A pre-'Conclave' cornucopia of Catholic cinema - just in time for Lent

'Conclave' brings to mind church-based films of years past

WATERLOO — “Have you seen ‘Conclave?’ “

I was asked that question a bunch of times by fellow Catholic and non-Catholic friends over the past several months.

The movie of political intrigue inside the upper levels of the Roman Catholic Church, starring Ralph Fiennes, was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, It won the Screen Actors Guild award in that category and similar honors from other awards presentations.

It faced stiff opposition from many other multiple-nominated films and “Anora” won the Oscar for best picture. Still, “Conclave” occupied a good share of the "Oscar buzz” in the weeks heading into March 2 awards program.

I didn’t get to see “Conclave” when it was in theaters and I won’t pay to watch it on Peacock. If that, plus my unrequited favoritism for the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” merit me a trip to the confessional, so be it.

But “Conclave’s” presence in the running this year brings to mind a number of my favorite films I’ve seen in my lifetime with some kind of Catholic theme or setting. I thought I’d share them for others to enjoy or remember nostalgically. Many of them raise questions, challenge authority and make you think. The Church doesn’t get a pass in many of them. Well, after all, Lent does begin this week with Ash Wednesday.

Before I get howls of protest, “Going My Way” and “The Bells of St. Mary’s” are not on my list. Never saw them, at least not clear through, so I’ll mention them here at the outset to acknowledge they are a favorite of many. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Here’s a baker’s dozen of my favorites - one for each of the 12 Apostles and one for St. Mary Magdalene, whose status is much more elevated now than in my religion classes 60 years ago.

These are listed in no particular order.

1. Spotlight. This 2015 film with an excellent ensemble cast is about the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of child sex abuse in the Church and its coverup. This was a hard movie for me to watch because in addition to being Catholic I had to cover this story on a local level. A scroll of locations where abuse had occurred rolls at film’s end and includes the Archdiocese of Dubuque, where I reside, as well as the Davenport diocese. I never thought a movie about a bunch of reporters would win a Best Picture Oscar, but it did.

2. The Two Popes. This semi-fictionalized 2019 movie is about the rivalry and differences between Pope Benedict XVI, played by Sir Anthony Hopkins, and his successor Pope Francis, played by Jonathan Pryce. Hopkins received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal and it is very well deserved. The resemblance between Pryce and Francis, at the time he became pope, is striking.

3. The Shoes of the Fisherman. This came out in 1968 when I was in middle school. It is based on a novel by Morris West and was one of our reading options in modern lit class in Catholic high school. It starts two powerhouses - Anthony Quinn as Pope Kiril I — the first Russian pope — and Sir Laurence Olivier as the premier of the Soviet Union who was Kiril’s one-time captor. They are called upon to work together to solve an international crisis. At the same time, Kiril is dealing with a brilliant young priest played by Oskar Werner who is challenging some church teachings - and pushing the pontiff’s own conscience. Like “Conclave,” it includes some Vatican intrigue, as personified by British actor Leo McKern who plays a jealous cardinal.

4. The Agony and the Ecstacy. Another church film made in 1965 pitting two more acting powerhouses as rivals — none other than Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II — in those historic figures’ clash over the painting of the Sistine Chapel. Heston has one of his classic movie tag lines when he loudly proclaims to the Holy Father and everyone in the chapel, “I will paint Man in the glory of his nakedness!” Vintage Heston.

5. A Man for All Seasons. This 1966 British film won big at the Oscars, landing Best Picture and a Best Actor Oscar for Paul Scholfield for his compelling performance as Sir Thomas More, or St. Thomas More in the Catholic Church. It also starred the great Robert Shaw (yes Quint from “Jaws”) as Henry VIII and Leo McKern again as a conniving behind-the-scenes operative. Based on a play of the same name, it is about English chancellor More’s defiance in refusing to accept his friend Henry VIII’s divorce of Catherine of Aragon and marriage to Anne Boleyn, violating Catholic doctrine and establishing the Church of England. To me, as a divorced Catholic, it’s not as much a doctrinal debate as a portrait of one man’s courage in standing up to a temporal monarch who would set himself up as a god.

6. St. Joan — Okay, yes, I’m showing my Iowa pride and including this 1957 film starring Marshalltown’s own Jean Seberg as St. Joan of Arc, the divinely inspired Maid of Orleans who leads French forces to victory after victory over the British invaders in Hundred Years War. The Brits capture her, convict her as heretic and a witch in a trumped-up trial and have her burned at the stake basically because they didn’t like getting “beat by a girl” and concluded her outstanding military leadership had to be the devil’s work. Ms. Seberg won this role after an extensive talent search at age 19. Sadly, like her character in the movie, in real life Ms. Seberg was the target of a campaign of slander and personal harassment by J, Edgar Hoover’s FBI during the Nixon administration under the COINTELPRO program for her presumed political activities. It led to a miscarriage and ultimately drove her to suicide. She also starred in “Airport” and “Paint Your Wagon” and is considered an icon of French cinema. And a road at the Meskwaki Indian Settlement between Marshalltown and Tama is named for her. She supported the settlement with acts of kindness like purchasing basketball uniforms for kids at the settlement school.

7. Doubt. A 2008 film in which Meryl Streep plays a woman who became a tough no-nonsense nun after her husband is killed in World War II. She has “doubts” about the pastor at her parish and school, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. They both received Oscar nominations, as did Viola Davis and Amy Adams, each for best supporting actress.

8. The Nun’s Story — This 1959 film was nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress for the incredible Audrey Hepburn. It’s not unusual for a handsome young Catholic priest to be jokingly referred to as a “Father What-A-Waste” due the vow of celibacy for the clergy. In Ms. Hepburn’s case she and her character are definitely a “Sister What-A-Waste” and her character’s struggles with her vocation are compelling. The film is based on a novel written by a Belgian nun. Frankly, given Ms. Hepburn’s work with the Dutch Underground as a teen during World War II and with UNICEF after retiring from acting, it was pretty clear she had a vocation beyond the silver screen — as a humanitarian.

9. Heaven Knows Mr. Allison — My mom let me watch this one as a little kid when it was on NBC. Made in 1957, it’s set in World War II and stars one of my favorite tough guy actors, Robert Mitchum, as a hard-bitten Marine and Deborah Kerr as an Irish nun, both left behind on an island when it is taken by Japanese troops. Ms. Kerr won an Oscar nomination for her role, as she did for her previous film, “The King and I.” And yes Ms. Kerr is another Sister-What-A-Waste. The film was directed by the legendary John Huston, a World War II veteran.

10. Lillies of the Field. The great Sidney Poitier became the first Black man to win a best actor Oscar for this heartwarming 1963 film about a handyman who builds a chapel in the Arizona desert for a group of expatriate East German nuns, headed by Austrian-born actress Lilia Skala, who was Oscar-nominated for best supporting actress. Mr. Poitier was the second Black actor to win an Oscar after Hattie McDaniel won for best supporting actress for “Gone With the Wind” in 1939. This is another one my mom let us watch as little kids when it aired on NBC and we just loved it. We’d sang the “Amen” song in school and when we watched this, we learned where it came from!

11. The Sound of Music. This one is for my mom and my sis and extended family who watched it every year it was on TV. We sang a bunch of songs from it in grade-school music class. You know the story. Made in 1965. Julie Andrews. Christopher Plummer. Music by Rogers & Hammerstein. Nuns who know how to strip a car. What more can you ask for? How about an Iowa connection? The puppets in “The Lonely Goatherd” number were the creation of master puppeteer Bill Baird, who grew up in Mason City, and you can see those same puppets on display at the Charles H. McNider Art Museum there.

12. The Trouble with Angels. A 1966 comedy in which heartthrob Hayley Mills plays a rebellious teen in an all-girls Catholic school run by nuns and headed by the great Rosalind Russell. It was directed by Ida Lupino. Mom let us watch this one too.

13. The Verdict. This is definitely one of my favorite movies of all time. I know I’ve seen it more times than all these other films combined. Paul Newman plays a down-and-out hard-drinking Boston attorney who takes on one big case involving a malpractice suit against a Catholic hospital, and all the power of the local church hierarchy is mustered against him. It also stars James Mason, Milo O’Shea, Jack Warden, Charlotte Rampling, Edward Binns and is directed by Sidney Lumet. It’s one of the finest performances of Newman’s career, in a career full of them. He just had the bad luck of being nominated for an Oscar in the same year Ben Kingsley won for “Gandhi.” But like “Gandhi,” “The Verdict” is a classic truth-to-power film.

There you go, friends. See you at the movies — and the Lenten fish fries.

Pat Kinney is a freelance writer and former longtime news staffer with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and, prior to that, several years at the Ames Tribune. He is currently an oral historian with the Grout Museum District in Waterloo. His “View from the Cedar Valley” column is part of “Iowa Writers Collaborative,” a collection of news and opinion writers from around the state who previously and currently work with a host of Iowa newspapers, news organizations and other publications. They are listed below. Clink on the links to check them out, subscribe for free - and, if you believe in the value of quality journalism, support this column and/or any of theirs with a paid subscription.

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