Der Priester

From the symbolic introductory scene of "Priest" wherein an old, weary-looking priest yanks a huge crucifix from the church altar, proceeds to carry it through the streets of his impoverished town as if he were Jesus himself, and proceed to bash through the door of his presbytery, you know you're in for something different - stimulating, controversial, thought-provoking. "Priest" is VERY MUCH that movie.

The old priest's clerical replacement comes in the form of Father Greg (Linus Roache, in a star-making role), a young, fair-haired, boyishly handsome visionary who, with typically youthful verve, strives to bring the Catholic Church directly to the people (well, to the Catholics, anyway), and receives his actions with decidedly mixed feelings. The older priest still in residence, Father Matthew (the excellent Tom Wilkinson), who has long settled into amiable apathy, inclines toward drink while maintaining a relatively clandestine relationship with his black, attractively careworn housekeeper (the underused Cathy Tyson). There is initial friction as the Old and New Worlds collide. Father Matthew dismisses Father Greg's modernistic sermons, while Father Greg frowns upon Father Matthew's casual stance on papal celibacy. Eventually, we learn Father Greg has his own difficulty with celibacy...but with other men.

As the story proceeds, we are drawn into the emotional and moral struggles of Father Greg as he wrestles not only with his own social and spiritual ethics, but those of his parish. In one particularly chilling confessional scene, a male member of the parish practically flaunts his sexual desires while "justifying" his incestuous advances toward his teenage daughter.

"Priest" is an important, ambitious project and yields emotional power in its depiction of moral adversity. But it's a mixed blessing. Some of the scenes come off overbaked and melodramatic, while the resolution of the piece should be more powerful and less compromising; instead it comes off manufactured and unrealistic, hurting its overall impact.

In fairness, "Priest" does bring out the hypocrisy in both priests, as well as the parish. Nobody comes off saintly here, just flawed and human. An interesting bi-note is that there have been no comments in the fact that the elder priest is having a sexual relationship with a BLACK housekeeper. Forty years ago, according to religious purists, the Bible interpreted ethnically mixed relationships and marriages as abominations as well. At least some headway HAS been made.

Is "Priest" anti-Catholic in its message? To an extent, yes. The Catholic's Church's unyielding, unprogressive, medieval doctrines are brought to task here, never more pointedly than in the scene where Father Greg, agonizing over whether to prevent the continued sexual abuse of the young girl and report the father to authorities, or respect the confidentiality of the confessional and remain silent, reluctantly chooses the latter.

While I deem this movie to be a stronger platform for social tolerance, `Priest' still drums home beautifully the message that organized religion is still used as a tool to govern instead of instill moral standards, particularly in other countries, and as a persecutive weapon against certain sectors of society that do not conform to those rigid standards. As a consequence, the Church has provided a comforting harbor and hazardous safety zone for certain "acceptable" bigotries.

We need more brave, topical films like "Priest" to confront such important social issues and display them front-and-center.

Father Greg Pilkinton (Linus Roache) is a young, dedicated, idealistic and yet conservative (comparing to his colleague, Father Matthew Thomas, played by Tom Wilkinson) priest who has recently arrived in his new parish. He works hard with total faith and devotion. Soon after moving in to Father Matthew's house, he discovers that Father Matthew has been having a relationship with his maid. Later on, a school girl, Lisa (Christine Tremarco) confesses to him that her father has been sexually abusing her, Father Greg faces his inner struggle on whether to reveal the truth to the authority, or remain silent in order not to break his vow.

Confused and frustrated, Father Greg goes to a pub and meets Graham (Robert Carlyle) and later they have sex. They are to stay in an on-and-off relationship. Now Father Greg must confront his human desire and his sexuality. Eventually, he also has to deal with his being arrested while making love in a parked car and the devastating consequences.

This film challenges the entire system. Must a priest (or a nun) remain celibate? Should we leave out non-heterosexuals for being Catholics or whatever? Must a priest remain silent when hearing a serious problem or even an about-to-be-committed crime (which happens all the time in Northern Ireland) and do nothing? Can all priests honestly give themselves away completely to God and refrain from letting their human emotion, human desire flow? Don't some priests become child molesters because they've been trying to repress their human desire for too long (this seems outside the subject. On the other hand, not all priests commit such a crime)? Should we refuse to show compassion towards certain people simply because they are different from us and that their life styles are 'not accepted' by society or the usual moral standard? Still, who is the hypocrite here? Father Matthew's relationship with his housekeeper has never been revealed. If otherwise, he would be rejected, too. He leads a double life. Being a 'liberal' priest and breaking his vow of celibacy at the same time. But WHO are the hypocrites? Aren't we all?

'Priest' is not about a story of one priest. It's about any one priest. And the movie is compelling and well-made. One thing for sure, the Roman Catholic Church would not be pleased with this film.

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.

You need to have watched a few BBC dramas, and like the style in order to really appreciate this film. It may seem slow in the eyes of viewers used with the American cinema approach, but I tremor to the thought of how Hollywood could have spoiled this film, and I am happy that the script fell in Brits hands first. 'Priest' is a complex film, dealing with hard issues of incest and homo-sexuality, but first with the conflict between the priest mission as a moral leader and the Procustian laws of the Catholic church he needs to obeye by. The ideological content may be controversial for many, it was partly for me as well, but I cannot help admiring the well kept balance, the dramatic tension, and the masterful way the excellent team of actors is filling the roles. I wonder how comes that Linus Roache is not a bigger star after having made this film about one decade ago. He certainly deserves to be in the same line as some of his generation colleagues who have succeeded that well in American and world cinema.

Yes, the film is controversial, you may not agree with some of the ideas and it looks sometimes as a cinema manifest, but it is still a good and human film. I less liked the final, which is the only place in the script where art logic seems to surrender to the religious concepts. 9/10 on my personal scale.

Priests are not often the heroes of movies:some famous predecessors were Robert Bresson's "journal d'un curé de campagne" (1945),Luis Bunuel's "Nazarin" (1958) and Jean-Pierre Melville 's "Leon Morin prêtre" (1961).But none of these directors went as far as Antonia Bird .Their movies were perhaps esthetically better,but nothing shocking for people who were brought up religiously ,nothing like the pictures of this priest lying on a bed with his lover.One will add that Bunuel's movie was looked upon as "very Christian" by the Spanish censorship when it was exactly the contrary.But it's difficult to consider Bird's work a fable:it's a realistic story,where sex occupies the center of the plot:sex between the other priest and the housekeeper,sex between the father and his daughter,sex between Rochman and Carlyle .Bird's style,though depicting the poor sides of Liverpool is very different from Kenneth Loach's .Her pictures are polished up ,like the one in confessional where the incest father is speaking through the grille ,or the two lovers on the beach.

Bird's movie is very interesting because it broaches the problem of celibacy in the catholic religion (protestant priests are allowed to marry aren't they),and,as the hero remarks "Jesus did not ask for chastity did he?"A hero who is not always very smart:"be discreet" he tells to his colleague who sleeps with the housekeeper,but he kisses his lover in a car in broad daylight.

The final battle in the church is particularly interesting,because it's a battle of words,repeating quotations from the Bible,and there are so many ways of interpreting its meanings .It seems that the priest uses the New testament ( judge not lest...,Mary Magdelene, forgive not seven times but seventy)whereas his enemy draws from the old one (a man sleeping with a man is an abomination).

The seal of the confessional subject is not that much new however:even in 1953,Hitchcock made "I confess" in which Montgomery Clift was confronted to the same problem.

Best line;the older priest ,telling a shocked congregation that God is probably too busy to care about what men do with their d.....