Cheap The Crime of Padre Amaro (DVD) (Gael García Bernal, Ana Claudia Talancón, Sancho Gracia) (Carlos Carrera) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Crime of Padre Amaro

Black eye depiction of Catholic Church
This is definitely a controversial film, especially for Catholics both practicising and those with a less than a traditional belief system. Given the current problems of the church with molestations etc. this is something that only adds to the fire. Current Mexican heart throb Gael Garcia Bernal is in the lead role as Padre Amaro who begins the movie as a naive young priest and finishes the movie as a ruthless man who is no longer offended by the politics and wicked ways of some churches. Other notable actors and characters include the veteran Spanish actor, Sancho Gracia, who plays Padre Benito who is having a less than secret affair with a woman and who may have fathered a lovely daughter named Amelia. Amelia is a dedicated Catholic girl(in her teens?) but her love of Jesus has carnal overtones in the guise of the young padre Amaro who has entered the parish. The plot has been outlined various times so I'll deal with some of the controversey but begin with my own problems with the movie. First of all I believe Gael Garcia Bernal is less than credible in the lead role; however he does have an audience and sells tickets and DVD's. Don't get me wrong I can appreciate an attractive person in the lead but that doesn't mean that I'd like to see Madonna or Cameron Diaz portraying a young Mother Theresa! I can live with the choice for lead actor but some of scenes are worth bringing up if for nothing else to add to the controversy. There is an old woman in the movie who is one of the best characters, she is an eccentric, has her own brand of Catholicism, has a bit of a following, the local gossip and who steals many of the scenes beginning with her introduction where she is "singing" in the church. There is one of her scenes that was particularly troubling and definitley controversial in which she takes her communion home after acting like she accepted it in church. This grossed me out and I found it sacreligious. She took the host, the blessed symbolic body and blood of Christ home and fed it to her cats!! Is nothing sacred? I know cats are Gods creatures too but please this is pushing the limits of tastes, no pun intended. What's next? Someone swindling a few bucks from the Sunday collection and siphoning the money off to have stray dogs and cats spayed and nuetered because there are so many roaming the streets? Or a renegade priest taking a few bottles of the church wine to the local street alcoholics so they can have a drink? This particular scene was one done to just push peoples buttons. Some of the other issues " brought up" include the priests involved in sexual situations, contrary to their vows of celibacy as though this were the norm. The point here being the hypocrisy that exists, hardly hidden and accepted by parishiners as fact. Naturally the priest suggesting and condoning an abortion to cover his sins and the resulting cover up was the main issue but there were others. There is a priest, Padre Benito who brings the Padre Amaro's conscience into question by practising liberation thelogy. The fact that he helps the guerillas,even at the risk of excommunication speaks to the greater issue of the role of the priest and the question of good verses evil. There are many other more settle messages brought up for the pensive viewer to contemplate but viewer beware. The directors commentary, which essentially was a conversation between Carrera and Bernal, further pushing an agenda, was less than enlightening as they both were unfocused and constantly going off on tangents. Besides they both made it clear in the beginning that they were less than happy about doing the commentary and that it was a requirement. All in all this is a movie deserving of your viewing so that you can be the judge and pull the redeeming qualities from this beautifully filmed thought provoking movie.

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The Best of the New Mexican Cinema!!
I loved Amores Perros (once I got over the dog fighting) and Y Tu Mama Tambien - to be honest, I did not expect El Crimen del Padre Amaro to come anywhere close to these two gems. I was happily mistaken. The acting was magnificent, the directing apt, and the setting eminently appropriate to the subject matter. The film, based on a Portuguese novel written in 1875, is very apt not only in the context of the Mexican Catholic Church but also in light of recent events in the North American Catholic Church. The film addresses many issues facing the church - celibacy being the most advertised, but also liberation theology, women's rights, corruption, and the church hierarchy in itself. Though it deals specifically with the Catholic Church, this film reaches viewers of all faiths, and its relevance to today's society cannot be stressed enough.

Now on to the more specific comments on the DVD version. I found the *extras* to be interesting, especially the movie trailers, but I found the Making-of to be a disappointment in that it did not offer much insight into the process of making the film. The commentary, on the other hand, I did find to be interesting and useful. Overall, the film itself overcomes any flaws in the DVD presentation.

If you have not seen this film yet, you need to. It will not be 2 hours wasted.

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STILTED MORALITY TALE DRESSED UP IN SKIMPY CLOTHING
Why do reviewers lament that this was an anti-Catholic film? That's a bit like saying that The Titanic was anti-marine.

Sure, there's plenty of blame to go around, the film is rather brave in its condemnation of social and religious hypocrisy and its expose of political corruption. It tosses up a laundry list of items that may be embarrassing to the church (which inevitably also happen in real-life) but aside from the shock value, the filmmaker seems to have little to say about the vital dogma issues he raises such as celibacy for the priests.

Why is the word "crime" singular when the title character, our newly minted Father Amaro, assists in money laundering in indirect cahoots with the local drug lord, makes the local newspaper publish lies, finances an abortion, and gets his rocks off with an underage nymph under the guise of preparing her for a nunnery? Perhaps because all of these misgivings hark back to one failing: the lack of a conscience fitting to a man in his calling.

Looking at it as a contextual romance gone awry instead of as a religious statement, both the protagonists sport innocence and carnality. Their acting is convincing. The female character is quite attractive, for what it's worth, and one can see why a young priest would have zipper troubles in her company.

In the end though, while the movie did manage to hold my attention I felt that its sense of right and wrong was stultifyingly out of depth and despite all its hardhitting cameos, ultimately a bit unimaginative. Perhaps an attractive rental but I can't grasp why this was a record-breaking megahit in Mexico.