Priest

For Catholics "Priest" must certainly be a wrenching experience. Though it must be stated that the picture painted is hardly a balanced one. The clergy as a whole are portrayed as a vicious bunch. Still the discussion that this film will provoke is certainly an important one.

Not being Catholic myself, the religious aspects were interesting though did not resonate strongly on an emotional level. Still, there's much worthy in this film for those far removed from organised religion or the Catholic Church. The story of an individual torn apart by conflicting beliefs and forces is indeed fascinating and "Priest" deals with this in a powerful and convincing fashion.

The success of the movie lies largely in the truly stunning performance of Linus Roache. Slightly resembling Montgomery Clift in "I Confess", Roache possesses a rare ability to totally inhabit his character and his acting is simply faultless. Tom Wilkinson too is in top form. For their performances alone, "Priest" is most definitely a "must see".

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.

This movie was incredibly moving, especially the last 10 minutes. It accurately portrays the struggle one would go through, being Catholic, gay, and a priest, all at once. Yikes. The ending is very VERY powerful, and sends a strong message that we learn and grow through our suffering, and surviving our hardships enables us to help others. If you're up for an emotionally powerful movie, see this movie!! You'll love the ending!

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.

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.