The Magdalene Sisters

Rating:
Summary: It's like Shawshank, without hope.
Review: This is an incredibly depressing story, so much more so because it's basically true. It pulls no punches (that I am aware of). The tone of this movie is oppressive, in all aspects. From the dim, earthen shades of costumes, sets, and backgrounds, to the trudging, prodigious score, and to the dialog and storyline itself, this film is a deep, dark pit. So, why five stars? Stories like this need to be told; and when they are, that telling needs to be done right (as, I feel was the case here).

I commend the screen writer(s) especially, for their work. Often, writers will underestimate the importance of what is not said, filling the silences, in a unnecessary effort to explain everything to the audience. That is far from the case here. So, in turn, must I applaud the performances of all these women. Their body language and expressions spoke volumes that could not have been conveyed with an equal amount of words. Most of what was not said, and perhaps most interesting was the psychological motivations of the characters.

Bernadette's character was certainly the easiest to understand. She wore her emotions on her sleeve, and even voiced them once or twice. Though she exhibited the most strength and showed initiative, I think her rage made her naive. It took four plus years before she fully recognized her predicament. Too, for much of the movie her actions were driven by a belief that the other girls deserved to be there, whereas she did not (though, I suppose this could have been a delusion to maintain her sanity). Why did it never occur to her that some of them might be as guiltless as herself.
Additional: It seems everyone is saying that this character had the most depth. As good as the actress' performance was, I simply disagree. I submit that other reviewers were drawn to the character because of the performer's obvious beauty (a concept reinforced by the DVD cover - which belies the seriousness of the subject), and the spirited persona of the role. Don't misunderstand, this was a wonderfully done part; but, if you thought hers was the most ponderous, finish my review, and try watching the movie again.

The character of Rose / Patricia (by virtue of writing, not acting) came across as blah. In the unforgiving eyes of her society, she was the only one of the three main characters who actually belonged there. Her motivations appear rooted in faith: her lifetime (and circumstantially questionable) faith in the Catholic church, her (assumed) faith in the good intentions of her baby's father, faith that her parents knew what was best for her, faith that the nuns were just and compassionate, and so on. Clearly, she was an easily persuaded follower, uncomfortable asserting herself. This held true throughout her story.

I think Margaret was the character most difficult to understand. After being raped by her cousin, she spoke up (in limited fashion) in an attempt to find justice. For her trouble, her parents and priest sent her away to the convent / workhouse. What message did she learn from this? Presumably, that (in that time and place) it would have been best to keep quiet and save face. Also, that her value, as an honest women, to her family and community was less than that of an incestuous male rapist. These lessons seem borne out in her subsequent actions. Her lashing out at her brother, having nothing to do with him as an individual, but rather, being confounded by the fact that he should command respect by gender alone. This anger, and likely a measure of mistrust, seem evident in that she never married. Even more subtle, were the effects to her self worth. Her attack on Bernadette, and inability to free herself, revealed misguided guilt and self-loathing. It was as if she were trying to strike back at the person she believed most responsible for her incarceration: herself. Margaret's emotions manifest themselves as a need for acceptance by a group or authority (ie. mob mentality in the fight, viewing Una as a role model, being Crispina's caretaker, and seeking the nuns' approval). This is also indicated by her eventual career choice.

I suspect that the childlike character of Crispina was born with a mental deficiency. While it is possible that she was beaten senseless while under the nuns' care, it is more likely that she was taken advantage of, and placed in Magdalene so that it would not happen again. Given the means of her aunt, and affections of her sister, it seems unlikely (or unthinkable) that her family was aware of conditions in the convent / workhouse. The real irony being, even locked away (and the nuns had to have known) she was still being taken advantage of.

Finally, we come to the nuns (and priests). Greed and abuse of power are nothing new to this world, but to act as they did while proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ, is grotesquely appalling. But, I suppose when you look at the history of organized religion, that's nothing new either. Until the people of the world learn to love and respect one another as the Lord has shown us, there will continue to be stories like The Magdalene Sisters.

Rating:
Summary: "A Shocking look at cruelty"
Review: Three Irish women banished to Magdalene Sisterhood laundry struggle to escape the sprit-crushing abuse administered by a group of strict, unforgiving nuns.

Starring- Anne-Marie Duff, Nora-Jane Noone, Dorothy Duffy

"The Magdalene sisters" was a relatively sad story in comparison to the many religious dramas. The film takes place in 1960's Ireland and was bases on actual events; making the film more depressing and shockingly thought provoking.
Though the film was well acted; it was also vividly brutal. "The Magdalene sisters" probably isn't a film you would watch if you are looking a good Saturday night flick to enjoy with friends because this is in no way that type of movie.

The directing in my opinion was done professionally and exceptionally well but not as well as the often believable acting. My idea of entertainment is not the beating, torturing, and humiliation of innocent young women; now that's just plain wrong. "The Magdalene Sisters" gives off a negative and sad vibe throughout its 119 minutes showing length. This is a very grim yet powerful movie; good in its own strange way.

The ending for the most-part made me feel better though I was still upset. While watching "The Magdalene Sisters" you can not help but think of how cruel people can be; it is truly shocking and frightening but extremely compelling.

The DVD had a limited amount of features and I did in fact have a few problems with the DVD. My DVD was brand new but my DVD player had problems reading a particular scene which I never got the chance to view.

Overall it is worth a rent from your local video store though I probably wouldn't recommend buying it.

Overall Grade- B-

Rating:
Summary: Some of the suffering caused by patriarchy
Review: A heartbreaking and tragic story of the gross injustice against women committed by the Catholic Church in Ireland. During the 1900s as many as 30,000 women endured mistreatment similar to that depicted in this film before the last Magdalene Asylum closed in 1996. One question to ask yourself while watching the film; Why were the men not blamed and punished too? The answer has to do with the inequity of patriarchy. Be sure to also watch the documentary "Sex in a Cold Climate" included in the special features on this DVD. It tells the true stories of the four women portrayed in the movie and includes interviews with each of them. Have tissues handy, the documentary is sadder than the film.

Rating:
Summary: A Minor Matter, But a Factual One
Review: Although I only bought this movie on my lunch hour, and have had time to view only a couple of scenes on the DVD before returning to lunch, I have one correction to make: Concerning the POISON IVY scene where Crispina shouts out over and over to a priest "You are NOT a man of God"(...) this scene is VERY POWERFUL in that Crispina (a slow witted girl), who is usually so trustful and who has absolute faith in the infallibility of her superiors, now realizes that indeed FATHER FITZROY is "...NOT a man of God!" How she realizes this will break your heart because the moviegoer realizes her anguish and torment when this "revelation" hits her.

This film has many parallels to the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", which in and of itself dictates greatness.

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps tears are not enough for these who know tis sufferin
Review: I travel often to Ireland for business. Having seen this film in Ireland in its release, in Cork, to be exact where there was a Magdalene Laundry for many years, ran until the 90's, I can tell anyone to please see this film. The Irish want to forget this, but like other historic events, i.e. the Holocaust, I feel it is vital to preserve and educate on the subject of unfairness, cruelty and abuse of the holiness of our spiritual gifts. The Magdalene Laundries are testimony that the Catholic Church never had learn and still today with the level of denial for the children who have been violated does not learn the veil of secrets cannot be hidden for the Almighty himself. This film shows and compels to learn to practice goodness, to understand these children were abused is not enough, what is important to come away with is not to hate the Church, there are many, many good folk in the Church who are not part of this. The ORGANIZATION, the leaders themselves will be judged as all are accountable for their actions.

This film will shock many if not all who see it. I feel the filmaker, the actors all felt the pain of the charaters they portraited. If you feel tears, allow yourself to cry as the suffering of children deserves this respect.
I will soon add it to my DVD collection as a testimony of human indifference
And teach as I do my children never to become corrupt with power as the Church has become so many hundreds of years. I salute all involved who made this brave film.

Rating:
Summary: Let down by indifferent cinematography
Review: Peter Mullan's "The Magdalene Sisters' is about four women forced into a religious and institutional nightmare. Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff) is a shy girl raped at a wedding by her cousin; Patricia/Rose (Dorothy Duff) is an unwed mother whose child is taken away from her and sent for adoption; Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) is an attractive orphan who is deemed "too flirtatious,"; and Crispina (Eileen Walsh) is another unwed mother whose son is being raised by her sister. In the eyes of the Irish community they live in, all of them have sinned, most particularly because all of them have shown evidence of sexuality. They are all sent to work in a religious institution run by the Sisters of Magdalene Order, where they are expected to earn their keep by doing laundry for outsiders.

The film's based on events that took place in Ireland between the 1960s and as recently as 1996. An estimated 30,000 young women were sent away to these establishments because they were deemed either to have sinned or inspired temptation.

These so-called religious institutions seemed to be little more than profit-making prisons where the women were worked to the point of exhaustion, psychologically and physically abused, and brainwashed into subservience. Here, the leader of the offending nuns Sister Bridget, is played by Geraldine McEwan.

It's undoubtedly powerful and harrowing stuff, but I'm going to disagree with many reviewers that it's as good a movie as it could have been. It's strength comes mostly from the subject matter rather than how it's handled. And I think that Mullan, who wrote as well as directed, takes a stereotyped and narrow approach to the nuns themselves. Some have pointed out that the real horrors visited on the inmates of many of these institutions were worse than what we see here. Probably so, but I can't help feeling that at least some of the nuns probably thought that they were doing what they were doing for the girls' own good. That couldn't make it right, particularly when bitterness and sadism seemed often to have been exacerbated by painful and repressive things that had happened in the nuns' own lives, but it would have added more dimension to the characters. The over-simplistic approach is clear the first time we see Sister Bridget, greedily counting money as she talks to her new charges about their need to expiate their sins. Nigel Willoughby's cinematography is also something of a liability at times, and - combined with Mullan's directorial approach sometimes makes this look a little like a made for TV movie.

One character I did like though, mostly because she is presented with a degree of complexity, is Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone). There are points where we can feel that she too is in danger of becoming one of the embittered lifers in the institution. All the same, "The Magdalene Sisters" does pack a punch, and when some of the characters get out of there you feel they have escaped from an environment as harrowing as the Turkish prison in "Midnight Express"

Rating:
Summary: POWERFUL FILM NOT TO BE MISSED
Review: IT'S TIME THAT TRUTHFUL FILMS COMES OUT LIKE THE MADALENE SITERS AND PASSION OF CHRIST. WE NEED TO SEE HOW GOOD PEOPLE CAN GET THROUGH AN IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION IN SPITE OF FANATICAL RELIGIONS WHO LOVE TO CONTROL AND TORTURE THE REST OF US. THIS FILM TELLS THE TRUTH AND OPENS THE ROAD FOR A BETTER WORLD.

Rating:
Summary: Because He Can.
Review: And the voicing, the verbalizing, the hearing of the Truth LEST we conveniently "forget" to acknowledge what we all already know: NONE of these females, these girls, these women, actually these DEhuman beings in the Magdalene Sisters' dungeon encampments, NONE of them, not the approximately 30,000 so - called "fallen" women in them oft times for their entire lifetimes and ... AND ... NONE of the slave - driving, so - called "holy women" are there in any of these places EXCEPT BY ONE REASON and BY ONE REASON ALONE: MEN. MEN ... THREW THEM THERE. Men in their androcentrism and patriarchy threw them there: The fathers (either biologically or "priestly" or in uncle - and brother - and teacher - and cousin - and husband - form, all of these men,) raised their daughters TO BECOME their own proxy purveyors of patriarchal religious evil and, in like manner, others' fathers simply ERADICATING the humanization right out of ALL of the females in their own lives, raised their own particular daughters TO BECOME enslaved for their simply being ... female, that is, for their simply being ... Not Male. Why? The same ages' old answer: BECAUSE THEY CAN. BECAUSE THE MALES, and not the Not Males, CAN. This entire "saga" of European or "Western" (alleged) civilization? Merely just another "example" of ... "Why Women Need Freedom FROM ... Religion" ... http://www.ffrf.org/nontracts/women.html

Rating:
Summary: Also a great WIP/Nunsploitation genre movie!
Review: Most of the reviews here note that TMS is an important social drama about the abuse of Irish women by the RC Church, and it surely is. But it is also a great women-in-prison movie, of the "Nunsploitation" subgenre. While a bit less graphically sadistic than most classics of the form (eg the hot metal torture in "der Liebesbriefe einer portugiesischen Nonne" ; or the floggings of "Le Scomunicate di San Valentino") this restraint is more than compensated for by the movie's realism,and the excellent acting by actresses playing both inmates and sister/matrons. Though it may be a "serious" film, all necessary WIP genre elements are present. The story follows the incarceration of several new fish, their processing into the institution, stripping for inspection by the guards, and abuse of the new prisoners by both staff and fellow inmates.That this abuse is done in the name of religion only makes it more frightening.

I highly reccomend this movie to all WIP movie fans.

Rating:
Summary: One part truth, ten parts falsehood
Review: A fictional political rant dressed up as truth.