"Scofield himself was baptized into the faith of his Catholic mother, although he always felt somewhat divided in spiritual matters since his father was Anglican. He was known for being 'a true country gentleman' who put his marriage, family, and home life first and never allowed the fame of his career to go to his head. A classically trained Shakespearian actor and resident of a small village in Sussex, he did not even go in person to collect his Academy Award for Best Actor. He also rejected the offer of knighthood three times, believing in the maxim 'Never the actor before the part he plays.' After his death, many of Scofield's fellow villagers knew next to nothing about his fame in the acting world, simply regarding him as one of their own, the nice old man who always supported local theater productions. Perhaps it is this abiding combination of humility and intellectual honesty, and recognition of the important things of life that truly made him perfectly destined to bring the character of Thomas More to life on screen."
Avellina Balestri, "Silence Louder Than Words: Looking back at A Man for All Seasons," The Latin Mass: The Journal of Catholic Culture and Tradition, Vol. 26, No. 3 (Fall 2017), p. 58.
Well, this is interesting. I've never cared much for overtly 'Christian' films, which tend in my experience to be too long on didacticism and too short on artistry. But here's what Steven D. Greydanus has to say about 'The Case for Christ,' based on Lee Strobel’s best-selling conversion story:
The atheists and nonbelievers in The Case for Christ don’t have horns and tails, or even mustaches for twirling. They aren’t out to crush believers into dust or banish their beliefs from respectable society.
The believers aren’t persecuted, marginalized victims, but capable, respected professionals in fields ranging from medical science and health care to archaeology, New Testament studies, philosophy, journalism and more. The conflict turns on faith and unbelief, but believers and unbelievers aren’t cast as natural enemies.
In other words, The Case for Christ is far from the paranoid, agonistic world of the two God’s Not Dead films, for which Pure Flix Entertainment is best known. Producers Elizabeth Hatcher-Travis and Pure Flix CEO Michael Scott collaborated on all three films — and Lee Strobel, the protagonist of The Case for Christ, cameoed as himself in God’s Not Dead 2. Yet The Case for Christ is the furthest thing from a God’s Not Dead 3.
The differences start with the real-life story behind The Case for Christ, Strobel’s conversion story from atheism to Christianity. Where the God’s Not Dead films offer lurid distillations of fundamentalist urban legends, The Case for Christ is about real people — at least, about as much as an average fact-based Hollywood drama. Read more >>
I read the novel Silence by the Japanese Catholic author, Shusaku Endo, years ago when I lived in Japan. He's called the "Japanese Graham Greene." With good reason. Like Greene, he's a darn good novelist. Also like Greene, his Catholicism in his writings is ambiguous. I don't hold that against him as a novelist. Some of my favorite Catholic novelists are also ambiguous about the Catholic faith in their writings, even though they are clearly and intentionally Catholic, like Walker Percy or Evelyn Waugh.
I read many, many reviews of Martin Scorsese's film based on Endo's novel, also called "Silence." One of the best on the critical side, I thought, was Monica Migliorino Miller's "Scorsese's Silence: Many Martyrs -- Little Redemption" (Crisis, January 9, 2017). But there were others that were also good on the appreciative side.
Personally, I liked the movie Silence. I think it was very well done. Whatever Endo's and Scorsese's motives, I think they both dealt powerfully with two things: (1) the exquisitely horrific tortures underwent by Catholics in Japan before the Meiji Restoration, and (2) the diabolically insidious temptations to apostasy that can make infidelity to Christ itself look like fidelity and virtue.
The latter theme of the movie, which I think most Christian audiences thought most significant, I think were (mis-?)understood in two ways: (a) by the 'liberals' as proclaiming a gospel of merciful accommodation indifferent to doctrine, and (b) by 'conservatives' as a message of doctrinal compromise intended by both Endo's novel and Scorsese's film.
I'm not at all certain that the latter is true. Whether it is or not, I think that not only the temptations but the consequences of apostasy were shown by both novel and film in a faithful light: the temptations were beyond ingenious, with the voice of Jesus seeming to come from His image on the fumie itself ("Step on me.") as if Christ Himself were counseling the mercy of apostasy as the path to redemption; and both apostate priests ended their lives by faded into oblivion, morphing into gollum-like shadows of themselves; and the Japanese Catholics (not all, but many) who witnessed their apostasy were significantly demoralized by it.
Remarkably, however, when Catholic priests returned to Japan after the Meiji Restoration of the mid-nineteenth century, they encountered Kakure Kurishitan (hidden Christians) who came out of hiding once again to present rosaries and crucifixes and statues of Maria Kanon that doubled as secret images of the Madonna, showing that the Faith had not been entirely wiped out. The price of persecution as well as apostasy was high. Only something like one tenth of 1% of Japanese people are Christians, and of these, half (about 509,000) are Catholic.
Some of you may remember the movie, The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. One of the young samurai actors in the film was Shin Koyamada, who only discovered during the making of that film that his ancestors were among the Kakure Kurishitan. So moved was he by the narrative of persecution and Catholic resistance during the Shimabara Rebellion, that he ventured to make film about those events in which he played the father of Shiro Amakusa, the leader of that rebellion (see my review here with a trailer of the film, "Good Soil").
Another recent discovery is the book, A Christian Samurai: The Trials of Baba Bunko, William J. Farge, SJ., which contradicts the generally held belief among Western historians that the Catholic mission in Japan ended in failure. Farge relates how Christian moral teachings not only survived the long period of persecution but influenced Japanese society throughout the Tokugawa period. Baba Bunko was a Japanese Catholic essayist and satirist whose biting criticism of the authorities of his time eventually led to his execution; but he was brazenly bold in asserting his views, declaring, for example, that a representation of the Eucharist would be a more fitting symbol for Japan than the coat of arms of the emperor and insignia of the shogun.
In the film’s climatic scene Japanese Christians are horrifically tortured and Rodrigues is forced to watch. If he would only step on the fumi-e placed on the ground before him the torture would end. Ferreira is there urging him, as Rodrigues himself had urged others, to step on the face of Jesus. And of course the apostasy, as in all other instances, is connected to bringing an end to human suffering. It is this scene that makes the Scorsese film a theological failure. Ferreira is the Judas character—but it is very unclear whether this Judas functions negatively or positively. Is this a Judas who works against Christ—or is this a Judas, ala the Gnostic text, The Gospel of Judas who actually aids Jesus to accomplish his mission? Ferreira tells Rodrigues: “If Christ were here he would apostatize for their sake” and “To give up your faith is the most painful act of love.” (Spoiler alert.) Then the voice of Jesus himself is heard coming from the fumi-e image lying on the ground. It is a bronze plaque of the crucified Christ who Himself urges Rodriquez: “Step on me. I carried this cross for your pain.” With the permission of Christ, Rodrigues denies his Lord. Apostasy, this time his own, stops the suffering of others, and the Christians are not martyred.
This is the most troubling aspect of Silence. Jesus gives permission to betray him, gives Christians permission to fail in their witness. It makes all the difference whether the film intends this to be the voice of Christ to Rodrigues or whether the voice is just something Rodrigues imagines in his own head. In this reviewer’s opinion, Scorsese intends this to be Christ’s voice that clears the path to failure. First of all, technically speaking, it is sound outside of Rodrigues, emanating from the image to him. The voice is not presented as something coming from the interior of Rodrigues’ consciousness.
Why would Scorsese, based on Endo, give us a Christ who provides his followers permission to fail? What end does the “Step on me” Jesus serve? Since Rodrigues recommends apostasy only to avoid suffering, one could conclude that suffering trumps faith—that for the good of avoiding horrible pain, denial of Christ is justified as it is Jesus alone who “carries this cross for your pain.” Of course this consequentialist ethic is contrary to Christian faith and morals—namely to do evil for the sake of good.
One could also just as well conclude that the “Step on me” Jesus is a theology that only Christ’s suffering has any value. Human beings, due to their inherent sinful nature will inevitably fail, despite all high-minded goals and personal expectations and in the end all that matters is the abiding silent presence of God to those that suffer. However, this is an insufficient Christian message—especially when one considers that in God’s eyes human suffering does have salvific value as Saint Paul himself stated: “Even now I find my joy in the suffering I endure for you. In my own flesh I fill up the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body the Church.”
Or when Rodrigues steps on Jesus this is meant to be indeed the “most painful act of love” as he surrenders his own ideal for the sake of saving others. However, this interpretation is seriously weaken by the fact that he is miserable afterwards and for decades to come will continue to step on the face of Christ in repeated acts of apostasy when no one needs to be delivered from torture.
If however, the voice is just Rodrigues’ own justification to deny Christ—then indeed he is a true apostate and the movie works as a tale of God’s abiding presence to all those who suffer—the suffering of the martyrs as well as the suffering of those like Rodrigues and Kichijiro who are tormented by remorse and guilt for their failure. Jesus is there silently in the suffering of all—as the “voice” from the image says: “I carried this cross for your pain.” And this works well when one considers that Kichijiro commits apostasy over and over again, and is even a Judas who betrays Rodrigues to the authorities. Yet he always seeks out the priest to confess his sins and receive absolution. And indeed mercy is there for those who fail. Silence poignantly illustrates this point. Rodrigues indeed follows Ferreira—who ironically has wound up mentoring him into the life of an apostate priest. But long after Rodrigues quits the priesthood Kichijiro finds him and begs him to hear his confession and Rodrigues again provides him the absolution for which he craves.
Except for Christ telling Rodrigues to “Step on me” this forgiveness scene would be the climax of the film, and thus Silence would be about the silent abiding presence of God to all, even to those who fail. But this possible climax is overwhelmed by the very troubling permission of Christ to fail. The first climactic scene plunges the Scorsese film into a most problematic and erroneous soteriology. The end of the film attempts to show a certain level of redemption for Rodrigues who apparently remained a Christian privately, but is not powerful enough to overcome a depiction of Christ who leads his faithful servant to deny him.
This movie seriously examines Christian themes and ideas. But should a film that, to its credit, does such an examination necessarily be called a Christian film? I think not. A Christian film cannot simply explore—it must conclude and it must conclude in a way that is consistent with the gospel message—however unconventionally, provocatively, or innovatively presented. There must be the Christ of the Gospels who, rather than commanding his faithful followers to step on him, and twists this negativity, this denial of the Light, into “the most painful act of love,” calls them to follow him to the Cross—the Christ who rather ensures his faithful: “From the cup I drink from you shall drink; the bath I am immersed in you shall share.”
Believers hoping for a film that explores Christian ideas from an authentic Christian context—should skip this one. Silence should also not be seen by the young, or those whose faith is not strong as the theology in this movie is complex, clever and seductive. However, if you are a mature Christian looking for a finely crafted, well-acted, disturbing film that provokes thinking and debates—then Silence is for you. Let the debates begin.
The Japanese Graham Greene's novel, Silence (Jap. 沈黙, 'Chinmoku'), is now a movie Directed by Martin Scorsese. Coming soon to a theater near you. I hope Scorsese keeps faith with the well-known novel.
I hope readers of my blog over the last few years have picked this up from what I have written. Much of what moved me to homeschool in the first place was a dissatisfaction with the lifestyle school forces on a family. We have so little freedom in the way we lead our daily lives anyway: work limits our families, as do economic concerns. School – with its daily, weekly and yearly schedules, with its homework and projects, with its fundraisers – slams one more constraint on. As I have written over and over again, the reason we accept this is that we accept that what school gives is worth what we must give over to it. The tipping point for many of us comes when we realize that what the school gives is not worth it and what it demands is counterproductive to our children’s flourishing and our family lives and that the resources available to us, our own schools, and our childrens’ not-yet-deadened curiosity means that we can do the same thing at home just as well or even better, and have a lot more fun doing it.
Guy Noir again:
I found this doubly interesting since a teaching colleague, someone who tilts liberal, told me she moved her family inland to get it away from the materialistic encroachments of the urban center where they were. And she came in on Monday very pumped by the movie "Captain Fantastic." There is very real counter-cultural emphasis in the Faith that should appeal across political lines, as Alexi Sargeant gets, at "First Thoughts":
I recently saw the film Captain Fantastic, and enjoyed it immensely. The film stars Viggo Mortensen as Ben Cash, a man raising and schooling his six children off-the-grid in a remote corner of Washington State forest. The family are Leftist, slightly pagan hippies (the eldest son informs his father that being a Trotskyist was just a phase, “I'm a Maoist now”), and yet their homeschooling experience absolutely reminded me of my own. Sure, I wasn't learning to hunt animals with a bow and arrow or celebrating “Noam Chomsky Day” in my heavily Christian homeschool community, but I totally recognize these characters’ family solidarity, their quirky erudition, and their combination of regimented learning with an anti-authoritarian streak.
The film’s plot is kicked off when Ben hears from the parents of his wife, who left the forest to be treated in a hospital for bipolar disorder. She has committed suicide. Ben’s father-in-law, who blames his daughter’s mental illness on the family’s unconventional lifestyle, orders him not to come to the funeral. But the children insist on paying respects, so the whole family climbs into a battered bus named “Steve”—and set out on a collision course with contemporary America.
While there are immensely satisfying scenes of Ben’s young children demonstrating how real their education has been to skeptical aunts, uncles, and cousins, the movie is also committed to questioning Ben’s model of homeschooling. His motivation for raising his kids the way he has is twofold: both a great love of learning, and a fear of the corrupting influence of modern mediocrity. The movie’s conclusion sees Ben and his kids try to reach some sort of compromise with society—so it’s finally a film about the Benedict Option as well, asking how we can stay part of the wider world while modeling a more humane culture.
Guy Noir contacted me with some remarks about this article by Megan Basham, "Florence Foster Jenkins" (World, September 3, 2016). Noir remarked:
I have not seen the movie, "FFJ."
I still can not bring myself to risk any Meryl Streep project after sitting through the effrontery that was "Mamma Mia!", and deciding she might be as self-indulgent as Streisand.
But even if this new movie is somehow affecting, as one singer-friend told me it is, this review offers a window into the modern (post-modern, or whatever you want to call it) mindset. "They're happy, so what's the conundrum." That in a nutshell is the worldview that pervades the culture in which we find ourselves.
Granted, "Mamma Mia!" was pretty appalling, despite what the greying Woodstock generation regards as good nostalgic music. Yet Streep is a terrific actress, nonetheless; just as Hugh Grant may be, to whom (in his earlier career) my own reaction is as viscerally negative as Noir's is to Streep here.
The Basham article in World magazine says that this historical 'dramedy' offers an inescapable sense of sadness. Indeed.
Despite impressive special effects in the naval battle scene and the chariot race, the most important part of the original narrative, the supernatural Christian faith that gives meaning to the whole in the original novel, is denatured in the movie, flattening out the vertical dimension of repentance and rebirth into horizontal banalities about overcoming hate and restoring ruptured human relationships.
But read Dr. Miller's account for a superlative analysis.
[Hat tip to Dr. Echeverria who treated me to a 3-D screening of Ben Hur last Saturday]
Wood told the London Sunday Times that Hollywood is in the grip of a child abuse scandal. Wood said the activity is all organized, “There are a lot of vipers in this industry, people who only have their own interests in mind.” He continued, “There is a darkness in the underbelly. If you can imagine it, it’s probably happened.”
The very real darkness Wood speaks of is darker than the darkest scene in THE LORD OF THE RINGS. When Wood says, “If you can imagine it,” he means it. In 1998, Jon Benet Ramsey was murdered at six years old — bound, gagged and strangled with a chord. This was an act of lust at its ugliest. The dark forces driving such behavior are not imaginary. They may not look as frightening as an ork, but they’re just as ugly.
... Elijah Wood says his mother protected him. He told the London Sunday Times, “She was far more concerned with raising me to be a good human than facilitating my career. I never went to parties where that kind of thing was going on. This bizarre industry presents so many paths to temptation. If you don’t have some kind of foundation, typically from family, then it will be difficult to deal with.”
Doubtless you've heard about how Salma Hayek, Richard Gere, and George Clooney were feted and awarted with medals by Pope Francis recently to promote the work of a foundation inspired by the pontiff, Scholas Occurrentes. "Important values can be transmitted by celebrities," said one of the organizers, Lorena Bianchetti. There's a short video from the event at this site.
Now comes the intrepid Amateur Brain Surgeon, founder of ABE Ministries, with balm for the wounds of wounded conservative and traditionalist Catholic souls. First, from a book entitled Shepherd of Souls: A Pictorial Life of Pope Pius XII, he points to a page showing how Pius XII was a movie buff, a fan of Clark Gable, and, writes the author:
When the movie King of Hollywood, his wife and daughter were granted a private audience, the subsequent callers were kept waiting in the reception hall for two hours. When Clark Gable's visit ended, Bishop Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli followed. This bishop is now known as Pope John XXIII.
Finally, from the May 9, 1967 issue of the Sydney Morning Herald, ABS quotes from an article with a banner photo of Pope Paul with his arms outstretched to welcome actress Claudia Cardinale at a special audience to mark World Social Communications Media Day. The article says:
Claudia Cardinale worse a mini-skirt, Gina Lollobrigida braved her critics, but Sophia Loren couldn't make it to an unprecedented meeting between Pope Paul VI and the world of showbiz yesterday.
... the film stars stole the show -- even from the Pope himself, who was garmented in dazzling white robes.
Claudia was the first to bring gasps when she walked to her seat near the Pope's throne wearing her mini-little black dress.
Miss Cardinale recently married outside Italy a man who is not the father of her son, born when she was unmarried.
The Church forgave her early sins, but not her marriage to a man the Church considers to be still married to his first wife.
Then came Lollobrigida, who, at first, stood in a small crowd and then was escorted to a chair in a reserved section immediately facing the Throne.
On the way a bearded Swiss Guard stopped her, but a horrified officer reprimanded the Guard with: "Obviously, you don't go to the cinema."
Miss Lollobrigida was recently acquitted of an obscenity charge brought over a falling towel scene in her latest film.
But she has also earned the Church's disapproval because of her legal separation from her husband, Milko Skofic.
... But Miss Loren, who has been embroiled for years in an alleged bigamy case over her marriage to producer Carlo Ponti, disappointed the crowd by preferring to continue work on a film, although invited.
Sammy Rhodes, "Meet the New American Dream" (reformation21, January 2016): "Meet the New American Dream, Same as the Old American Dream: Thoughts after seeing Joy":
Movies are more than entertainment, date night venues, or after (during) work escapes. At their best, they are something closer to lay theology or therapy even. A place to take in entire worldviews, sifting their varied messages through one's own grid, taking the parts worth saving, and leaving parts unwanted behind.
Sacred Heart Major Seminary theology student, Evan Pham, says of the Tridentine Mass that it "changed my life." Here he shares some of his reasons why as he offers tips for newbies. He told me over lunch recently at Ottavia Via in Detroit that he often invites people to the traditional Latin Mass, and when I asked him how he prepares them for the often disorienting first-time experience, he shared with me some of the points in this video. You can find this video at his website, along with some excellent movie reviews, an archive of holy cards he designed, a 'meme museum', as well as his intriguing novel entitled Little Miss Lucifer, which have just begun reading (interestingly, it has its own 'sound track'). He also has a blog. Enjoy.
Someone was talking about how diabolical influences have infiltrated the music industry, mentioning a few singers' names. I checked out some of their music videos and, whether the symbolism was subtle or overt, I would have to concur. The same is apparently true of large swaths of the movie and entertainment industry. This 'Black Child Production' video [see blow] starts off with some creative use of film clips to enact some of the points made by the narrator. The narrator switches from male to female about a quarter of the way through. But the real kicker comes when she begins referring to specific individuals, groups, and events in the last half of the video [advisory: some explicit sexual language]:
On the one hand, I'm not inclined to believe that the influence of the diabolical is so overt or prevalent as to involve satanic blood sacrifice rituals throughout the mainstream of the entertainment industry. On the other hand, I rather suspect that there are some quarters where well-known individuals are involved in some pretty nasty and evil business.
Actor George Clooney is talking about the night he went to Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi’s home - infamous for lavish sex parties – and was invited to the leader’s bedroom. Berlusconi’s bashes have come to be known as “bunga bunga” parties, and Clooney says he got an invite.
I don't make a practice of spending much time in this iniquitous netherworld and its steaming cauldrons of infernal vices and luciferian plots. But I have read enough to know that it has probably infiltrated the circles in which many of our political leaders move. You have surely read about the first President Bush's induction into the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale University. Perhaps you have also read about the Clintons and their trail of dead bodies and unaccountable disappearances in the course of their political rise to power from dubious beginnings in Arkansas.
You may or may not have heard Larry Sinclair's statement before the National Press Club about his cocaine and sex trysts with Barack Obama when he was senator in Chicago, Rev. James Manning's testimony to the same, or the Washington, DC-based investigative journalist Wayne Madsen's report on Obama's involvement in a Chicago gay club called "Man's World," and the convenient deaths of three Chicago gay friends of Obama, one of whom (Donald Young, who was the openly gay choir director at Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ) is claimed by his mother, Norma Jean Young (who worked for Chicago's Police Dept.), to have been murdered to protect secrets of his bisexual lover who became president.
How anyone could be puzzled over Obama's policies while in office is beyond me -- his 'Iran deal', which opens the door to nuclear weapons in the hands of the most notorious promotors of anti-western terrorism in the mideast; his 'evolution' on the issue of gay rights and abandonment of DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) in favor of same-sex 'marriage'; his plunging our nation into debt to the point of nearly doubling the debt on the national credit card, now rocketing upwards of $20 trillion; his refusal to acknowledge Islamic terrorism while easily referring to the threat of Christian funamentalist 'terrorism'; ... the list goes on. Whatever one thinks of Dinesh D'Souza, I, for one, consider some of his claims in this short video about Obama pretty compelling, even if he doesn't plumb the spiritual dimension adequately. Americans who re-elected this man to yet a second term are fools, or ignorant, or evil.
So when I listen to NPR and hear polished pundits playing sound bites from Obama and solemnly treating them as 'politics as usual', I get the surreal feeling that I have just stepped into a scene from Last Year at Marienbad. From my point of view, what NPR considers serious reality, I consider facile fiction; and what NPR considers the fetid fever swamps of medieval fantasies about an unseen world of angels and demons, I consider seriously to be the underlying reality of our world. Even on a bad day, J.R.R. Tolkien could tell us more about what's happening in our world than NPR ever could on its best day. He, at least, understood that there are such things as the preternatural diabolical forces represented by Mordor, the corruption of Sarumen, the temptations and delusions of Boromir, and the possibility that rides on them of winning or losing everything.
"Hypocrites!" says Jesus: "You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time?" (Luke 12:56)
Biblical films that surprise me and move me are the only ones I recommend, and that’s not an easy thing to do since I am a very critical viewer with a high aversion to cheesiness. But I am glad to say “The Young Messiah” was worth the admission cost and worth my two hours and months of waiting. Here’s why ... [spoiler alert]
Read his entire interview HERE. Perhaps you'll find it as compelling as I did. Now I've got to see the film.
Incidentally, Mr. Pham is a former philosophy student of mine at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, now taking graduate classes there in theology. While you're at it, visit his Holy Card Archive and see some of his great productions. He has a new one of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that he just showed me today, which is amazing, but not yet posted online. The prayers on the back are consistently very well-thought-out. He will happily send them to you for any amount you wish to donate. They are beautiful.
One of my favorites is this Asian depiction of the Archangel St. Michael and his angels battling the dragon Satan in the Book Revelation, ch. 12:
Our underground correspondent in an Atlantic seaboard city that knows how to keep its secrets, Guy Noir - Private Eye, writes:
You simply cannot make this stuff up.
Michael Eisner, years ago while at Disney, talked about protecting brand integrity.
In retrospect that seems laughable, but the Popes might want to consider the same...
Dave McNary, "Pope Francis to Make Acting Debut in ‘Beyond the Sun’" (Variety, February 1, 2016): "Pope Francis will play himself in the new religious movie “Beyond the Sun,” marking his acting debut and the first time that a pope has appeared in a feature film."
I've long heard about this film but just haven't been interested enough to see it. Watched it today in two separate bits of time. Not sure I can recommend it. It has a premise that sounds like it could be interesting, and some good actors; but, well ...
It's supposedly set in "the near future" in Ireland, although Martin Sheen is styling very 1970s hair, sideburns, and clothes. The film is set in the wake of a hypothetical "Vatican IV," and the Catholic church has joined with other western religions in an "ecumenical" movement that has washed out much of the original message of the Catholic Faith. A group of Irish monks in a remote island of Ireland, have reverted to celebrating the Latin Mass and have garnered an international following. A boyish-faced Fr. Kinsella (Martin Sheen) is sent from Rome by the head of their religious order to bring them into line, because they have begun drawing too much international attention, especially on the eve of a conference with a Buddhist group. Hence, Fr. Kinsella's job is to bring the religious group "into line" and get them to give up their old ways. Kinsella tells the abbot of the order (played by Trevor Howard) that Rome no longer requires belief in the Real Presence; and a further twist in the plot comes when we learn that the abbot of the religious order has been having doubts about his faith and has ceased praying for the past three years. The story ends abruptly, however, with the abbot leading a distraught group of his monks in the Our Father, just after having informed them that they must cease celebrating the traditional Mass in obedience to their superiors. The question as to what is truly essential to their faith and worship and what is not is left unresolved, reflecting, perhaps, some of the ambivalence characteristic of the times in which the film was made, and even our own times.
My visceral reaction to the plight of a group of traditionalist monks on a lonely Irish island is rather ironic because I am a card-carrying agnostic, the quintessential "fallen Catholic." I found myself rooting for the monks who want to keep the church focused on the fight against spiritual evil (and the obvious saving of souls) and against the perfect example of modernity, Martin Sheen, as the epitome of "Liberation Theology," the liberal emissary from Rome who arrives to stomp down the monks' celebration of the Mass in Latin.
Catholics (or The Conflict as it appears in the cheapo DVD version from Digiview) lacks much of what makes movies entertaining for most folks--there are no drive-by shootings, exploding spaceships, bouncing breasts, or language to, as Stephen King says so well, "make a twenty-year Navy man blush," but it does have superb performances by Sheen, Trevor Howard, Cyril Cusack, and a number of fine British and Irish actors. It is an intellectual's movie with a smidgen of scifi--it was made in 1973, but it's set in the near future, maybe ten years later, when the Church has been so modernized that bread and wine are just that, not the body and blood of Christ and confession is not between a parishioner and his or her priest.
By rejecting the miracle of the Mass, by denying the personal interactions between the priest and the public, and by refocusing the Church on liberation theology and not the battle between good and evil in a spiritual sense, Catholics shows a congregation lost in the modern world. Sheen is on the island to crush a conservative rebellion and I found myself feeling as sick and as angry at him as many of the monks.
Finally, I have to congratulate the cinematographer and the art director for creating and using locales that are so bleak and cold that the viewer must concentrate on the human drama. The flesh and the blood of the actors are the miracle here (including the tears flowing from the faithful monks and from Howard's abbot who has lost his faith and must live an excruciating lie for his men), even if Rome wants it stopped right now.
Catholics is brilliant, but it certainly isn't popular entertainment. For a buck, I found a gem in the Wal-Mart DVD dumpster.
The undercover correspondent we keep on retainer in an Atlantic seaboard city that knows how to keep its secrets, Guy Noir - Private Eye, just called me to tell me how much he enjoyed "Kingsman," which he calls "a very good and happy James Bond movie" that has "much more heart than foul language or innuendo." He adds: "And all the bad leaders of the earth [in this story there were quite a few] literally fond their heads being blown up in the climax. You probably have to see it to begin to appreciate it."
A reliable measure of his change of disposition is the list of accompanying links he sent me for review, "five positives," he calls them:
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I read the novel Silence by the Japanese Catholic author, Shusaku Endo, years ago when I lived in Japan. He's called the "Japanese Graham Greene." With good reason. Like Greene, he's a darn good novelist. Also like Greene, his Catholicism in his writings is ambiguous. I don't hold that against him as a novelist. Some of my favorite Catholic novelists are also ambiguous about the Catholic faith in their writings, even though they are clearly and intentionally Catholic, like Walker Percy or Evelyn Waugh.
Movies are more than entertainment, date night venues, or after (during) work escapes. At their best, they are something closer to lay theology or therapy even. A place to take in entire worldviews, sifting their varied messages through one's own grid, taking the parts worth saving, and leaving parts unwanted behind. 
The undercover correspondent we keep on retainer in an Atlantic seaboard city that knows how to keep its secrets,