“The Way” is the most well-known film, set and filmed on the Camino de Santiago and has helped to popularize the Camino de Santiago throughout the world, despite being a film overvalued by many pilgrims.
In this article, I would like to make a review of the film, centered on how it captures the essence of the experience, how much of what it shows is true and how much is poetic license.
The Plot of “The Way”
Let’s talk a little about the movie.
It was filmed in the year 2010 and set in that year (please remember the year because it is important);
it is directed by Emilio Estevez and starring Martin Sheen (father and son in real life and in the film).
It is about a father who loses a son who was beginning to make the Camino de Santiago and decides to do it in his honor and in the process he rediscovers himself.
Personally, being a film fanatic, I admit that the movie did not like me, for reasons unrelated to the representation of the Way.
I think it has serious script problems: it is full of exaggerated characters; convoluted dialogues; unnecessary plots (such as the backpack falling into the river or the backpack being stolen) and “exposition dumps,” which is when a character tells another character the necessary contextual information to advance with the film. (the most exaggerated example is the police officer from Saint Jean, who in his free time could work in a pilgrim information office).
In terms of cinematography, it portrays the landscape very well, although it takes many liberties including of places off the beaten path, sites out of sequence, and with people walking in the wrong direction.
Now, regarding the representation of the experience…
Equipment and clothing for the Camino de Santiago (according to “The Way”)
Let’s start with the equipment.
It is an American film and Americans like large backpacks, and in the film it is shown that the pilgrims are carrying backpacks much larger and heavier than necessary.
The backpack of Daniel (the deceased son) included: compass, maps, and a photographic album; heavy and impractical things that no one would recommend carrying on the Camino.
An arguable detail would be the use of a sleeping mat.
At that time it was normal to carry a sleeping mat in case you had to sleep on the floor of the hostel, although by 2010 it was falling out of use. In fact, I took a sleeping mat on my first Camino and I didn’t use it once.
Nevertheless, even in 2024, sleeping mats can still be seen as a result of the recommendations of the old guides in book format.
Regarding clothing, several characters are seen walking around with jeans and boots. It is not recommended to wear jeans on the trail, as they are uncomfortable and difficult to wash and dry; and boots are optional, preferring hiking shoes.
A correct detail is the use of “Camino Guide”, something that was very normal before the popularization of Smart Phones and of guides online like the Eroski guide at that time.
A nice detail is the reference to a special Dutch guide, with shortcuts and advice… such guides existed and still exist… but they are German and yellow-covered.
Death in the Pyrenees
On the death of the son, which is the trigger of the film’s plot, it happens while completing the stage where it crosses from France to Spain through the Pyrenees.
The route of Napoleon, as it is known as the Saint Jean-Roncesvalles mountain variant, is very well signposted and it is almost impossible to get lost and, much less, to suffer a fatal accident.
Furthermore this route closes when there are adverse weather conditions.
However, on the other hand, although they are not discussed regularly, there are several deaths on the Camino each year, but the majority are due to heart attacks and traffic accidents.
The human group (aka The Camino family)
On the human group, it was very accurate that each character be from a different country, but it falls very short on a diversity level.
The real Camino is much more diverse and it makes a mistake of not including any Spanish or Spanish-speaker in the group, nor including Koreans, and including briefly an Italian…, being these 3, demographic groups very important at that time and now.
It is not realistic to keep the group closed and stable throughout the entire film. People are known all the time and the groups that form, change a lot of members.
And it is very unrealistic that all the pilgrims are doing the camino for the first time… (except for the police officer). In reality you will meet a lot of experienced pilgrims…
And finally, the least realistic of all is that the characters forced themselves to walk together, not tolerating each other. It is quite common to find people with whom you have no affinity or well people who act in an unpleasant manner and it is most normal to ignore them and continue on your way.
Free Camping on the Camino
Then, the two situations of spending the night outdoors that were shown in the film were unnecessary and illogical.
It would have been advisable and totally possible to obtain shelter in both circumstances… even in that era.
On the French route, there are towns every few kms and many options of accommodation…
Furthermore, in the second opportunity, in “Torres del Rio” there is another village with services literally next to it….
The life in the hostels
And about the hostels…
I think it is one of the weakest points of the film for not representing correctly the experience of sleeping in hostels…
Despite showing the lack of privacy and the snoring, they do not clearly show the different types nor the rules of coexistence…
There are strict curfews at the hostels to respect the rest of the pilgrims, and one cannot enter to sleep late at night when everyone is sleeping.
The boots or sneakers must be left outside of the hostel, and inside the hostel all the pilgrims wear sandals or flip-flops… People walking inside the hostel with boots.
And people don’t wash clothes in fountains… there are laundromats and many with washing machines and dryers available.
Sleeping in monasteries, like it shows in the movie, only happens once and it is in Sobrado dos Monxes, on the Northern Way;
there are some parish hostels where you sleep in churches but nothing so beautiful and many traditional welcoming hostels are usually the old school of the village.
Lavish banquets do not exist, and they certainly do not exist in parish albergues. The meals are usually very simple, and they usually consist of salad and pasta, although sometimes one has the luck of having some slightly more elaborate dishes.
He doesn’t show any peregrine collaboration around the preparation of communal meals, which is normal in parish hostels: no character cooks, nor cleans, nor sets the table, nor washes the dishes.
It doesn’t show any “ceremonies” or “blessings” to the pilgrims, like those at the parish albergues of Logroño, Grañon, Bercianos del Real Camino and more…
Furthermore, in more than one scene, although brief, it is seen that they put the backpacks on the beds, violating rule #1 of the road!!!
And finally, show a hostel with occupied beds for tomorrow, when it is mandatory to leave the hostels very early.
What leads us to the next great distortion of this film.
The Walking period
The schedule in which the characters walk does not correspond with reality, and definitely not with that of the French Way.
The Camino de Santiago is a route of dawns and not a road of sunsets.
In the film they do not walk even once in the morning. And they walk a lot in the afternoons.
They are carrying the backpacks all the time.
The normal behaviour is to walk fast in the morning to arrive at the destination as soon as possible, and to ensure a bed in the hostel, to get rid of the backpacks… and so to be able to rest and then to go out to eat or to cook in the hostel.
The representation of Santiago
The way Santiago is represented, has been and is the point of greatest contention and consists of 2 scenes:
the first of the Cathedral of Santiago and the second in the office of the Pilgrim.
Starting with the Cathedral, the group enters through el Pórtico de la Gloria (Portal of Glory)… and shows the 2 old traditions:
give 3 small head-bounces (or crocques) to the statue of the Saint, also known as the Saint Dos Crocques…, located at the base of the central pillar and to touch on a specific point the central column, a tradition so popular throughout the centuries that the imprint of the hand.
These two traditions were forbidden in the year 2008, two years before the filming of this movie; and given that the financing of the movie by the Xunta de Galicia, I consider it “deceptive advertising” to include this scene.
Then one sees the botafumeiro functioning, which is not seen in all masses and which is seen less and less.
And returning to the Pórtico de la Gloria (Portal of Glory), the entire area is closed to the general public and for some time it has become a museum, where to see it you have to pay 12€ and if you are a pilgrim 10€.
The other scene in Santiago is in the pilgrim’s office, where the characters request the Compostela.
This scene, beyond certain poetic licenses, was well filmed and captured this moment (one of the few representative scenes of the movie). Unfortunately, today the process of obtaining the Compostelas has been largely automated and that interview with the pilgrim no longer exists.
To request the Compostela, a form is filled out online and the Compostela is no longer written by hand, but is printed. Indeed, this whole new process is quite mundane and there is emphasis on selling you a new certificate, the distance certificate, which is not free.
Muxía, as the end of the Way of St. James
And my last criticism was the effort to promote Muxía, by the government of Galicia.
The way the town was included without context and without mentioning Finisterre is insulting. (to the point of erasing Finisterre, literally, from the map).
Perfectly they could have named both locations and choose for some specific reason Muxía, but the way that they chose was very clumsy.
By a coincidence of life, I accidentally found myself in a bar in Finisterre on the day the movie was premiered on television, and I can confirm that I am not the only one who thinks that.
Well represented details
Now well… I want to end the article in a positive way, recognizing that, in the film, there are still 2 moments well represented…
The first is the reunion in Burgos with other pilgrims.
Personally I think it lacked a farewell from someone who was returning home.
And the second and last;
while staying a luxurious hotel, each with their private room, choosing to spend time together in the same room captures perfectly the intensity of the bonds created with other pilgrims while making the journey;
and may it be, probably, the best scene of the whole film.