The best movies about the dark side of religion
Sep 20 '05 (Updated Jun 16 '07)
The Bottom Line See also my list of movies providing more positive takes on religious figures.
The line between positive and negative portrayals of religion is blurred by many of the positive portrayals of inspiration/innovation pitting the inspired/innovator against existing religious authority intolerant of innovation in general and new revelations and institutions in particular. There are some very ununderstanding established figures in many of the films on my list of the best religion-plus movies, including The Song of Bernadette, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Monsieur Vincent, Nazarín, (the local ones in) Brother Sun Sister Moon, Elmer Gantry, and the movies about Christ (8 of the 16 on my list).
This second set is a list of movies with critical representations of religiosi. Some may be anti-religious (for instance, Luis Buñuel's "Virdiana" complete with a parody of The Last Supper), but showing fallible and even abusive religious personnel is different from condemning religious beliefs. Many would think that Elmer Gantry belongs on this list (the novel would, but I argue that in the movie version (not in Sinclair Lewis's novel) the charlatan is redeemed, possibly by a leap of grace) and that "Priest" and Day of Wrath belong on the first list. The Belgian colonial enterprise portrayed (uncritically) in "The Nun's Story" made me consider placing it on this list. It is my view that "Day of Wrath" is a horror film, seemingly that was not the viewt of its maker, Carl Dreyer. (One may also wonder what Buñuel's intentions were in "Narzarín.") And I am not at all sure on which list one film I wanted to include belongs.
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Rather than rank-ordering the movies, I have grouped them into three topics. Before getting to those groupings is the one falling between the pro and con lists:
I've never been certain whether the character Terence Stamp played in Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1968 Teorema is an angel, a demon, God, or just a human catalyst for breaking out (or through) those he encounters. In a few days, he seduces every member of an upper-class northern Italian family: mother, father, son, daughter, and maid. Consequently, it's impossible to decide whether the movie is a parody of sainthood or a fable of spiritual ecstasy and transcendence. (It won the International Catholic Jury award at the Venice Film Festival and then was charged with (but not convicted of) obscenity.) After her encounter with Stamp's extraordinary being, the servant (Laura Betti) starts performing miracles and levitating and is considered a saint. I tend to the view that Pasolini was exalting rather than parodying (though I'm not sure what he was exalting—possibly sex). The movie was scored by the great Ennio Morricone, but the most memorably used music in it is the opening of Mozart's Requiem. Metalluk has valiantly attempted to explicate the polysemy and complexities of "Teorema" at http://www.epinions.com/content_166410161796.
First, hypocritical and/or abusive and/or self-destructive missionaries:
At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991, directed by Hector Babenco, adapted by Babenco and Jean Claude Carrière from the novel by Peter Matthiessen) is only partly about fundamentalist Protestant missionaries sent in by an officious John Lithgow into the Upper Amazonian jungle. (He has subverted Christ's "Judge not that ye be not judged" to "Judge everyone badly, but don't dare to criticize me" and even looks somewhat like Dick Cheney.) The very judgmental one played by Kathy Bates (who had refused to learn Portuguese because she regarded it as a "Catholic language", never mind the "pagan language" of the Niaruna whom she has condescended to "save") is woefully unprepared for the culture shock and flips out, whereas Aidan Quinn is intrigued by rather than frightened by the natives they have been sent to save (from possible conversion to Catholicism as much as from "idolatry") There is also a New Agey Cheyenne (Tom Berenger) who attempts to organize South American Native People against the missionaries, but carries influenza virus to them. Babenco somehow even managed to elicit something resembling a performance from Daryl Hannah. It runs on for more than three hours (189 minutes) and has great aerial shots of the jungle and waterfalls, etc. See the review by Macresarf1 at http://www.epinions.com/mvie-review-66E9-4BF2AA2-398223C4-prod6.
One of the great stories about bringing down a hyper-judgmental missionary is W. Somerset Maugham's "Rain." It was memorably brought to the screen in 1932 (directed by Lewis Milestone) with Walter Huston as the Rev. Davidson, scourge of prostitute Sadie Thompson portrayed by Joan Crawford. The story was filmed again (with censorship preventing identifying Sadie as a prostitute) e in color as "Miss Sadie Thompson" (1953) with Rita Hayworth incandescent in the title role and José Ferrer plaguing her until he is overcome by lust for her. There are no Epinions on "Rain." TBrown reviewed "Miss Sadie Thompson" at http://www.epinions.com/content_23276981892.
Second, fallible and/or abusive priests and nuns:
Priest (1994, directed by Antonia Bird, with Linus Roache as Father Greg Pilkington, a young, idealistic and traditionalist. follows him to a new parish, in which the senior priest, Father Matthew Thomas (Tom Wilkinson) has a less rigorist, laissez-faire attitude, and is having a sexual relationship with the priests' housekeeper. Father Greg is shocked by that and doesn't know what to do. Similarly, he is unhappy to learn (under the seal of confession) that a schoolgirl (Lisa, played by Christine Tremarco) is being sexually abused by her father. As if he lacked for dilemmas, Father Greg is becoming aware that he is gay. The movie has a big finish. At the time it was controversial, but compared to the revelations of the systematic cover-ups of priestly sexual abuse of children and adolescents... well the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church continues to consider homosexuality between consenting adults worse than the ongoing rape of children. (A movie focused on a priest maintaining the secret of the confessional at great person cost is Alfred Hitchcock's 1953 "I Confess" with Montgomery Clift as the heroic priest.) See Susidee34's review of "Priest" at http://www.epinions.com/content_67062042244.
Which brings us to the superlative Canadian tv docudrama, The Boys of St. Vincent (1992, directed by John N. Smith), the all-too-true story of systematic child abuse by priests in a Newfoundland orphanage (St. Vincent's) and the cover-up by the church hierarchy and by its political friends. See Metalluk's review at http://www.epinions.com/content_193089146500.
Although it contains some vivid scenes, I found Canadian John Grayson's movie "Lilies" tedious. I much prefer Mala educación (Bad Education, 2004, directed by Pedro Almodóvar) as a revenge film relating to more cover-up of priestly abuse of young boys with a bravura performance by Gael García Bernal as the avenging angel or scourge (echoes of "Teorema"! but it is narratively more complex). As showy as is García Bernal's performance, it was Fele Martínez who received a European Film Award nomination for his troubled spectator/participant/ringmaster role as Enriqué. "Bad Education" lacks classical catharsis and it may leave a taste of ashes for viewers eager to identify with Angel. (And those not paying attention might get lost in the labyrinthine plot.)
"El Crimen del padre Amaro"(The Crime of Father Amaro, 2002, directed by Carlos Carrera) was Mexico's official candidate for the foreign-language film Oscar instead of Y tu mamá, tambien. It has the hottest priest ever (Gael García Bernal, who was also in "Mamá") breaking his vows and literally getting blood on his hands. The setup resembles that in "The Priest" with the young priest being heterosexual. The older priest here also has a mistress and less rigorist standards than the young and handsome one. There's also a side plot about a leftist priest. It is not lean and mean, though comes in at just under two hours. See Kristinafh's review at http://www.epinions.com/content_113368862340.
My favorite movie about a religious community is Nasty Habits (1977, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg) based on Dame Muriel Spark's short but ferocious satire The Abbess of Crewe. It is not a great movie, but especially for a Nixonologist Spark's reimagining the soulless members of the Nixon White House as nuns works brilliantly, with Glenda Jackson playing Nixon (Sister Alexandra), Melina Mercouri Henry Kissinger, and Sandy Dennis John Dean. Sister Alexandra's rival is the not-very George McGovern-like Sister Felicity (Susan Penhaligon). The agents of Sister Alexandra's will (recalling those ridding Henry II of the troublesome priest Thomas `a Beckett were played a chain-smoking Geraldine Page and Anne Jackson (Halderman and Ehrlichman). It is regrettable that a better role was not provided the great Dame Edith Evans, especially since it was her last film. (OK, I like the idea more than the cinematic execution, but what a set of actresses acting out!) There are no Epinions review.
"Enjo"/Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1958, directed by Kon Ichikawa), adapted from Yukio Mishima's novel shows a resentful tongue-tied son (Ichikawa Raizô) of the priest in charge of a Japanese national treasure (the temple is Shinto, I think, but I'm not sure). The multiply thwarted boy eventually destroys (by arson) the temple (Mishima's novel was based on a real case, and this is not plot-spoiling, since the fire is shown at the start of the movie, then explained.). The movie also showcases a brilliant performance of a more articulate nihilist played by the great Nakadai Tatsuya (The Human Condition). See Jiahong's review of "Enjo" at http://www.epinions.com/content_46193282692 and includes the suggestion that the cinematography supplied by the great master of light and shadow, Miyagawa Kazuo, is too beautiful (that is, joins the nihilism). (More than most this can be interpreted as showing individual pathology with the religious background incidental to it.)
Third, crimes against humanity condoned or encouraged by religious officials:
Osama (2003, written and directed by Siddiq Barmak) mostly shows the difficulty for women to survive without being subordinate to a man in Taliban Afghanistan (also see "Kandahar"). A widow who was making a living as a nurse if forced into seclusion and sends her daughter disguised as a boy (with the name "Osama") to a madrass (Islamic school) (recalling "Yentl" though with a younger and more believable girl passing as a boy than Barbara Streisand, and the desperate Jewish boy from "Europa, Europa" passing within the Hitler Youth). The movie does not portray sexual abuse in the madrass, but does show an imam using his position to add another wife, saving the life of the infiltrator into male space. Cast with nonactors Marina Golbahari as "Osama" and Arif Herati as her protector Espandi are memorable. (The movie has improved in my memory; I was less impressed by it while I was watching it. Though only 82 minutes in length, it moves rather ponderously for the first hour) See the Epinions reviews by DavidMac at http://www.epinions.com/content_152828743300 and by Jarvococker at http://www.epinions.com/content_130866056836.
Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1943 Vredens dag (Day of Wrath) is a movie I grudgingly rated 5-stars and "not recommend." It is far more horrifying than Dreyer's seminal "Vampyr," seemingly an ode to torture and witch-burning (though the Lutherans doing so are portrayed as hypocrites). It is painfully slow (not as slow as "Gertrud" but headed that way), It is, alas, a better movie than the 1996 "The Crucible," (directed by Nicholas Hytner with Daniel Day-Lewis, Joan Allen, Winona Ryder, and Paul Scofield), but then so is the 1957 French version of Arthur Miller's play about the Salem witch trials with Yves Montand and Simone Signoret (directed by Raymond Rouleau). There are great movies that are painful to watch, and "Day of Wrath" is high on the list. Besides mine, there are thoughtful analyses of this repellent great movie by Metalluk (http://www.epinions.com/content_154225512068) and Eplovejoy (http://www.epinions.com/content_86514896516) that I recommend.
Amen (2002, directed by Constantine Costa-Gavras), based on Rolf Hochhuth's play "The Deputy" shows Pope Pius XII unwilling to criticize Nazi genocide (though the Vatican roused itself to condemn euthanasia of the retarded et al.). Other movies have showed a less timid Vatican: "The Scarlet and the Black" (1983) has John Gielgud as a sympathetic Pius XII and Gregory Peck as a can-do priestly hero saving Roman Jews, and The Assisi Underground (1985) with Ben Cross as the can-do priestly hero saving Umbrian Jews for a bishop played by James Mason). On "Amen," see Waynio's review at http://www.epinions.com/content_126442180228.
"La Reine Margot" Queen Margot (1994, directed by Patrice Chéreau) would not spring to most minds as a "religious movie," but for a list of the dark side of religion, it leaps to the top echelon. Based on a novel by Alexandre Dumas père, the movie centers on the St. Bartholomew's Day (Night) massacre of 24 August 1572, ordered by Charles IX (Jean-Hugues Anglade) egged on by his mother, the infamous Catherine de Médici (Virna Lisi). The title character, the (Catholic) king's sister Marguerite de Valois, (Isabelle Adjani) has been forced to marry (but refuses to be bedded by) the Protestant Henri de Navarre (Daniel Auteuil) and saves the Protestant Count La Môle (a very dashing Vincent Perez, who played Christian who enlisted Cyrano de Bergerac to ghostwrite letters to win Roxanne in "Cyrano"). The violence is extremely graphic, the period look is very authentic, and the sexual and religious politics are very complicated. After escaping the court which has forced him to surface conversion, Henri eventually became King Henri IV. French audiences can be presumed to know the history and American ones are used to more simplification in historical epics and biopics. Nonetheless, I believe that disorientation of viewers was sought by Chéreau the better to feel the horrors of the massacre, betrayals, and gratitudes shown. See Heidifromoz's review at http://www.epinions.com/content_101338353284.
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There are several candidates for this list that I have not seen, including Satyajit Ray's "Devi," "Black Robe," Jesus of Montreal," The Disputation," and "Dogma." And many movies about religious wars that might be included as pathological products of religious intolerance (but I'll consider them "war movies" instead of "religious movies").
I am keenly aware of the lack of any movies about Hindus on either of my lists of religious films. And that although there is a Muslim and a Shinto contribution on this list, and three Protestant Christian ones, like the other, it is predominantly (7-8 out of 13) Roman Catholic. Credit the demand of priestly celibacy and/or vows of chastity, I think. The Office of the Holy Inquisition (the successor of which, the Congregation for the Faith, was headed by the current pope before his promotion and is now going to be headed by the previous pope's Enforcer in San Francisco, Archbishop Levada) should provide even more. From my other list, "The Passion of Joan of Arc" is the only Inquisition movie included. Movies about it are rare: it seems a tabooed subject.
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