The Nun's Story is a great film, but it is a work of art, not a recruiting ad. It
is the story of one individual soul who believes that she has a vocation, but comes to understand that she does not. The process of self-discovery is honest, painful and forthright.
The first hour, depicting the path toward the religious vocation, is fascinating, as it is both very detailed and, now, ancient history. The nuns represented in the film exhibit a range of human characteristics, suggesting that nuns are human, even if they have religious vocations.
The film was criticized when it first opened. The Catholic hierarchy and the Catholic faithful wanted a Bing Crosby version of Catholicism, not one that held "the mirror up to nature", both in human terms and in ecclesiatical terms. The film was "anti-fiftiesist", "fiftiesism" being a sentimental, disordered view of the faith that allowed Vatican II to undermine the very foundations of the faith.
Any Catholic who holds the faith and knows recent church history should be fascinated and heartbroken while watching the film.
And the lovely and talented Audrey Hepburn gives her greatest performance.
Watch it!