Judgment

I won't spoil the show for whoever happens to see this small jewel of a made for TV film! And I will not enter into the theme which the film is about. I suppose it is a bit senseless to air one particular point of view on the Catholic Church, politics, football or women when reviewing a film just for the sake of doing it.

OK... I recommend it because this may be one of the most daring films ever made around the subject of child molestation. The idea has been reviewed a thousand times since the cinema verité started and the New Wave took a place in our world. Maybe Germania Anno Zero is a good example.

In Judgment (sic), we have a splendid cast with a Director that actually dared to do things you seldom even try to do in a film, especially when the subject matter is so explosive. And it explodes in his hands with a blinding, enormous BANG!!

The core of every heart that is rent in this film is portrayed with passion and utmost realism. But when things really explode, the film reaches a climax that is not common at all. And here is where all the actors involved and the Director himself, did something absolutely scary. Obviously, you must watch the whole film to grab its importance and enormous power. Suffice to say Keith Carradine had one of his best and most memorable seconds in front of a camera. I won't spoil it. You have to see this by yourself to believe it. I don't know if just the making of that particular take, let a alone the whole scene, ended in special psychological treatment for Keith and Michael Faustino, who plays Robbi, Keith character's son.

If you have to stop the film because you can't stand that particular scene, I would understand. It's happened to a lot of people. If you have children... you'll know better.

All in all, in 1990, this film was just a small prediction of things to come.

"Judgment" follows the events surrounding the molestation of several young boys by a Catholic priest, including the initial disbelief on the part of the parents, and the desperate attempts of the church establishment to cover up the misdeeds and admit no culpability.

The script pretty much develops the action in the same way you see in many other TV movies of this sort - good story, but few surprises. Fortunately, the film is filled with fine actors. Blythe Danner doesn't quite strike me as a small-town Louisiana woman, but her intensity is welcome, particularly her anger at her husband's initial unwillingness to confront the Church leaders.

David Strathairn does a wonderful job (no surprise) as the pedophile priest, a man totally in denial about the harm he has done and his own emotional sickness. He has a brief, but telling scene near the end with the Monsignor (played by the reliably oily Bob Gunton) where he defends his behavior as giving the kids "all of his and God's love" and an antidote to parents who probably beat and abuse their kids. Clearly his general accusation does not apply to the families in the film.

Many people are offended by any kind of sympathetic portrayal of a child molestor, which is easy to understand. But I give "Judgment" credit for going beyond the one-dimensional, and giving us a glimpse of a tortured soul behind the horrible behavior.

Another fact based real life horror, a story that reveals the truly awful story of one case in many. The institution that preaches right and wrong, trying it's damnedest to cover up the sins of it's own. In this case as others justice / right was only served after the church hushed previous crimes up, then compounded the crime with transfers to another diocese resulting in further victims. Of course we now frequently hear of other institutional sectors doing the same. As for the film, I actually rate HBO as the best film studio now. They maybe made for TV, but they seem to gather great acting casts, good directors and good production. They combine this with serious stories or good storytelling, rather than another comic book story overloaded and dependant on CGI. Well worth watching, will shock / anger and make you think how these things can happen.

For generations the International Catholic Church with its root base in Rome, was perhaps the most powerful religious institution in the world. With well entrenched rich and powerful men of the cloth and its distant secular arms tightly embraced by governmental institutions. City, country and state police and even military authorities, helped it reach around the world to promote its lay policies, regulations or merely to defy custom, national or even international law. It's respected and sanctioned officials were UN-assailable. Well established in America for nearly one hundred and fifty years, the church, it's cannon, authority, religious members and its social influence were undeniable and unimpeachable. However, during the last half of the past century, the one area the church did not have complete control over was it's southern gate; a growing base of ambivalent and savagely hungry attorneys who surprisingly discovered the church for all it's power was not impervious to the law. Once it was learned the church could be successfully sued and had the deepest financial pockets of all, law suits exploded in every province around the world. This movie is a case in point. It concerns the fight of the Guitry family (Keith Carradine, Blythe Danner and Michael Faustino as Robbie Guitry) who discovers their son has been molested by the local priest,(David Strathairn, superb acting) decide a financial settlement of $1,000.000 is not enough. They want the priest defrocked and sent to jail. The movie reveals the common practices of the church and the unscrupulous tactics of ruthless lawyers like Jack Warden as Claude Fortier. There are several other movies on this subject, but few other have the courage to reveal as much. ****