A Vida de João Paulo II

I have always been a Cary Elwes fan and of course, I love John Paul the Great and will always love the greatest saint of modern times but I was never a fan of John Voight until that Sunday night and now I can say that he is one of the best actors of his day he became the late great Holy Father for ninety minutes. yes the mini series made JP II look like saint, but hey is one. Elwes was fine, too old for his his first hour on screen, but passable. my only complaint was that it was too short and rushed in places. the film was reverently, well acted and handsomely crafted. I think it's crime that Voight is not up for a golden globe but I expect him to win an emmy for this one.

I commend CBS for airing this excellent biography of Pope John Paul II. I feel it did a marvelous job of portraying his courage, faith and love! There was a continuity from event to event that was not apparent in the biography aired by a rival network a few days earlier. Because of all the Pope did, it was impossible to do an adequate job of showing his life with only a two-hour movie. It is refreshing that an American television network chose to depict the Pope in a positive way instead of denigrating religion as the secular media are often wont to do. I also appreciated being shown how Pope John Paul II turned to God for inspiration when he had choices to make and during his trials. Finally, I think Jon Voigt was able to capture the Pope's sense of humour and his char ism.

I dare to think, that my opinion (I am a Pole, coming from Krakow) might be interesting for other watchers of this movie. So here are my remarks.

Polish historical background is shown properly, although movie only marks milestones of Polish history after 2nd World War. Krakow is shown in realistic way, main scenes are shot in REAL historic places f.eg.:

• Pope 'window' chat on Franciszkanska street

• Krakow's ghetto 'cleaning' on Pilsudski bridge

• meeting with Wyszynski in Corpus Christi church's garden

I am under impression of Cary Elwes performance. I always regarded him as a comedy actor. But he shows very good picture of young Wojtyla. On the beginning he is rather 'flat'. But he is getting better getting 'older'. He is in fact very similar to young Wojtyla. Very good job, Cary.

If Cary did good work, Jon Voight have done excellent work. Producers have chosen conclave as the moment of replacing main actor. It is very good idea. Jon Voight perfectly studied mimicry of old Wojtyla, his way of walking (before and after hip operation). He showed us in realistic way growing influence of Parkinson disease. I fully agree he deserves Emmy award. His last public 'dumb' appearance on Vatican window is very touching and memorable picture.

Authors of movie did extremely good research work. Movie quotes several well known memorable pictures of Wojtyla, f. eg:

• reading a book in canoe - canoe altar mess - making a 'glasses' from hand by Pope - described above last public appearance

Sometimes (especially when light dimes and Voight is taken from profile) main actor became so similar to Wojtyla, that you might have impression to watch documentary.

Unfortunately special effects are bad. Pictures of crowd (f.eg. Warsaw mass, St Peter Square) are artificial, flying doves are artificial, German airplanes over Krakow are also too artificial. Maybe it is not visible in TV, but it looks really bad in theater.

And finally last remark. This movie is now distributed in polish cinemas (Poland is probably the only country in the world which broadcasts this movie in theaters). I do not know exactly what is the difference between versions shown in USA in TV and 'polish' theatrical version. I can see it is much shorter (127 min) Unfortunately it is also dubbed. I could not hear polish accent of Jon Voight. If I could vote for main actors only my score would be 10/10. But whole movie (although very good as a TV movie) is not perfect for reasons described above. It deserves strong 8.

The first half of this TV movie, "Pope John Paul II", was shown on Sunday last. The second part was shown tonight. Certainly Roman Catholics everywhere were interested, but also anyone of any Faith, and even many who don't profess a Faith, I hope found this story fascination. The story of a simple man who found love in his heart and lived a life to help spread that love among all.

Cary Elwes is very believable as the young adult Karol Wojtyla growing up in Poland during the advances of Nazi Germany. He was strongly influenced by his father and the priests and bishops he came in contact with. He was interested in drama, in education, in sports, and had many friends. We see a glimpse of his girlfriend who challenged him to tell her what he wanted out of life, hoping that he would want to become her husband, and father of their children. But the challenges of the times forbid his going in that direction, and later as history has witnessed, he became a priest, studying in secret, in defiance of the German regulations, to fulfill his calling.

The first half ends in the midst of the Conclave of Cardinals to elect a new pope, and young Cardinal Karol is being considered, much to his surprise.

The second half opened where the first left off, and as we know Karol Wojtyla indeed became the new Pope, John Paul II. Cinematically the transition from Elwes to Voight was also a good one. As good as Elwes was as the young adult Wojtyla, Voight was even better, as we would expect from such a seasoned actor. (It may have helped that, as a young man, Voight was educated at Catholic University.)

The whole movie is extremely well done, and shows what a great man and a great spiritual leader Karol Wojtyla became. And, even though we knew they were actors in this movie, the final hours of John Paul II were very touching.

I definitely plan to buy this one once the DVD is out.

2005 has been the "Year of The Pope". There have been three TV movies about John Paul II's life this year. I think this one is the best. The one with Thomas Kreutschmann in the title role was too rushed and it tried to cram Karol Wojtyla's life into only 2 hours. This one goes at a more relaxed pace. Cary Elwes, Jon Voight, Ben Gazzara, James Cromwell, Christopher Lee and the rest of the cast are excellent. Voight adopts a perfect Polish accent when he plays Wojtyla as an older man.

I recommend that all religious teachers throughout the world show this movie to their students, whatever their religion may be. John Paul II reached out to people of all faiths, and he was even the first Pope to welcome a visit by the President of Iran!