Although I've read a lot of people claiming that this is a catholic bashing movie I got the exactly opposite impression. Any thoughts?
If you check my thread "Did the Vatican fund this production?" you'll see that I found it very pro-Church, what with the victim becoming a murderer and his chosen mark the most appealing figure in the tale.
shareIt's neither. Books and films don't have to be unconditionally pro or anti-anything, not everything that's written is meant as cheap propaganda for or against some institution, religion, or political party. We see the good side of the Church through Father James, in spite of his flaws, and we also see the venality of it among his colleagues.
The fact that Calvary gets both doctrinaire Catholic zealots and anti-Catholic zealots all worked up and offended means that it's doing something right.
That's a nice perspective, objective and cool-headed, but I very much doubt it's one shared by victims of priestly sexual abuse, who would more likely deem themselves re-victimized while the representative of the church was depicted as a noble lamb of God.
shareNo one expects victims of priestly sexual abuse to be objective in their view of this movie.
shareNor should they be.
share[deleted]
First and foremost, I am sorry to hear what you endured and grateful you have the consciousness to contend with it well.
So you know, just because you bring a subjective response to the table doesn't mean that equates with being unreasonable. In fact the best response would be a stereoscopic mix of subjective and objective.
two characters claimed to have been raped by priest.
Nearly every parishoner Fr James had was a bad person.
The other priest was not a nice person.
Fr James was a good and decent man as was the woman who survived the car crash, but every other Catholic in the movie was not. Given that and the tales of children being raped by priests, it was an anti-Church, but pro-faith movie.
Don't hate on contrarians
Well, perhaps this movie falls into the same category as DOUBT, where some of the audience finds the priest guilty and some find him innocent while some are suspended.
I still say that Gleeson makes the key representative of the church, Fr. James, so appealing, despite his naiveté re: the sex scandal, that people root for and mourn him more than anything.
What would you prefer they do? Celebrate it?
sharei see it as a meditation upon institutional accountability, character ,destiny, sacrament, sacrifice, irony, drama all wrapped up in a christic sacrifice / redemption narrative.
so everyone winds up happy, or at least sadder but wiser.
manipulative, artistic, surreal , relevant to the age - very well done, if slightly a bit too cute.
I felt like it was less about faith and more about personal character. The fact that they were all Catholic, one was a priest, and one was a victim, were just tools to move the plot. It didn't particularly matter that Jack was abused by a Catholic priest, it just made the plot easier to follow because we can accept what he says at face value. Whether you find that it bashes or glorifies the Catholic church depends on what you bring to the movie. I think you could argue it find evidence for both opinion. The Catholic church is neither good nor bad, it all comes down to the individuals.
shareI agree with those that say it is neither pro or anti church. The reality is that the church is both good and bad, I think this movie portrays that honestly. But that is not the point of the movie, it just is a given the way I saw it.
sharei thought it was 100% anti-church and that the message was that the revenge killing was justified. that's the message i got.
shareI got the exact opposite! this shows that's a very good movie.
I also found it moving and, let me say, I can't stand the pro or anti questions.
Because the heart of the matter is: what does it tell to you?
I had the feeling that the hatred he suffers from the various Sligo citizens (everyone of which embodies a different kind of attitude: from sheer atheism to mere cynism and so on) is the same hate the church is suffering. he embodies the church and he dies but trough his death, he wins, just like Jesus won, because the chain of hatred gets interrupted.
Evil is defeated only through forgiveness (his daughter forgives becase he also had forgiven her "always").