Priest

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source: Priest

I just re-watched Priest after 12 years, and I think it is even more powerful and relevant now it was then, given the scandals in the Catholic Church and the rise of religious militancy and fundamentalism in the world. While occasionally teetering on the brink of preachiness and soap opera, Priest is saved by tight direction and very fine acting. It effectively shows the humaness of people in the Church, as opposed to how some would have you believe. As a person not all attached to organized religion, I obviously find much to approve of here. But the strength of Priest is that someone who loves the Catholic Church for what is really is, the teachings of Jesus, and not what cruel, irrational and ignorant human beings have made of it will find much to be enriched by here. Priest is not anti-Catholic at all, not in the true sense of the word. Rather, it is anti human folly. Of course that segment that is fundamentalist and inflexible, who cannot imagine - horrors! - that a Priest could be gay have and will continue to express their moral outrage and call this "hate speech." As a final note, I also happened to read Roger Ebert's inexplicible review of Priest. If I hadn't seen his name on it, I would think it was written by Michael Medved. Since Ebert is generally religion neutral and very gay positive, I simply don't understand his outrage at all - very puzzling indeed. And he gives Mel's hideous Passion of the Christ, one of the most immoral and disgusting movies ever made (again most especially if you ARE religious) a perfect 10.

Priest is a powerful and well-acted film. It exposes the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church (not hard to do) but it is also about the larger issues of faith, compassion and forgiveness. The film is NOT ABOUT being a gay priest. It speaks to any thinking person who has ever questioned their faith only to find that there are no answers and that faith is all there is. Father Greg (Linus Roche) is gay and conflicted. On one hand he is certain that God wants him to be a priest. On the other hand, he is not certain that God exists. All he has is faith and faith abandons him in the face of evil. The conversations between Father Greg and Father Matthew (Tom Wilkinson) are compelling. Did Jesus have it easier than everyone else because he knew what his purpose was? Do men's laws need to be followed as strictly as God's laws? Can the rules be changed just because they don't suit us? The only wrong note struck in the film is when Father Greg removes his collar, gets on his bike and heads to a gay bar. With quick ease he catches the eye of a stranger and they are soon in bed without so much as a hello. A little too Brian- from- Queer- as- Folk if you ask me but, whatever. You've got to grin at the sacrilegious irony of a disgruntled priest removing a large crucifix from a church, walking through the streets with it over his shoulder and smashing it into the rectory. The battle of bible quotes between Father Greg and a devout parishioner perfectly illustrates the futility of proving your point through bible verse. The ending is powerful and perfect. Get your tissue box out because if you don't bawl like a baby there is a black hole where your heart should be. .

Priest, by Antonia Bird, is very beautiful and also provocative film about faith, church, forgiveness and tolerance, which all have as many shapes as there are human beings. The film tells the story of a priest who arrives to new town and soon he notices some things he don't consider too acceptable, and learns also that incredible and selfish evil lives inside every human being, including himself. The film is a powerful study about religion and many ways to interpret and obey its orders. How can a priest do his "good" job as he is rotten and evil inside and there is always the chance of Sin lurking somewhere? The main point is that no human is purely good and without any flaws and everyone sins, priests too. The purification can be reach only by forgiving and being tolerant and loving towards others, and thus the peace of mind and happiness may be reached: trying to be as good as human being can. Forgiveness and love are the most important things and the film ends in extremely beautiful scene at the church, as at least one little person forgives the priest for his "crimes" and sees into the heart and soul of the priest. We cannot judge someone for something because there are no sinless people in the world. The narrow-mindedness is one problem the film deals with, and it is sad to see that these things take place in real life, too. The film is very deep and beautiful and also funny and it unfolds more and more with each viewing time. This should be seen by persons who "cannot forgive" someone for something he/she has done. What is the benefit people think they get by not forgiving someone and hating someone? As I mentioned, the power of love, forgiveness, and tolerance are the main themes of the film so there are no people in the world, who this film cannot be recommended. This is like Abel Ferrara's and his screenwriter's work, but not as fierce and relentless as their work. Priest is a little more restrained and "easier for everyone to watch" version of the themes of Ferrara and St. John. Remarkable, beautiful, touching and forces the viewer to think. 9/10 masterpiece.

I just caught this movie on cable, and found it to be one of the most touching I've seen. I'm Roman Catholic, and unless you are the type to blindly follow the tenants of your faith without question, you will likely find the questions raised by this film familiar. It really makes no difference whether the Priest is gay or straight, as human beings, they are undoubtedly often caught between the desire to respond to normal human needs and the requirements of the church. And while the Catholic church provides the setting, much of what the older priest says in his sermon regarding what God finds worthy of His attention can be applied to most any religion, as can the discussion near the end between the angry parishioners and the younger priest upon his return from exile. There are some very emotional moments in the film, not the least of which is the ending. As Catholics, we tend to forget that priests are human beings. This movie shows us that they are. I will warn you that, if you tend to cringe at the portrayal of gay attraction (as I do), you WILL find yourself doing so at various points in this film ("Brokeback Mountain" has nothing on "Priest"), but nothing is ever presented in poor taste or gratuitously, in my opinion. A film definitely worth viewing. On a side note, I counted at least 5 performers in "Priest" that also appear in "The Full Monty." Guess they needed to do something a bit lighter after this one.

On one hand you could say this movie is a stinging indictment on the "medieval" practices of the Catholic church or on the other hand you could say that this a super-secular movie industry nose-thumbing to all things religious. What is this so-called priests problem. He picks and chooses the vows he is going to uphold. It is incredible to believe he has a crisis of conscience about the confessions of the young girl he has heard but finds his vow of celibacy to be a mere inconvenience. Why wasn't the character a teacher or doctor, someone else who might hear the confessions of children but without the vow of celibacy. Why did he have to be a gay priest breaking his vows. Why couldn't he just have sex with a female. The fact that this character is a priest shows pure contempt for religion. This is the kind of priest that gives Catholicism and organized religion in general a bad wrap. He is the kind of priest that eventually corrupts altar boys because he himself is corrupted. Great! So what do we have. Our hero, the Priest, is basically evil. He breaks his vow of celibacy numerous time, he has homo-sexual relations (I don't care what you think on this, a priest is supposed to believe it is wrong) and causes the girl more harm than good by being indecisive. This movie is divisive not creative. It uses strong emotional images to make its point. It gets more praise than it deserves. Don't be blinded by it apparent politically correct veneer. Watch Boondock Saints instead.

This was a lot of prancing fluffy nonsense. How come the Priest was so worked up about his vow of confessional confidentiality that he wouldn't grass up a child molester, but then so cavalier about celibacy that he went cruising? The conclusion is laughably bad. The rest just bad. Oh, and by the way, what the child molester said in the confessional was not a confession and was therefore not confidential. DUH. The film gets very worked up about nothing. It has a kind of look at the muck in here hysteria to it. Pants.