Author Topic: Good Catholic Movie (Read 1789 times)

parentsfortruth · « **on:** May 11, 2011, 11:41:50 AM »

If you've never seen this, it's entirely heartwarming.

Lilies of the Field with Sidney Poitier.

Lybus · « **Reply #1 on:** May 11, 2011, 02:11:26 PM »

I don't know if it's just me, but it always seemed to me that that movie was a bit condescending towards the catholic clergy. The nun Mother is a bit of witch (and looks to be lacking charity, like when the baptist brings food, she insults him), and the other nuns are reduced to a bunch of giggling girls, and the priest has dreams of grandiosity and gets humbled at the end of the movie.

I've heard a lot of people talk highly of this movie, though. Is there something I'm missing?

Sigismund · « **Reply #2 on:** May 11, 2011, 05:27:51 PM »

It is a good story, well acted and written. And there are nuns, priests, and Baptists exactly like those portrayed in the movie. Or at least there were. You would have to look long and hard to find nuns dressed like that and gathered together in such a large concentration now.

LordPhan · « **Reply #3 on:** May 11, 2011, 07:31:29 PM »

Quote from: Sigismund

It is a good story, well acted and written. And there are nuns, priests, and Baptists exactly like those portrayed in the movie. Or at least there were. You would have to look long and hard to find nuns dressed like that and gathered together in such a large concentration now.

You're probably right on looking long and hard to find them in a large concentration but I see real nuns whenever I go to mass. :)

(Edit: Why is there no normal smiley?)

herbert · « **Reply #4 on:** May 11, 2011, 07:36:33 PM »

Quote from: LordPhan

Quote from: Sigismund

(Edit: Why is there no normal smiley?)

i been wondering same thing.

it hard to say what good catholic movies are because the stuff that seem tradtional by todays standards was yesterday's modernism

Sigismund · « **Reply #5 on:** May 11, 2011, 07:38:06 PM »

Me too. I would really like a normal smiley

MaterDominici · « **Reply #6 on:** May 12, 2011, 01:58:27 AM »

:smile:

Is he not normal enough?
Don't tell him, you might hurt his feelings.

parentsfortruth · « **Reply #7 on:** May 12, 2011, 10:22:08 AM »

Quote from: Lybus

I don't know if it's just me, but it always seemed to me that that movie was a bit condescending towards the catholic clergy. The nun Mother is a bit of witch (and looks to be lacking charity, like when the baptist brings food, she insults him), and the other nuns are reduced to a bunch of giggling girls, and the priest has dreams of grandiosity and gets humbled at the end of the movie.

I've heard a lot of people talk highly of this movie, though. Is there something I'm missing?

I didn't take it that she lacked charity. I totally saw what she was trying to do. She wanted him to recognize that GOD WAS USING HIM AS AN INSTRUMENT, rather than something he was doing completely on his own. She acted like she believed she was doing him a favor by not letting him get "big headed" about what he was doing, and she ended up being right too.

Lybus · « **Reply #8 on:** May 12, 2011, 10:44:11 AM »

Quote from: parentsfortruth

Quote from: Lybus
I don't know if it's just me, but it always seemed to me that that movie was a bit condescending towards the catholic clergy. The nun Mother is a bit of witch (and looks to be lacking charity, like when the baptist brings food, she insults him), and the other nuns are reduced to a bunch of giggling girls, and the priest has dreams of grandiosity and gets humbled at the end of the movie.

I've heard a lot of people talk highly of this movie, though. Is there something I'm missing?

I didn't take it that she lacked charity. I totally saw what she was trying to do. She wanted him to recognize that GOD WAS USING HIM AS AN INSTRUMENT, rather than something he was doing completely on his own. She acted like she believed she was doing him a favor by not letting him get "big headed" about what he was doing, and she ended up being right too.

I might have been inclined to share that view, if not for the ending of the movie, where the Baptist tricks the mother nun into saying "thank you." The camera takes plenty of healthy shots of the mother nun looking (at least to me) quite guilty and remorseful for having not treated him better. The Baptist, of course, goes along his merry way, singing his own song, with the sisters joining in. Also, she seems to treat him like a trophy throughout the movie, more of an object than anything else ("Smile to the people, but don't talk." "Sit in the front where everyone can see you."). I just thought the movie made the Catholic Clergy look bad.

I think if a movie that many Catholics are going to see is to have clergymen in it, it should represent them as they should be ideally. Clergy should never be corrected by the laity, but by fellow clergy, and the clergy should be shown to be the guides and counselors that they are. Two movies that I think does a good job of this is Bells of Saint Mary's and Boy's Town (I know that there are a few problems with these movies, such as the freedom of religion undertones that Boy's Town has, but I think they did a good job of representing the clergy as the spiritual parents that they should be).

Lilies in the field, to me, at least, just seemed to put Catholic clergy in there all dressed up nice but not really serving their functions. What the Mother's message was, about relying on God and not on man and not getting a big head like you said, would have worked if the movie itself had actually been on her side.

MrsZ · « **Reply #9 on:** May 12, 2011, 12:08:28 PM »

Quote from: Lybus

I don't know if it's just me, but it always seemed to me that that movie was a bit condescending towards the catholic clergy. The nun Mother is a bit of witch (and looks to be lacking charity, like when the baptist brings food, she insults him), and the other nuns are reduced to a bunch of giggling girls, and the priest has dreams of grandiosity and gets humbled at the end of the movie.

I agree with your perception. I've thought this about other portrayals of priests and nuns as well. It seems to me to be a subtle way to "gently" mock the religious and the Church by extension. Like the person who's always giving little digs at other people in conversation, and then when there's a reaction, says, "What? I was only joking! Can't you take a joke? You're so sensitive!"

The "Nuns Having Fun" calendar is like this too. We see fully habited nuns on rollercoasters and roller skates and I don't know what else. It's comical and I think lacking in dignity and respect. There's been too much emphasis in the last 1/2 century on depicting the religious as not only "just like you and me" but also at times fairly ridiculous.

MrsZ · « **Reply #10 on:** May 12, 2011, 12:09:32 PM »

I've wondered why there are no "normal" smilies too.
Just recently in fact. :scratchchin:

Sigismund · « **Reply #11 on:** May 13, 2011, 07:12:41 PM »

Quote from: LordPhan

Quote from: Sigismund
It is a good story, well acted and written. And there are nuns, priests, and Baptists exactly like those portrayed in the movie. Or at least there were. You would have to look long and hard to find nuns dressed like that and gathered together in such a large concentration now.

You're probably right on looking long and hard to find them in a large concentration but I see real nuns whenever I go to mass. :)

(Edit: Why is there no normal smiley?)

I am glad you see real nuns. I wish I did, with regularity.