Tag Archives: The Way My Way

How to make a movie on the Camino

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It’s been twelve years since The Way, a movie about the Camino starring Martin Sheen, and directed by his son Emilio Estevez, was made.

That film was the impetus for a lot of people to walk the Camino – and in commercial terms, the film made a lot of money. It did really well.

What’s interesting is that there hasn’t been another English language film made since. My movie, The Way, My Way, from my book of the same title, will be the first.

Why hasn’t there been another movie made since? There have been a lot of documentaries, and a few non-English speaking movies – but not an English language feature film.

One of the reasons is that logistically, it’s very difficult.

To capture the essence of the Camino, you really do have to traverse the entirety of The Way – 800kms. For a major production, that’s logistically difficult – what with all the trucks, finding accommodation for all the crew and cast (for a movie, that could be upwards of sixty people, usually more.) And anyone who knows the Camino knows that finding that number of beds – hotel beds, not albergue beds – is a big ask.

Film people wouldn’t ever sleep in an albergue!

The other thing that makes it difficult is that shooting a movie is disruptive. And you can’t disrupt the day-to-day operation of the Camino. You can’t “lock down” sections of the Camino to have your stars walk along an empty stretch of track, and stop pilgrims from walking through shot.

Pilgrims just wouldn’t cop that.

Then there’s the issue of the trucks. Any film production has a massive number of trucks. Moving them through historic towns and villages, often through very narrow lanes, would be a nightmare.

These logistical difficulties have haunted me these last several years.

I want my movie to be authentic, and truthful to the spirit of the Camino. I want it to be real. And whilst I admired The Way enormously, they got a lot wrong. You don’t wear jeans on the Camino, number one. The actress Debra Unger wore jeans and yes she looked great in jeans but it bugged the shit out of me the whole movie. So did the James Nesbitt character, the Irish actor. He wore jeans too. You don’t wear jeans on the Camino.

The actor playing the Dutch pilgrim had two trekking poles and he used them all wrong. That bugged the shit out of me too. Plus partway through the movie the poles disappeared and then he used a wooden staff. What happened to his poles?

I’m being picky, I know – and as I say, I admire the film greatly. And it’s done a huge amount to bring awareness of the Camino to a huge number of people. I aspire to that film’s success.

So what am I going to do?

For quite a while, this was going to be a big budget movie with star casting. I always felt uncomfortable with this approach, because of the logistical difficulties that I’ve mentioned. I always felt it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get that degree of verisimilitude that I sought.

And then Nomadland came along and for me, everything changed.

It won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress. It used a mix of actors and non-actors. It was shot in a way that I was familiar with, from my earlier films such as A Street to Die, Backlash, Malpractice, Mortgage, Kiss or Kill, In a Savage Land, and Tempted.

Suddenly I could see a way to make my Camino film without compromise.

And so that’s how I’m approaching it – with a stripped down crew, using many of the actual pilgrims that I met during my walk – they’re coming back to play themselves – and shooting it in such a way that the film captures the true essence of what it’s like to walk the Camino.

In a later post I’ll talk technical stuff – but just to say that it will be super wide screen – 2.40:1 format, and we’re using vintage Leica lenses – 1970’s and 1980’s glass.

Using these lenses will present some major technical difficulties for us, but the “Leica look” will be worth it. From an artistic point of view, I’m very excited by this. It will give the film quite a unique cinematic look and feel.

Once again here is a pic from that Camino I did ten years ago:

The film of the book is happening!

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For those of you who’ve followed this blog for some time – and it’s been ten years now! – thank you for persevering with me. I’ve gone quiet for long periods, and have sashayed across to social media, mainly Facebook, to share my views with you.

But now I’ve decided to return to this blog, and write at least once a week, and if needs be more than that, detailing my preparations, and production of the film of my Camino memoir, The Way, My Way.

The book now has more than 1000 reviews on Amazon, the majority of them five-star reviews. Here is a link to the book on Amazon: The Way, My Way / Amazon.

I wrote the book after I completed my first Camino in May 2013 – in fact this coming Monday will be the 10th anniversary to the day that I set off from St Jean Pied de Port to walk to Santiago. Those of you who know my story know that it was both a difficult walk, because of a dreadful knee issue, but also an exhilarating time because it changed me, fundamentally.

I now divide my life into two parts, those years before I walked the Camino, and those years after I walked the Camino. That’s how much of an impact that walk had on me.

I wrote the book when I came back because I’d been expecting an epiphany in Santiago, after 30 days of, at times, excruciating pain. I wanted to know why I’d decided to walk this ancient 800km pilgrimage route across the top of Spain.

I wasn’t religious, I wasn’t Catholic – this wasn’t a bucket list thing for me, or any kind of athletic endeavour. I wasn’t trying to prove anything to myself, or to others. I really didn’t know why I’d undertaken this walk, I just felt an obsessive compulsion to do it.

I hoped that in writing the book, this would become clear to me – and in a sense, writing the book was, for me, the completion of my walk.

I decided to self-publish, because I didn’t think a publisher would be interested – plus I knew any advance I would get would be paltry. The book has been a major success, and ten years down the track it’s still selling strongly.

I will tell you in another blog how this film – which we start shooting in May – came about. I had no intention of making a film from the book. It was the last thing I wanted to do. I did not want a film about myself, and my failings, and my dickheadedness – if that’s even a word.

But a veteran film distributor – Richard Becker – read the book, it had a big impact on him, and he felt otherwise. He thought it would make a terrific film, and one that would have broad commercial appeal.

So here we are, three weeks out from leaving for Spain, with three weeks location recce then the shoot starts on 22nd May.

I now have my crew in place, most of the cast, and the actual pilgrims I met along the way are coming back to play themselves! To that extent, the film will be like Nomadland, with a small discreet crew and using a mix of actors and “actuals.”

I’ll write more over Easter, but please subscribe to this blog so that you get my updates. I won’t be on social media much anymore until after the shoot – I simply don’t have the time – but I will be keeping this blog updated.

I’m very excited to be making this film – I hope I can capture the tone and the character of the book. That’s my aim.

More to come soon!