(I have posted this at The American Catholic. I assumed that the film mavens of Almost Chosen People would also enjoy it.)
This is a joint post with commenter Dr. Peter Dans. Pete has written a fine book which I will be reviewing, Christians in the Movies, A Century of Saints and Sinners, and he has given suggestions about films to watch while we are waiting to shout Habemus Papam. Here are the films in Chronological order of the Pope depicted:
1. Quo Vadis (1951)-The historical spectacle film to end historical spectacle films, it brings to the screen the novel of the persecution of Christians by Henryk Sienkiewicz. The film is a great work of Art with inspired performances by Peter Ustinov as Nero, Robert Taylor as the tough Roman legate Marcus Vinicius who finds himself, very much against his will, becoming a Christian from his love of the Christian Lygia, portrayed by Deborah Kerr, and Leo Genn, as Petronius, the uncle of Vinicius and Nero’s “arbiter of taste”, who wounds Nero to the core with the following suicide note:
To Nero, Emperor of Rome, Master of the World, Divine Pontiff. I know that my death will be a disappointment to you, since you wished to render me this service yourself. To be born in your reign is a miscalculation; but to die in it is a joy. I can forgive you for murdering your wife and your mother, for burning our beloved Rome, for befouling our fair country with the stench of your crimes. But one thing I cannot forgive – the boredom of having to listen to your verses, your second-rate songs, your mediocre performances. Adhere to your special gifts, Nero – murder and arson, betrayal and terror. Mutilate your subjects if you must; but with my last breath I beg you – do not mutilate the arts. Fare well, but compose no more music. Brutalize the people, but do not bore them, as you have bored to death your friend, the late Gaius Petronius.
Peter in the movie is portrayed by Finlay Currie. Here is the classic scene from the film that depicts Peter informed by Christ that He is going to Rome to be crucified a second time:
In the film he goes to the arena where the Christians are being murdered for the amusement of the crowds and cries out, “Here where Nero rules today, Christ shall rule forever!” The film movingly depicts Peter’s martyrdom, crucified upside down since he had stated that he was not worthy to have the same death as Christ.
2. Sign of the Pagan (1954) -Jack Palance, a great actor who was consistently underrated throughout his career, portrays Attila the Hun. Here we have depicted the meeting between Attila and Pope Leo the Great, portrayed by Leo Moroni, which convinces Attila to spare Rome.
3. Becket (1964)-A masterful, albeit heavily fictionalized retelling of the life of the “holy, blessed, marty”. Here we have Archbishop Becket, Richard Burton, in exile having an interview with Pope Alexander III, Paolo Stoppa:
4. Francis of Assisi (1961)-A film biography of Saint Francis, ably portrayed by Bradford Dillman. Go here to see the depiction of the interview between Saint Francis and Pope Innocent III, the role assumed by Finlay Currie who was Peter in Quo Vadis. Dolores Hart had the role of Saint Clare in the film. She went on to become a nun. Pete has some information in regard to that:
It has the extra added attraction of an interesting backstory involving Dolores Hart, the actress who played Clare and later became a nun. She is now the Prioress of Regina Laudis Abbey which itself has an interesting backstory connecting back to the 1949 film Come to the Stable.
By the way, I sent her a copy of the book and she sent me a delightful note in 2009 saying that the documentation of the abbey’s founding and her journey was “absolutely on target” and that it made her want to read the whole book. Then she added “Said like a real actress.” I was especially touched when she said that she would keep me in her “heart and prayers.” I’m sure that has been a big help to me along the way.
5. The Agony and the Ecstacy (1965)-Charlton Heston is magnificent as Michelangelo, but Rex Harrison steals the movie as Pope Julius II. Harrison plays the soldier Pope with a force and a wry sense of humor that dominates every scene in which he appears. Julius is shown, with all his flaws, as a man completely dedicated to God and His Church. There are many good scenes in the film, especially the confrontations between the Pope and Michelangelo over “this purgatory of a ceiling”, but alas video clips are lacking online. Here is the trailer to the film:
6. The Scarlet and the Black (1983)-One of the better films dealing with the Catholic Church. Gregory Peck is brilliant as Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican, who during World War 2, hid 4000 escaped Allied POWs and Jews from the Nazi occupiers of Rome. Christopher Plummer gives the performance of his career as Obersturmbanfuhrer (Colonel) Herbert Kappler, the head of the Gestapo in Rome. John Gielgud gives a stunningly good performance as Pius XII. At one point when he confronts a Nazi delegation he merely stares at them with steely disdain until they get the hint and leave. I imagine the actual Pius XII used a similar look of disdain when, on March 11, 1940, his response to a complaint by the Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim Von Ribbentrop that the Church was siding with the Allies, was to read to Von Ribbentrop a long list of atrocities committed by the Nazis in Poland, which had been compiled by the Church. This is a superb film that should be seen by every Catholic. Go here, beginning at 8:32, to see depicted a confrontation between O’Flaherty and Kappler at the Colosseum at midnight which contains a profound observation on the Church and History. Kappler was sentenced to life imprisonment for his war crimes. O’Flaherty visited him every month, and in 1959 he baptized Kappler into the Church.
7. A Man Whose Name Was John (1973)-Raymond Burr is very good as Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, and his heroic efforts to save Jews when he was papal nuncio to Turkey and Greece during World War II:
8. Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II (2005)-Thomas Kretschmann gives a riveting performance as Pope John Paul II. Here we have a clip of him defying the Communists in his native Poland as a young bishop:
9. The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)-It took considerable hutzpah for Anthony Quinn, after the life he led, seeking to portray a fictional pope in this film! Although the film is filled with bad ideas, popular in the Sixties, and still besetting us today, Quinn brings an undeniable raw power to the role. When Pope John Paul II was elected I thought this movie, which depicted the election of a Pope from behind the Iron Curtain, was eerily predictive:
Feel free to add additional films in the comboxes!
Donald R. McClarey
Paul Zummo
Nothing (directly) to do with the terrifying task of choosing a successor to one of the greatest Popes in history, but I thought you would like to see this: http://www.inquisitr.com/553071/ipad-app-helps-disabled-woman-speak-for-first-time-in-30-years/
Sometimes we may even have reason to thank God for Ipads.
One of my sons is autistic Fabio and I have great hopes from the advance of technology to aid him and other disabled people.
My brother is tetraplegic. For a long time now I have not accepted any talk that suggested that the disabled (and the old, and the sick, and the senile) are no use or cannot enjoy life or have no dignity. I don’t even argue with positions like that; mine is, get your dirty paws off my brother, or I’ll duff you up.
Oh I can understand such feelings. My wife and I are very protective of our autistic lad, who is the light of our lives. We have responded to well meaning people who have said that they understand the “cross we have to bear” with the response that in our son the Lord has only given us a blessing. Sincerely, Don
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Don,
I’m sorry to learn about your son. One of my very best friends, a devout Catholic gentleman, whose wife and mine grew up together, has an autistic son. He was born on the very same day 16 years ago as the second of my treasured boys. It breaks the heart to see the differences in the two when side by side. My son aspires to be an engineer, and has served the Latin Mass since he was eleven. When he and my friend’s boy are together, he’s very gentle and takes the time to encourage and play with the son of my friend, whose autism is severe and requires great patience to penetrate his shell so to speak. The malady, however hard, has been a conduit of grace for them both.
Now, Catholic movies? You know, one night last week I was looking for the very thing and stumbled on a film with Jack Hawkins and Alec Guinness (no, not THAT one) I’d never heard of before. It’s called “The Prisoner.” It’s a fictionalized account of Cardinal Mindszenty’s trial and humiliation. If you haven’t seen it, I think you’ll enjoy it.
Thank you for your kind words Jon. My autistic son is a fraternal twin and his brother is finishing his junior year at the U of I. He plans on being an attorney like his old man, although I have told him their are easier ways to make a buck. He is devoted to his brother, and it is a comfort to me that after I and my wife are gone our son will be looked after by our other son.
I am familiar with The Prisoner film. It has its good points but the breaking of the Cardinal due to some childhood trauma I found unsatisfying for me. I would prefer if they had stuck to Mindszenty’s trial where his confession was beaten out of him. However, it is an interesting film and any movie with both Jack Hawkins and Alec Guinness in it, even if not named The Bridge Over the River Kwai!, will always be worth watching!
A better story, in fact, could have been made from the fact that the Cardinal did in fact “confess” in court, under the pressure of torture, and what is more that he expected that his own educated man’s Hungarian style could not by any means be confused with the vulgar gabble of the unlettered Communist fakers – which could be constructed as sin of pride, trusting in his own human qualities rather than in the Lord. A story in which these were seen as flaws, and in which he eventually was seen as a victor when he trusted not to his strength but to God, would be both less cliched and more proper to a Christian subject. But you can’t always have what you want.
I thought the theme was the Popes. But if we are talking of great Catholic-themed films in general, a few that come to mind include “A man condemned to death has escaped” by Robert Bresson (IIRC) and Pierpaolo Pasolini’s “The Gospel according to Matthew”. Pasolini was a tragic figure, torn between the pull of the Catholic faith of his parents (for which his father was murdered during the Partisan struggles of WWII – not by Nazis, but by Communist partisans) and the gravitational attraction of his homosexual lusts, and eventually destroyed by the latter; but before that he had managed to make what I think is the most haunting picture of Jesus ever captured by the camera, way ahead of Zeffirelli’s, Gibson’s, or anyone’s. It is even possible that his homosexual lust, or rather the displaced masculinity at its core, had something to do with the intensity of the vision; certainly his relationship with the young Basque student whom he cast, and who had never acted before, had something to do wtih that. In which case I would say that this is an example of the power of great art and Christian faith to take up, transfigure, and ennoble, something that would in itself be ruinous, and that did in fact prove ruinous when Pasolini finally surrendered to it.
I have seen the Gospel According to Matthew and it has an undeniable power to it.