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The Shoes of the Fisherman [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


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A big pair of shoes
Review date: 2007-12-04 Rating: 10 out of 10

A wonderful film which gives an excellent insight into the election of a pope. This film was to prove prophetic in ways with the election of Pope John Paul II, hailing from a communist country. Well worth having as part of anyone's collection.

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Lavish, sincere, not always convincing but still engaging epic
Review date: 2006-10-11 Rating: 6 out of 10

As Pope operas go, The Shoes of the Fisherman is pretty enjoyable. Dated but shot on a lavish scale in the days when doorstop novels were turned into star-studded epics rather than TV miniseries, it skirts close to guilty pleasure territory without ever providing any unintentional laughs as Anthony Quinn's political prisoner is freed to act as a mediator between the Church and Russia only to find himself elected Pope. Laurence Olivier delivers the bacon as the Russian premier in one of the first of his hammy blockbuster supporting turns he took to supplement his meagre £150 a week salary at the National Theatre, with John Gielgud turning up for one scene as an ailing pontiff while Oskar Werner, Leo McKern and Vittorio De Sica get the more substantial roles. Too much screen time is wasted on David Jansenn and Barbara Jefford's marital problems, an irrelevant subplot that simply gets discarded entirely in the last third, and the political crisis in the background with a starving China threatening world war isn't entirely convincing. Yet there is some substance there even if the politics, both theological and secular, are somewhat confused - how many roadshow pictures feature a philosopher-priest (Werner) under investigation for developing the theories of Teillhard de Chardin? There's even one surprisingly touching scene between Leo McKern and Quinn near the end of the film about loneliness, and Alex North's grandiose score, incorporating as its main theme part of his rejected score for 2001, is quite magnificent. And if you've ever wanted to see Zorba the Pope reciting the Shema Yisrael, this is the movie for you.

It's just a shame that the recent DVD runs into synch problems in the last third and that the making-of featurette has been cropped from 1.33:1 to 1.85:1, meaning that the extracts from the film in it are cropped both horizontally and vertically!


"I have no inside information on how the kingdom of God is to come about"
Review date: 2006-05-11 Rating: 10 out of 10

This film is two stories that are intertwined. The major one is to do with the coming of power of Anthony Quinn as Kiril Lakota and how he will deal with a world hunger crises. The second is how David Janssen as George Faber (necessary to describe how the Vatican works) and his wife Barbara Jefford will settle their differences. Mean while we get a glimpse of the depth of Kiril as he help a dying man.

Based on a story by Morris West, the film depicts the life of a priest that has a unique background and rises through the ranks groomed for a purpose. The purpose and his unique Christian solution are reviled in time.

Look closely as the real gem of the movie is Oskar Werner as Fr. David Telemond who is the embodiment of Teilhard de Chardin and uses many of his quotes. Further information "Phenomenon of Man" by Pierre Teilhard De Chardin.


If the shoe fits...
Review date: 2006-04-26 Rating: 10 out of 10

This movie is remarkable, all the moreso because of the the amount of inadvertent prophecy that takes place during the course of it. Shoes of the Fisherman is a phrase that is sometimes used to refer to the office of the Pope, the Bishop of Rome; the See of Peter, the Chair of Peter, etc., various other historical and scriptural references are a kind of ecclesial shorthand.

This story takes place during the height of the Cold War, when it was not primarily a two-way confrontation, but rather seemed to threaten to become a three-way contest with the seeming emergence of China as a communist power independent from the Soviet Union.

Archbishop Kyril (Anthony Quinn), longtime political prisoner of the Soviets, is released (the exact reasoning for this we are never told) by his long-time captor (the Soviet premier, played by Laurence Olivier). He is released to Rome, where he is installed as a cardinal for his faithfulness to the church. Shortly thereafter, the pope (John Gielgud, who is on screen for only a few minutes) dies, and an election takes place. Remarkably, Kyril the Russian is elected pope, after giving a moving account of his time in captivity to assembled cardinals weary of the election process, and shortly thereafter commits the church to a risky mercy mission to prevent war from breaking out between the communist powers.

Subplots include a very timid (by today's standards) love triangle by a reporter, his wife and his soon-to-be ex-mistress, and an ecclesiastical tribunal examining the works of a radical theologian.

This movie had unprecedented vantage of the Vatican for showing the process of a pope's death and succession. The small historical niceties are shown and explained throughout the film. One gets a sense of the procedure and the history.

What makes this movie so remarkable is that it was released a full decade before the election of another pope from the communist block. In 1968 it was considered very shocking to consider a non-Italian pope, much less one coming from behind the Iron Curtain.

Another prophetic instance is in the ecclesiastical trial of the radical theologian -- during his defense, this theologian even uses the words 'cosmic Christ', and recounts a theological formulation very similar to that which later found expression through Matthew Fox (who used the phrase 'cosmic Christ' in one of his book titles), who was silenced by his Roman order, and who finally had to leave the church to remain true to his convictions.

Just how the scriptwriters and director could have foreseen these so far in advance is a mystery.

The film is beautiful, well-acted, a bit long in parts, moving in others (the scene where Kyril, during an 'escape' from the Vatican comes across a dying Jewish man and begins to recite Jewish prayers is one of the more moving scenes theologically of any film), and gives a glimpse into a usually hidden, and largely unchanging world.


Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Oskar Werner
Anthony Quinn
Laurence Olivier
Vittorio De Sica
David Janssen

Creators:
Anthony Quinn (Primary Contributor)
Laurence Olivier (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 0012569517424
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2006-04-04
Universal product code (UPC): 012569517424
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 162 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1968-11-14
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Latin (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)

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