The Crime of Padre Amaro
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Movie Reviews of The Crime of Padre Amaro
Movie Review: Scared to transcend his love, because 'The people wont understand.'
Summary: 4 Stars
The film Crimen del Padre Amaro is set in Los Reyes, Mexico in 2002. In Mexico by 2002, a continuing economic, political, and social crisis was spiraling deeper and deeper. The chaos was caused by a debt problem and the system of dependent capitalism the debt produced. "Between 1994 and 2000 average wages declined 21 percent" (Keen 317). By 2002, Mexico had become more and more dependent primarily upon the United States, its foreign export, and its investment-capital markets. Despite these setbacks, Mexicans always had something to fall back upon and to look to for support: the Catholic Church.
The film is well made and attention-grabbing. The plot is a little confusing at first, as most movies are, however it all becomes much clearer and focused as the movie continues. In the beginning of the movie, Padre Amaro is seen as the good guy, who everyone wanted to succeed; however, by the end of the film, I looked upon Padre Amaro with complete disgust. Ironically, Padre Benito, I felt, was a horrible, corrupt priest in the beginning, and by the end I liked him much more than ever before. Padre Amaro was so young and yet he ended up being the most selfish and corrupt of all the priests in the community. Crimen del Padre Amaro is a very interesting film that is entertaining and worth watching to see what modern-day rural Mexico is like.
The film Crimen del Padre Amaro shows an interesting outlook of the Catholic Church and the corruption that exists within the Church in Mexico. It is very gripping and definitely worth watching. Although there are parts that can be confusing, it is fascinating to see how rural and "backward" parts of Mexican life can be.
I would recommend this movie for anyone patient enough to read subtitles or who just simply love foreign films.
Movie Review: a definite see for Gael fans
Summary: 4 Stars
Let me start off by saying I am a huge Gael García Bernal fan. This was the movie to take the cake for me with his acting. His portrayal as a lust-striken youthful priest was so convincing it took my breath away. I was thoroughly impressed with being able to see in his eyes the desire and gradual compromises he disolved to. The movie did dish out some pretty hard-hitting statements about corruption within the Catholic church, but what of it? There lacked a certain something in the film's commentary, somewhat one-sided, I'll admit, but I felt this was justified given the story focuses over one man's plight, between his (apparently shakey) convictions and his new-found desires. The title says it all--it's about the sins of one man, Padre Amaro. It is not a thorough exposé of all the Catholic church, in which case there would be truths regarding the bad and the good. Now the reason I gave the movie 4 instead of 5 stars, was simple. The ending was anticlimatic in that it seemed to take the easy way out of a big problem created by our protagonist. The film did too good a job building up the problem making you eagerly anticipate the resolution. The way Padre Amaro takes his final step into "the other side" as a priest, was too easy and quick. I wondered how a character who started off so devout to God's service could not see through his own transparent attempt to explain away his final actions. When people sell out, it tends to be more gradual. Well then again I suppose that's the limitation of films over books. I would recommend this to those who are not overly-defensive of the Catholic church, who can simply enjoy it as a tale of one man's flaws. After all, no one's perfect and that's called humanity.Movie Review: Excellent, but some minor irritations
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall the experience of watching this movie was quite good. The acting is superb- with all the characters quite believable, cinematography excellent; all in all a beautiful work. The story itself is also compelling.The problem that I have with the film is less a cinematic problem than a literary problem. A "pet peeve" of mine is when a producer or director feels that he/she can "improve" upon a story that is already an acknowledged masterwork, and makes major changes that are needless. On occasion this is necessary due to the directors desire to focus on a certain aspect of a work, or present a work cinematically that would not normally be "doable" if one stuck closely to the original text (the recent release of "Troy is a good example). I understand that this is often necessary, but at least the director ought to have the good graces to present the work under a different name; thus peterson calls his movie "Troy" and not "the Iliad."
I think Bernal made an error by moving the story from rural 19th century Portugal to modern Mexico. The thing that makes this story (and indeed the adapted movie) so compelling is that it contains an element of universality that removes any need to update it. The original book by Eça de Queiróz is as timely now as when he first wrote it. Queiróz also writes novels that are intensely "visual" (if such a word can be applied to writing) and uniquely capable of being adapted to film. It's a minor gripe, and should not dissuade anyone from watching an excellent film, but it remains none the less.
Movie Review: Descent of a Priest
Summary: 4 Stars
For the most part, this movie is a simple and fairly obvious and predictable morality tale of a young, idealistic priest in Mexico who ultimately becomes part of the corruption of the Church and succumbs to his carnal desires. On that level, it could prove entertaining and/or informative to religious people (which I'm not), as well as people who enjoy seeing the Catholic Church taken down a peg or two. Fortunately, there's more to the movie than that-- it's well acted, the characters are strong, and the visual detail is rich. Moreover, the story of the fall of the priest, simple and predictable as it is, is still compelling. At one point, when he is starting to understand the path he is on, he is seen holding his hand over an oven burner, seeing how long he can tolerate fire. By the end of the movie, Padre Amaro's fall is complete -- he hypocritically leads his congregation in a prayer asking God for forgiveness of sins, all the while having completely disassociated himself from the death of a young girl who died while having his child aborted. Even the corrupt elder Padre Benito turns away in disgust, as the audience must, not at the movie, but the title character.Movie Review: Forbidden love, sin and the power of the Mexican church
Summary: 4 Stars
The 2002 Mexican film is based on a 1875 Portuguese novel even though it's set in modern Mexico. It's about the power of the church with its political intrigues and a hospital being funded by drug money. But most of all, It's about a young priest, his humanity and his sins. The director did a good job of bringing the beauty of Mexico with all its contradictions to the screen. And Gael Garcia Bernal, cast as the young priest is a good actor. The entire case is excellent, the feeling of the film completely authentic and the social issues are loud and clear. The film had the power to bring me right into the heart of the time and place as it sets forth the moral conflicts and forbidden love. It's a story that has created a lot of attention because of its shocking theme, which is definitely offensive to the church.
However, in spite of the skill of the filmmakers and the depth of the concept, I found myself bored. In fact I kept dozing off and then replaying the parts I had missed. It moves at a snail's pace and there are really no surprises throughout even though I applaud it for giving me a glimpse a very real church-dominated Mexico