The Crusader

Original title: Diary of a City Priest

2001
PG-13
1h 17m

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

189

YOUR RATING

Home Video Trailer from Heartland Productions

Play trailer1:50

1 Video

2 Photos

Drama

David Morse plays Father John McNamee, a catholic priest who accepts a position at an inner-city church. The film begins with Father McNamee as he starts his new job and follows the priest t... Read allDavid Morse plays Father John McNamee, a catholic priest who accepts a position at an inner-city church. The film begins with Father McNamee as he starts his new job and follows the priest through his struggles in adapting to his new surroundings. Based on a true story.David Morse plays Father John McNamee, a catholic priest who accepts a position at an inner-city church. The film begins with Father McNamee as he starts his new job and follows the priest through his struggles in adapting to his new surroundings. Based on a true story.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

189

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win total

Videos1

Trailer 1:50

Diary of a City Priest

Photos1

User reviews4

5.5189

Featured reviews

2gallenm1

An Awful Adaption of a Great Book

This short film is an awful adaption of Father John MacNamee's excellent non-fiction book, Diary of a City Priest. In the film, Father MacNamee is shown conversing with various saints who appear to him in visions, making him seem like a schizophrenic, which he is not. Furthermore, the film ignores Father MacNamee's struggles with the Catholic Church, including his refusal to serve as a strike breaker during a Catholic School teachers' strike, a decision which resulted in his being exiled from the Cathedral where he worked to an inner city parish. Do yourself a favor, read the book, ignore the movie.

10aheger

The movie is much better the second time around.

The first time I watched it seemed slow. I thought it was professionally done, and David Morse, as always, was solid.

The second time around it was simply moving. It's worth the effort to slow yourself down, and empathize with David Morse's character.

8rbourgeois01

Invisible heroism without sentimentality

David Morse captures without overstatement the persona of a dedicated priest who follows his calling to serve in an inner city community parish. There is no sugarcoating the frustration and sorrow he must embrace in order to love and serve people on the distant frontier between urban poverty and mainstream America. The portraits of the priest, his parish staff, and his parishioners are so true to life that the director must know this scene first hand. No attempt is made to beatify the priest or to create artificial and unrealistic tales of triumph and redemption among his parishioners, and consequently the viewer's experiences of both tragedy and hope arise from what feels like the substratum of true human experience.