Priest

Rating:
Summary: the attack to Catholic Church
Review: This movie is very obvious to degrade the priesthood in the Catholic church. The producers certainly do not respect the religion itself and express the dissatisfaction by throwing this garbage. They don't see the holiness the Church always trying to do. It is too bad. One thing that I can say, that they need very strong prayers to save their souls and blindness

Rating:
Summary: Very human and a work of art
Review: This movie shows that good people make a good church, and not the institution. It shows the absurdities of institutional restrictions on the expression of love and on speaking out, when the happiness and the lives of people are at stake. The conflicts presented in the movie are very real and most people could relate to them. It is a piece of art... and it isn't American.

Rating:
Summary: heart-wrenching & provocative
Review: Linus Roache was marvelous (not to mention kinda cute) in this intense movie. As a Catholic who isn't blind to the faults of my religion, I'm glad that someone was brave enough to challege the dogma of the Church.

Rating:
Summary: great film, deeply moving
Review: forget what the Catholic church tells you about this film. the priests in the film want to stay with the Church in spite of bad eggs which abound in their surroundings as with any bureaucracy. this is a great film about the possibilities of human understanding and trueness to the deeper values that Jesus taught. i have a feeling Jesus would haved loved the two priest leads in this film more than he would the priests who condemned it.

Rating:
Summary: Complex and realistic
Review: Perhaps it is because I am a Protestant, but I have been bewildered by the Catholic League's condemnation of "Priest" and the wonderful, albeit short-lived TV drama, "Nothing Sacred." It seems that nothing short of a "Going My Way" depiction of the priesthood can escape their censorial proclivities. "Priest" successfully captures the fight-to-the-death moral dilemmas that face any who long to live a just and holy life, yet wrestle with the sins of the flesh (which, by the way, Christ doesn't condemn nearly as vociferously as he does hypocrisy and hard-heartedness). "Priest" is for anyone who is tired of easy answers and sugar-coated platitudes. The rest can rent "The Sound of Music" for the hundredth time.

Rating:
Summary: HATE SPEECH
Review: "Priest opened after it was originally scheduled for a Good Friday debut. The Disney-Miramax film not only showed five priests with serious problems, it also placed responsibility for their dysfunction on the Church. Two priests were having affairs, one with a woman, the other, with a man. A third priest was a drunk, another was psychotic, and the bishop was evil and cruel. There was not one well-adjusted priest in the film. The Church was depicted as the cause of all the troubles; the celibacy requirement was targeted. Stereotypes abounded which served to stigmatize the Church and presented it as contemptible and destructive. Director Antonia Bird said her feeling about the Church "seethe[d] with rage." Jimmy McGovern, the writer, called the priests that he knew as a child "reactionary bastards." -Catholic League Annual Report on Anti-Catholicism

Rating:
Summary: An intense movie about society's acceptance...
Review: I rented this movie for the fact that I loved the movie The Full Monty and there were quite a bit of Monty players within this movie. The movie's plot as is follows --an old priest is 'let go' and young Father Greg takes his place. Father Greg appears to be a rather orthodox Catholic priest until later in the film, we find out that Father Greg is gay. He is not comfortable with this fact -- feeling it is filled with sin. He struggles with this fact through out the whole movie as he also struggles with the fact that someone has confided a fact with him in confession and Father Greg desperately wants to do something about it, but can not, according to the seal of the confession. This movie at times made me laugh, at times made my stomach tie up in knots and at times, made me cry. Sob, in fact. I, myself, have been through a similar situation and found this movie a fabulous portrayal of the situation. It is touching, moving, utterly wonderful. It was not a happy ending movie, but neither are a lot of similar situations. I had rather wished for a happy ending, but maybe it was not in the cards. However, this movie is brilliantly acting, especially Robert Carlyle, who gives a movingly compassionate performance as Graham, Father Greg's gay lover. Antonia Bird is a simply great director of this film, as I'm sure she is of her other movies that I now want very much to see. This film, not only deserves 5 stars, it deserves about 3 more...absolutely fabulous...

Rating:
Summary: The ignorance of organized religion.
Review: I like this movie it showed the bigotry and narrowed mindedness of organized religion. It's more intent on following a set of illogical rules then doing whats right. I like the final scence which reveals The Priest and the little girl trapped in an institution that will probably end up destroying them.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the best movie of 1995
Review: Putting aside the incredible drama, acting, and powerful emotions, this is the first movie I have seen that reveals the "sin" of homosexuality, not the push to ram it down our throats as an alternative lifestyle. The priest knew it was a sin and this is the structure of the entire movie. His remorse and sorrow at the end of this film brought me not just to tears, but an overwhelming ache in my soul for the man. Absolutely one of the most powerful films I have ever seen and I have viewed literally tens of thousands.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is one of my all time favorite films. When this film came out, Catholic leaders decried the film as "anti-Catholic". This was not my perception. The film does seem to question some of the rules (and those in power) in the Catholic Church. The acting is excellent; I was disappointed that Linus Roache was not nominated for an Oscar for his role as the lead priest. His performace is powerful and touching. While the film deals with some intense subjects (incest, coming to terms with one's sexuality, suicide, shame) it sensitively manages to have some humorous moments. This film is unforgettable.