I too loved this movie but the point of the Lourdes story is the Gospel call to repent from sin, change our lives and return to God, and pray. This was the message conveyed by the Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal in 1917 and other places.
shareyes, but it would seem very few people are listening to her, sadly as she has to keep repeating herself. more people should watch flims like THE SONG OF BERNADETTE instead of some of the heartless rubbish churned out today. then perhaps the world would be a better place.
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From a pietistic view, that's mean and blasphemous. From a satiric view, it's... priceless.
It does bring up several important points:
1) Whatever the actuality behind Marian apparitions, their "Mary" does not conform to the biblical Mary or to the historical Mary, as far as she can be delineated.
2) The biblical Mary has nothing to do with Marian apparitions. In contradiction to Catholic doctrine, the New Testament does not report that Mary was bodily "assumed" into heaven. The NT does not even mention her death. The Catholic Church does not refer to Mary's death but to her "dormition" - she fell, somewhat like the Buddha, into a weird sleep-like condition and then was "assumed" bodily into heaven, because her status as "God's mother" preserved her from the pangs and the shame of physical death. As the "New Eve," Mary lived immortally, as the original "old" Eve was designed to do, but missed the opportunity by sinning. Mary, the new Eve, was sinless, and so did not inherit the "stain of original sin" introduced by the original Eve. Again: of course all of this legendry is unbiblical.
Nor does the NT predict that Mary will appear in the future - that is reserved only for Jesus. Again: an unbiblicalnotion.
Nor does the NT call Mary "God's mother," or direct prayer to her. Again: unbiblical.
Nor does the NT predicate miraculous powers to Mary: Again: unbiblical.
3) The apparitional Mary is not a universal figure. Instead, she makes her appeals to, and operates from, merely Catholic presumptions and sensibilities. She is merely the Mary of Catholic doctrine - a fleshing out or incarnation or personification of unbiblical Catholic theological speculation. If the biblical Mary was really making appearances, she would do so without 1,500 years of Catholic myth-making and paganized trappings. She would most probabaly, and plausibly, appear as the (frequently) taciturn Jewish maiden of Matthew's, Luke's, and John's Gospels - not the garrulous, resplendent "queen of heaven" of the apparitions.
4) The apparitional Mary is seldom claimed to be "Mary" in an apparition's initial stages. Instead, she is perceived to be a magical earth-and-water "Elemental" - a fairy-type being indigenous to the cultures of her experiencers. Bernadette never said that her vision was of the Catholic Mary/Mother of God. On the contrary, Bernadette used a term from local folklore, "aquerra," to describe her vision of a "little lady" who haunted the cave by the river. Marian apparitions in their initial - and most authentic - stages are "raw," natural, even pagan experiences. Only later, after winning ecclesiastical sanction, do they then become "Appearances of OUR Lady." Emphasis on "OUR" because she is already, and only, the Mary of Catholic doctrine. She really belongs only to "US" Catholics, despite claims of universality. She is not the NT Mary, the historical Mary, the Protestant Mary. She is merely - and narrowly, parochially - the Roman Catholic Mary, nothing more, nothing less.
The Song of Bernadette is a beautiful, spiritual adaptation of the Werfel novel, but it raises important critical questions for thinking minds.
In a world where Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists daily murder "Crusaders" -- Christians -- and Jews -- in a world where New Atheist authors like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens mock all belief, in a world where Christians -- of any demonination -- are oppressed in more locations than they are allowed to practice their faith freely --
The above poster, identified only as "bastasch" is obsessed with bashing Catholics for being Catholic.
Have a look at his/her posting history. "Obsession" is the correct word.
He/she wants to refight the wars of the Reformation which ended, thank you God, hundreds of years ago.
One can only hope that this deeply misguided person ... evolves. Intellectually, spiritually, personally.
Danusha Goska is full of beans. I did not "bash Catholics for being Catholic." I did point out the absurdities and inconsistencies in Mariology in general, and in Marian apparitions particularly - absurdities and inconsistencies which Danush Goska is seemingly incapable of addressing intelligently. Hence the projection onto me of Goska's hurt feelings and manic paranoia. "Obsession" is indeed the correct word for uncritical mariolators such as Danusha Goska, whose obsessive, even compulsive, clinging to the innate flaws of Marian apparitions, lead to the exact kind of misrepresentations that Goska slings.
Danusha Goska has learned nothing from "the wars of the Reformation," which ultimately helped to create a critically competent body of Roman Catholic biblical scholars. The Catholic Church owes a debt to the great Germanic-Protestant biblical schools. Stating this fact does not endorse "wars of the Reformation," but it does exhibit the fact that current Catholic biblical scholars learned from the form-and-text criticism employed by Protestant scholarship.
Moreover, Goska has not one word to say in refutation of the specific points I made in my posts, e.g., the fact that Bernadette's "little lady" was originally described by Bernadette herself as an earth Elemental, that only later was this fairly-like "aquerra" transformed into the Catholic Mary, that neither the biblical/historical Mary, nor the Mary found in non-Catholic traditions are the apparitional Mary. These are facts, not Protestant-Reformationist canards. Goska has offered nothing in refutation of these simple truths.
The sad fact that Danusha Goska refuses to recognize facts, is obsessed with a paranoid vision of Reformationist doctrine where none exists, and projects harsh indictments of religious prejudice onto me, can only make us hope that this deeply misguided Goska... evolves. Intellectually, spiritually, personally.
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Why you hot sizzling sex angel of pan-gendered awesomeness, 'fyou wanna rumble wit me, fuhst you gotta bitch-slap me silly just t'get my attention. Slap my cheeks and call 'em Rosey. After dat, you may slap my face. An' too bad for dat lost little soul Danusha! S/he may be heedin de message o' Bernadette, but she ain't got brains ennuf ta see and own up ta its built in goofiness. I pity Danusha Goska, but I lubba-lubba YOU, you rascally steamy dominatin' Olympian demigod and absolute DAHLING of all de sensitive souls in de whole wo'ld! When Ahm at the centah of yo attenshun, Ah jest git goooooseeee bumps!
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You ARE my life, Dahling.
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Listen, dahling, you better pucker up and get ready for the time of your life. What you need is a good dose of my searing hot luhhhhvvvv!!!!!!
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I believe thou mistyped "nasty" - surely thou meant to type "tasty"!
Thou may'st contemn me as ane Witche, for ane Witche I am! I have byrned b'fore and shalle byrne againe! I am Immortal in mine Witcheree! I do Returne in many divers Guises, eache the more Fetching! Mine Familiares are plentitudinous and as Subtle and Clever as th' De'l Himself! And I liveth and I go on! Cleave the Cheese and there thou wilt finde Mee!
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I don't really understand the main point of bastash's recent posts, but I will say this:
mhearn, I've been enjoying your imdb posts for some time. I support you in this exchange.
"Song of Bernadette" is a tremendous film. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I really didn't sit down and watch the whole thing, start to finish, until recently.
It played on TV when I was a kid and I saw bits and pieces of it, and I didn't take it seriously because Vincent Price was in it, and I can't separate Vincent Price from all the B horror movies he made, and I'm not a fan of B movies, nor of horror movies. Nor of Vincent Price. Sorry, Price fans.
I think the one good Vincent Price performance in a non-B movie is in "Laura." Perhaps Otto Preminger knew how to direct him.
And maybe he's good in horror movies, in horror movie terms, but since I'm not a fan, I can't judge him.
In any case -- now that I've given "Song of Bernadette" a fair shake, I've got to say it's a tremendous film. The film-noir / expressionist, black and white cinematography, the serious attention paid to the lives of the poor -- I've never seen a Hollywood film that gets poverty so right, right down to the seeping walls -- I've lived in a place like that -- the focus on finding something to eat from the moment you wake up in the morning to your long, cold night sleeping next to your entire family --
The incredible cast. No cast that includes Anna Revere (descendent of Paul Revere!) and BLANCHE YURKA (a Czech goddess so formidible her name demands to be typed in all caps), Lee J. Cobb, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper --
The film's focus on how women can be cruel to other women -- Cooper / Vauzous preying on Jones / Bernadette --
The film's brutally honest depiction of how harsh religious transcendence can be in our un-transcendent world --
the film's fealty to Werfel's best selling novel --
The film's willingness to give skepticism a decent voice --
this film is just stunning in its excellence. I realized, as I was watching it, that had such an excellent film been made of a girl from some tradition utterly foreign and unfamiliar to me -- an Inuit girl having visions of Sedna -- had that film been made with a craftsmanship, intellect, and integrity comparable to that displayed by this film -- I would have been equally swept off my feet.
Long story short -- mhearn, I'm in your corner.
And I love this movie. It has deserved every accolade it has received.
A previous post, parodying the film, includes the following:
[Mary will] Start turning up ...next to tampon dispensers...freak out some trailer trash
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Seems Danusha and Hearn can't separate poetic/artistic license from would-be historical fact. They regard any criticism of the film and any criticism of mariolatry as atheism or Reformationist propaganda. The more mature viewer, however, is able to enjoy the film as great filmmaking, disconnected to issues of the truthfulness or falsity of its content. Like all art, "Bernadette" is "true" AS art. Whether its content is true is another matter entirely.
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I had nothing but praise for the film. What I criticised is the uncritical attitude that some of the "devout" take toward Mary and her "appearances." Then I was jumped on by you and Danusha. So much for unimpeded free speech.
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I pray to Our Lady of Lourdes daily.
It's a true privilege to do so.
"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man."