Priest

Rating:
Summary: Bold
Review: This story about a conservative closeted priest begins with a bang when he joins his new parish to find out that the older priest there is openly sleeping with his housekeeper. LAter we realize that the younger priest has a secret all his own as he heads out to the local bar. This movie could have become a one trick pony as it were but a further complication is added when in the confessional he is told by a young girl that she is being molested by her father. She doesn't give him the right to tell however and he is bound by the secracy of the confessional to keep her secret. A scathing enditement of some of the chur's policies but can also be watched without the polotics. A sad film but engrossing and well worth it.

Rating:
Summary: To the gay teenager
Review: This is a powerful film, I was 21 when this film was made and I too cried when I saw it. Unfortunately I didnt feel positive after seeing the film and decided to stay in the closet. That wasnt a fault of the film, probably just my insecuraties. I then saw another film that made me cry called 'Beautiful Thing' and that marked an important change in my life. If you havnt seen it, check out 'beautiful thing' either here or on amazon.co.uk. Take care.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible....
Review: I have just watched "Priest".... I cried for 10 minutes... A movie has never made me cry... Im a gay teenager... Im an atheist too.... This movie crosses all boundaries I can imagine... The raw emotion coming from every side blows my mind... The ending is so powerful I cant even start to think about it without my eyes tearing up.... You must see it, gay or straight, atheist or christian or catholic... I dont want to get into specifics but this movie is probably the best (or atleast the most important) movie I will ever see in my life. Please see it...

Rating:
Summary: Heart warming...
Review: As a gay man planning to train in the Anglican Church, I was deeply deeply moved by this film. I watched it with my partner and afterwards was so overcome by despair I bawled my eyes out and gave the best "spontanious sermon" I've ever done. I identified so closely with Fr. Greg, knowing how he felt, not being able to help a girl whose life is very endangered, not being able to love with a completely free conscience. All I was able to say to my boyfriend (a Catholic) was, "There but for the grace of God go I," for homosexuality is not, thankfully, a problem in the Episcopal Church. It's a great movie for everyone--gay, straight, clergy, laity--full of drama, despair but undertoned with the silver lining of hope.

Rating:
Summary: An effective, thought-inducing film experience!
Review: A take-it-or-leave-it drama, "Priest" is not your everyday religious examination film. It deals more with issues considered taboo by the church, such as homosexuality, incest, and the judgmental society. Some people may even lose interest from it; this is not a movie for everyone. But, it does leave a lasting impression in the mind, raising up questions and debates about religion that even the film itself does not resolve.

The film begins with a man carrying a cross from the church to the home of the Bishop, who has replaced him with a newcomer to Liverpool. Greg Pilkington (Linus Roache), a conservative man of the cloth, arrives and is appalled that fellow priest Matthew Thomas (Tom Wilkinson), relinquishes celibacy and has a relationship with their black housekeeper. This puts a small strain on their growing friendship, but it gives way once bigger conflicts begins appearing.

Just as Father Matthew avoids celibacy, Greg breaks the vow by going to a pub and picking up (surprise) a man, going back to his place, and having a one-night stand. Once his homosexuality is revealed to us, the movie takes on a much bigger challenge of mixing religious persecution and moral beliefs, as Greg must choose between keeping his vows of faith or revealing his secrets.

Greg's homosexuality is handled in many different ways, and seen in many different views and opinions, including his own of himself. Once it becomes known that their priest is gay, the members of the congregation begins to dissipate, and even the Bishop asks him to leave, even as Father Matthew pleads with them to be compassionate. This prejudice and hate makes way for some very nice introspective into the hypocrisy that permeates the church and its followers ("Let he who is without sin cast the first stone").

It is Greg's own inner torment that heightens the movie to an emotional level. He establishes the fact early on that he considers his own lifestyle to be sinful, yet he cannot stop thinking about being with a man. He begins to rationalize with a crucifix in his room over what is right and wrong; his inner conflicts with himself are powerful and moving, and just as he asks God for an answer, we find ourselves asking the same question.

His inner torment extends to other situations as well. In a very intriguing side story, a young girl named Lisa reveals that her father sexually abuses her, putting Greg on the spot of whether to break the vow of confession or keep these truths hidden. The situation gets very tense as Greg begins tearing himself apart inside. Not only is he fighting his own personal war, but someone else's, someone with whom he will find comfort at the film's heart-stopping finale.

The only flaw that blemishes this film's beauty is the way in which it showcases Father Matthew as a gay rights activist during the movie's third act. He invites Greg to stand with him for a service, which causes an uproar among the parishioners. He then proceeds to invite people to leave the church. His words here seem more like demands than pleas, sounding just a bit, well, preachy.

It is the flawless performances of the cast that really bring home the emotion throughout this film. Linus Roache gives one of the best performances of 1995 as Father Greg, torn between himself and his vows to the church. He brings true emotion to the role, so much so that we believe in his character and his fears. Tom Wilkinson is convincing as Father Matthew, whose open-minded thinking serves as a beacon of light for Greg. Wilkinson is blunt and forceful, a brilliant mix.

"Priest" is a highly controversial film about religion and sin, about taking a stand for ones beliefs or backing down in fear, and ultimately about facing that fear. We can believe in Greg's pain because we have all experienced a situation like his. And whether or not you may agree with the movie's message, or however bad you may consider it to be, a movie that makes you think about so many issues for days after you see it cannot be bad.

Rating:
Summary: Priest... Judge not a book by its cover.....
Review: I bought this film having absolutely no clue as to what this movie was about. Judging by the jacket, I thought I was sitting down to watch a Steven King type "priest battles demon" plot. About 1/2 hour into this movie I knew exactly what I was watching and for the next hour or so, went through an array of emotions ranging from anger at the turmoil this man had to endure at the hands of "man-made rules", frustration at watching this man struggle between his vows and his human conscience in order to protect a child, disheartenment at the way this man was ultimately ostracized by his fellow man, and sadness that it took the innocence of a child to grant this man ultimate forgiveness and acceptance. I would love to see this film remade into an American version. I believe if well directed and cast it would make for academy award material. For those of you who think otherwise, this is no anti-catholocist movie. If you can look beyond the seemingly, and maintain an open mind, you will see that this movie goes far beyond the obvious multi- controversial issue theme. This movie is deep, thought provoking and emotionally stirring. The bottom line is humility + fallibility + forgiveness=HUMANITY.... lest ye be judged.

Rating:
Summary: Return of the Prodigal Son
Review: Many people live their lives never fully sure that they are loved as they are. Often they can tell plausible stories which explain their sense of despair--stories such as an abusive father or a Church which left them in the cold during a critical moment in their lives. Like the parable of the prodigal son, here there are two priests both of whom discover the "love that existed before any rejection was possible and that will still be there after all rejections have taken place." One can hardly call this movie anti-Catholic.

Rating:
Summary: A Most Important Film
Review: This film is of great importance. This film contains a most compelling view of our Humanity. Regardless of your religious background and regardless of your personal moral viewpoint, you may find the realism of this story captivating. This movie gave me that feeling you get when you question why you are here on this planet. This is a very moving drama that shows us our hypocrisy.

Like you I have my loves and my hates, and like you I feel I am right in my thinking (views/beliefs). It is important for me to be right, I don't like being wrong. What I love about this movie is that it helps us to change our perspective about life. We tend to view life in terms of right and wrong/love and hate. And by viewing this film you get a glimpse of what it is like to "walk in someone else's shoes" and see things completely different.

After seeing this film I think that it is important for us to see things completely different and expand our understanding, and our compassion for one another.

Rating:
Summary: An exploration of dogma, religion, faith, sin...and love.
Review: I found every review I ever read about this movie misleading. It is not about homosexuality, it is not about evil priests, and it is certainly not against the Church. In fact, the Church might want to consider just how sympathetic to Priests the movie actually is. The troubled main character is portrayed sensitively and sympathetically. I thought the movie was an exploration of dogma, religion, faith, sin, the 'dark night of the soul', celibacy, sexuality and, oh yes, love. The greatest commandment of all. How sad that the loving thing to do is so often considered a sin. I don't think the main character walked away from his sexuality at the end at all. I think he took a stand for it in the face of the hate and bigotry that the parishioners threw at him. He had decided not to see his lover again -- but he had never decided that he was not who he was, and that it was not love. In fact, the relationship was so clearly loving despite the fact that they hardly knew each other that I developed a much better understanding of the desperate self-hatred and frustration of love that homophobia breeds. Homophobia is hardly Christian when it creates such self-contempt and loathing and builds such painful walls.

Would two men found making love in a car create tabloid headlines? Probably not. Unless, that is, one of them was a Priest.

Who was doing the loving thing? The gay lover who was there for the Priest no matter how difficult it seemed to be for him? Or the sexually abusive father who did not care anything about the feelings of his wife and daughter? The Priest not want to break the confessional seal, and he was respecting the wish of the young girl not to be violated yet again by having her confidence betrayed. How often he *begged* her to allow him to tell someone! And how important it was to her that he not do so! Her trust in the Priest was crucial to any healing she might do. He needed her permission, if not by law, than by virtue of the trust she had in him. It was a miracle that God intervened through prayer.

As a result of viewing this movie, I am much more open-minded about the difficulties of being within such a troubled institution. I have my issues with the Roman Catholic Church, don't get me wrong. But this movie made it possible for me to care just a little bit more about the people within it who feel just as violated by the institutionalized betrayal as I am.

Many priests have secret sexual relationships (which means they must also be using birth control) and the reason why as explained in the movie is true. It's about keeping property within the church. Yet the hypocrisy of the church attempting to control everyone *else's* sexuality while flaunting their own rules to suit their own purposes discredits any value the church may yet have. Sexual repression serves no one, and confuses the issue that *might* have made it possible for the Priest to stand up to the abusive father. What is the loving thing to do? Dogma be damned. Love. It's the greatest commandment there is.

I have no problem with sexual Priests if they can be honest and loving about it, and not utilize the income of tithing and trusting parishioners to support the lie they live. I *do* have a problem with the many Priests who are so confused and repressed that generations of children have paid the price with the sexual abuse of their bodies while the Church looks the other way. (See review: Lead Us Not Into Temptation by Jason Berry.) The movie does not touch that can of worms, after all, it couldn't cover everything. It did provide much in the way of food for thought, and I'm glad it raised the issue of the sexual abuse of children at all, as well as the arguments that are used to justify it. There is, of course, no justification for that. It is simply not the loving thing to do.

Rating:
Summary: PRIEST IN LIVERPOOL
Review: PRIEST is an emotionally intense film, reflecting the potential within man-made (or Man-made) institutions for conflict between "Company Policy" and employee behavior. Its ironies are clear, readily comprehensible. As a cinematic experience, it is both thought-provoking & moving, especially in a humanistic way. It is "real," but its meaning, while outlined within a British Catholic context, can/ought to transcend the realm of the religious to include the broader subjectivity of the culturally oppressed within any Orthodox Culture. A gay priest becomes a black professor becomes a female CEO becomes an Mexican immigrant at the Wells Fargo loan office. In a world of White Hegemony, why does Linus Roache's character, a white queer male (like this reviewer),and who could live easily enough as an invisible queer, garner such an outpouring of our sympathy? Why are we so touched by his "victimization?"? Probably because his story falls so cleanly into the dominant discourse of Western traditional culture. But how would our perceptions of the priest change, for example, if he were a person of color? or marked by a lower-class upbringing? As a side-note, it is a telling fact that the film is set in England-I mean, how neutral is that? Catholics in Britain, with their perceived class-bias, homophobia, and reserve in the public domain--to say nothing of their long-standing hostility toward the "Papists"-- are hardly representatives of the Catholic Church worldwide. Couldn't the director find something wrong with the Anglican Church? And why can't she address the social ills of middle-class society, instead of picking on the poor (Irish)? PRIEST should have been titled "Catholic Priest in Liverpool."