing, such as the cloaks and long skirts adequately according to my knowledge of that specific time period. The art