It’s a cliche to say that priests and nuns aren’t portrayed well in movies nowadays.
Just mention a priest in any crime drama and you’ve got a suspect on your hands.
We could have loads of fun remembering how ridiculously priests and nuns have been portrayed in movies lately. But instead of focusing on the negative, we here at CMR have decided to focus on the positive portrayals of priests in movies.
But we’re having some trouble. Well…lots of trouble.
Uhm…there’s not a whole lot of positive portrayals of priests and nuns. Hmmmm…priests or nuns portrayed well in movies? Uhmmm…hold on…I’m thinking….
Well we’ve always got Karl Malden in On the Waterfront, Bing Crosby in the Bells of Saint Mary, or the nuns in The Sound of Music. After that things get a little…sparse.
So let’s limit ourselves to the modern era of film making starting in 1970. What movies can you think of since then where priests or nuns were portrayed in a positive light?
The few that jump to mind are the priests who have to fight the devil. Hey, anyone looks goods next to the devil, I guess. You’ve got the exorcists in “The Exorcist” as well as Tom Wilkinson’s portrayal of a priest in the “Exorcism of Emily Rose.”
The young priest in Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” was portrayed as persistent and good if a little naive.
Ben Cross in “The Assisi Underground,” Amy Adams in “Doubt,” and Jeremy Irons in “The Mission” was pretty good.
I’m done after that. Can you think of anymore because this list seems woefully short?
February 3, 2010 at 5:27 pm
I thought the religious in the movie Bless The Child were pretty good. It was a weird idea really, but the catholicism was really portrayed in a good light if I recall correctly
February 3, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Please compile a list that we can print out.
February 4, 2010 at 10:52 am
On TV, the elder brother of the title character in 'Amazing Grace' is portrayed as a pretty solid good guy.
-S. Murphy
February 4, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Suzanne,
The Disney Hunchback of Notre Dame was not anti-Catholic, indeed for a movie that took place in 1400's France it had very little to do with religion for good or bad. So it might have been a bit sterile but the film did not go out of the way to attack Catholicsm. Also I pointed out an EXACT example of ONE character who was portrayed as a Catholic Clergyman and a good guy (that was the question the original post asked).
Think before you write, or at the very least, read what I actually wrote.
Suzanne
February 5, 2010 at 4:45 am
Raul Julia as Archbishop Oscar Romero in "Romero"
February 12, 2010 at 1:53 am
I can't believe no one mentioned "The Shoes of the Fisherman" with Anthony Quinn. The ending is hokey but the first half is intriguing, if only because it would not be many years later that a non-Italian would be elected pope.
Also, while not a movie, the TV show Babylon 5 had a very well portrayed character who was a Franciscan, as I recall. One episode, (#48) "Passing through Gethsemane" portrays the church and Brother Theo rather favorably. I think the episode is good enough to stand on it's own with limited knowledge of the meme of the series.
March 1, 2010 at 7:58 pm
But did you ever notice that when evil needs to be confronted, demons, ghosts, the Devil, himself, that the ones portrayed to do it are always Catholic priests, in a traditional Catholic church with all the smells and bells and Latin. 🙂
You never get a Jack Van Impe type in a suit with a bible in his hand quoting scripture in English.