Uh, oh. I've got a bad feeling...about this movie.Last night I forced Mum, with whom I am visiting, to watch Exorcist: The Beginning with me on AMC. It's a prequel to The Exorcist, and it tells the story of Father Merrin immediately after WWII. He's lost his faith, he's defrocked himself, and he's working as an archeologist in Africa. And, as we all know, every archeologist will eventually uncover a mysterious talisman that unleashes the devil. It's just science.
So it's a gore-fest, and not very good, and my Mum was half-reading a novel on the sofa, but she looked up for one particularly excruciating bit and asked, "Why. are you. watching. this?" And I replied, without thinking about it, "I just like movies where priests are heroes. Especially when they kick Satan's @$."
To which Mum said, "You should watch more old movies, then."
The problem is I don't know of any old movies that have positive priest characters beyond The Exorcist. How to even find them? Well now I don't have to, because in answer to a prayer I did not even know I made, today I discovered this list especially created to celebrate the Year of the Priest:
...the Year of the Priest kicks in on June 19 and to help celebrate it the National Catholic Register has offered up some suggestions for movies to watch which contain positive portrayals of our collared clerics. Here’s the top ten good priest movies according to NCR:
1. The Scarlet and the Black (1983)
2. The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)
3. The Mission (1986), mature audiences
4. Going My Way (1944)
5. The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
6. On the Waterfront (1954)
7. I Confess (1953)
8. Boys Town (1938)
9. Molokai: The Story of Father Damien (1999), mature audiences
10. The Exorcist (1973) mature audiences
I haven't seen any of these except The Exorcist, and the last 15 minutes of The Mission. I can't wait to bulk up my Netflix queue with all the rest.
In other movie news, shortly the mail should come with the hotly anticipated Cache. I hope I can make Der Weiss watch it with me. I'm a little afraid.
Also: Thank you, B-Movie Catechism for posting this wonderful list. EegahInc, who runs the blog, has added his own addendums to the list, but Our Heroine refrains from such drivel. We are entirely highbrow here. ;-)
2 comments:
I friggin' love The Bells of St. Mary's! I mean, it helps that Ingrid Bergman may, in fact, be the most beautiful woman of the 20th century, but still. If you don't cry when Bing Crosby tells her she has tuberculosis, you don't have a soul.
You'll have to fight my stepdad over Ingrid, whom he always describes (in a heavy Brooklyn accent) as "a good lookin' dame."
Post a Comment