MovieChat Forums > Calvary (2014) Discussion > Would a few more sympathetic characters ...

Would a few more sympathetic characters have helped this movie?

posted 10 years ago by theredmax4
29 replies | jump to latest

I know this movie wasn't trying hard to be realistic, and that the antagonistic attitudes of the supporting cast were probably necessary, but I for one thought the story might have benefitted from a few characters who weren't so brazenly hostile or eccentric. I suppose we needed to suspect plenty of them as the would-be killer, and there was a general theme of suffering, but did they ALL have to be such terrible people? Apart from the writer they were mostly portrayed as cruel or degenerate. Would it have been better to portray some of the locals as more rounded and less ghastly?

[–] SnappinTurtle 10 years ago

Yes, I posted a similar sentiment in another thread.

That would be my only criticism of the film. I know there is an element of an allegory here, but the fact that every single person was rude, provocative, or outright vicious toward the priest is a little difficult to digest.

The only decent characters are the priest, his dog, his daughter, and the widow. The latter two were from out of town\country.

I still gave it a high rating though.

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

The only decent characters are the priest, his dog, his daughter, and the widow.

Exactly the way I felt( after tossing in the altar boy). I do think the film was overloaded with damaged, cynical townspeople with nasty streaks, to the extent that the story just felt unbalanced. (Even the bishop seems rather unworried by the fact that one of his priests has been threatened with death and had his church burnt down.) This is the totality of the flock he administers too? The cynic in me just has to say that Leary made the right move in getting out of Dodge.🐭

[–] SnappinTurtle 9 years ago

Thanks, and I forgot about the alter boy. You are right. I liked him from the beginning, nad he broke my heart at the end. There was nothing he could do, but he was certainly willing to try and gave no heed to his own life.

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

It's the same kid who was in The Guard, a movie I personally found far more satisfying and entertaining.🐭

[–] Edward_de_Vere 9 years ago

The writer (Emmet Walsh's character) was eccentric but not unsympathetic. He was a lonely old man who wanted to die on his own terms (suicide) rather than be physically or mentally incapacitated.

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

The writer (Emmet Walsh's character) was eccentric but not unsympathetic.

Even he is seen to be rude and curt with the priest on occasions.🐭

[–] Geeky Randy 10 years ago

I don't think so. I don't actually need sympathetic characters to maintain interest as I intend to invest myself in the plot not the characters. Still, I interpreted the ending as the priest's efforts pretty much being all in vain, so having more sympathetic characters could interfere with the reality of that.

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[–] plumlogan 9 years ago

I think so. The way the townies were portrayed made it a wonder the church hadn't been burnt down long ago.

[–] Neuronhead 9 years ago

One of the ideas behind the movie was that the characters were troubled, and Father James was going to help them to be less troubled. And that they remained troubled after he was killed. To that end, I think there were just enough sympathetic characters.

I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe

[–] elisabettaduo 9 years ago

No, quite the contrary to me

[–] Edward_de_Vere 9 years ago

I know this movie wasn't trying hard to be realistic, and that the antagonistic attitudes of the supporting cast were probably necessary, but I for one thought the story might have benefitted from a few characters who weren't so brazenly hostile or eccentric. I suppose we needed to suspect plenty of them as the would-be killer, and there was a general theme of suffering, but did they ALL have to be such terrible people?

There wasn't anything unrealistic about the portrayal of the townspeople. There are a lot of terrible people in the world, often hiding behind a facade of respectability. Take any town or neighborhood, and you'll find a gallery of people who beat or neglect their children, adulterers and adulteresses, drug/alcohol addicts, sexual deviants, thieves/embezzlers, and other all around scumbags.

The point of the film was that this is the world we inhabit and that Father James inhabits, and in spite of it all he manages to find compassion for these people.

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

There wasn't anything unrealistic about the portrayal of the townspeople. There are a lot of terrible people in the world, often hiding behind a facade of respectability. Take any town or neighborhood, and you'll find a gallery of people who beat or neglect their children, adulterers and adulteresses, drug/alcohol addicts, sexual deviants, thieves/embezzlers, and other all around scumbags.

Sure a percentage, but not virtually the whole town.🐭

[–] Edward_de_Vere 9 years ago

I would assume that there were sympathetic people in the town who had their act together, but Father James felt that it was the unsympathetic people who needed his time and attention the most (though he mostly fails in his mission - after his death, they just go back to doing more of the same). Furthermore, listening to a priest congratulate moral people for having their act together doesn't make for much of a story.

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

I would assume the same myself. The point that some of us are making on this thread is that the story feels unbalanced because he is seen to get zero support from the townspeople we see, which for some of us (obviously not you) detracts from the quality of the story.🐭

[–] IndianaGuy 9 years ago

I also see this Irish town as a microcosm of the entire world. To me the characters are exaggeratedly awful in order to underscore the points that you make. I was also struck by the townspeople having absolutely zero sense of shame regarding their rotten qualities. For me, and the way I understand the film, these things make the point more strongly that we need more people like Father James. Worldwide.

[–] otter68 9 years ago

I'm glad others agree with this. They could have had a couple of people who weren't a-holes. The writer was a decent fellow, and there was a chance of redemption for the rich guy, but the other townspeople were all world class jerks.

Don't hate on contrarians

[–] Gothbag 9 years ago

Yes, indeed, any sympathetic character, aside from the priest and his daughter, would have helped.

[–] Zangara 9 years ago

You mean apart from the old writer and the French widow?

[–] Gothbag 9 years ago

Yeah, well, both were kind of sympathetic but just added to the (unrealistic) mass of doom and gloom.