ReelBob: ‘Not a Tame Lion’ ★★★
By Bob Bloom
I would venture to say that a majority of people have not heard of John Boswell. But after seeing “Not a Tame Lion,” the documentary about his life and research, I was fascinated by this scholar.
Boswell was a man of contradictions. As a youth he converted from Episcopalian to Catholicism and remained a devout Catholic until the day he died — of complications from AIDS.
Yes, Boswell was gay, but it was not the defining quality of a full and rewarding — though short — life.
Boswell as a brilliant academic — an expert on medieval history and linguistics, who knew more than a dozen languages.
He also was an author whose most notable books, “Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe” and “Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality” — based on copious research — detailed gay marriage and same-sex weddings performed by the Catholic church in medieval Europe.
In his writings, Boswell claimed that gays and lesbians were accepted as equal members of society and that intolerance toward homosexuality and the LGBTQ+ community is a modern development.
His evidence was comprised of several documents he found and photographed in various monasteries throughout Europe as well as Vatican archives.
His findings, as you can imagine, created concern within the Roman Catholic Church. Yet, Boswell persisted while maintaining his faith and devotion to the church.
Boswell’s spiritual clarity and adherence to revealing the truth in his work are the fundamentals of his character, according to the many friends and family members who reminisce about him in the movie.
His findings that many early saints of the Catholic church were gay made him a beacon of hope to LGBTQ+ people who still followed their religions that, one day, their church or synagogue or mosque would again accept and embrace them.
Boswell’s “faith was his bedrock,” his sister, Patricia Boswell, said.
If “Not a Tame Lion” has one drawback it’s the predominance of “talking heads.” Boswell’s research and writings are touched upon but are not the main focus of the movie. It is more a remembrance of the man and his impact on the students and friends he touched that is mainly discussed throughout the movie.
“Not a Tame Lion” is a chronicle of the broad sweep of one man’s journey to reveal the truth and, by doing so, help those who believed they were invisible. He showed them that they were as much God’s children as those who saw themselves as the keepers of the gates of heaven.
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob.com or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.
NOT A TAME LION
3 stars out of 4
Not rated