13 minute read
Film Reviews
Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP
Sister Rose is a Daughter of St. Paul and the founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies. She has been the award-winning film columnist for St. Anthony Messenger since 2003 and is the author of several books on Scripture and film, as well as media literacy education.
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Sister Rose’s FAVORITE FILMS HOPE about
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Hidden Figures (2016) Silver Linings Playbook (2012) Eddie the Eagle (2016) Troop Zero (2019)
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THE PAINTED BIRD
Somewhere in rural eastern Europe, a young boy (Petr Kotlár) is living with his aunt, Marta (Nina Sunevic), on a farm as World War II breaks out. They raise chickens and the house is comfortable, but the land is barren. It won’t be for long, Marta tells him. He writes a message on a piece of paper and attaches it to a little boat he made and sets it down the river. It says, “Come and fetch me.” The elderly Marta dies, leaving him alone. He drops a lamp near her body that sets the house on fire.
The boy wanders into a village where the people beat him because he is a stranger. The local medicine woman, Olga (Alla Sokolova), says he is responsible for all the bad things happening, but she buys him so that he can work for her. Then he and many villagers become sick. She buries him up to his neck in a field to sweat out the fever but abandons him. He escapes from attacking crows and finds refuge with an older man, Lekh (Lech Dyblik), who keeps birds. One day, the man paints the wings of a small bird and tosses it into the air to join the birds circling above. But the birds attack and kill the little bird and it falls to earth. The boy is stunned at Lekh’s cruelty.
The boy is trying to find his way home, and it is a tragic journey because of the terrible things that happen to him. A priest (Harvey Keitel) is kind and gives him a crucifix to wear, letting us know what we suspected: the boy is Jewish and must hide in plain sight. The priest places him with a farmer (Julian Sands), not knowing he is a child molester. When the boy is captured by Germans, Hans (Stellan Skarsgård) is sent to shoot him but lets him escape.
The Painted Bird is directed by Václav Marhoul, but any accolades for this cinematic dissertation on human misery belong to cinematographer Vladimír Smutný. Filmed in black and white, the stark landscape scenes are masterpieces of minimalism that evoke feelings of isolation and loneliness; the closeups are compelling still portraits. The balance of narrative and image is in perfect tension.
This film, at just under three hours, is not for everyone. The depiction of human cruelty is too intense for most. Christians in the film are at once religious and superstitious, kind, but mostly cruel, even to one another. However, the ending sequence of events, where we finally learn the boy’s name, is a blessed reprieve.
Not yet rated • Bestiality, explicit sexuality, offscreen child abuse, cruelty to people and animals, and war violence.
REBUILDING PARADISE
GREYHOUND
On the morning of November 8, 2018, a fire broke out that consumed the town D uring World War II, the United States provides a naval lifeline to of Paradise, California. Called the Camp Great Britain, bringing in desperately Fire, 85 people died, 95 percent of the town’s needed supplies. During one transstructures burned to the ground, and 50,000 Atlantic crossing, a convoy of three of the town’s citizens were left homeless. This new documentary from National dozen Allied ships and four escort Geographic is harrowing to watch. The first 20 minutes are a montage of cell ships must cross what is known as the phone or newsreel footage of people fleeing, flames towering over cars, bursting “Black Pit,” where they will be out of transformers, and people calling for help as the flames threaten their lives. range for Allied air coverage to protect
The Camp Fire was the worst in California history and the worst fire in the them. United States in a century. Commander Ernest Krause (Tom
At just the right moment, Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard Hanks) leads the convoy with the switches to the town’s recovery. He frames the rebirth narrative of Paradise by destroyer USS Keeling, code name looking at the schools and the town hall. Even though many thousands of families Greyhound. For three days, they idenlost their houses, Paradise is their home. FEMA brought in trailers, and people tify and dodge attacks from German found places to stay with family and friends or in motels in neighboring towns, U-boats while navigating heavy seas. though some left and never returned. The principal and her team found alternaAlthough Krause has served in the tive classrooms so children could return to school while property owners strugNavy for many years, this is his first gled with new construction regulations for rebuilding. command.
At the center of the drama is PG&E, which had to admit fault for failing to Greyhound is based on the 1955 maintain electrical lines and equipment. This is a powerful film, but I thought novel The Good Shepherd by C.S. Howard went soft on this notorious company that has a history of choosing profit Forester. Because the human interover the health and well-being of its customers—just as we saw in 2000’s Erin action takes place in one space on Brockovich. On the other hand, the people of Paradise shine through with hope the ship and the dialogue is mostly and love for their town. Rebuilding Paradise is streaming on NatGeo. coordinates shouted from one level of the ship to another, this film fails in Not yet rated, PG-13 • Peril, corporate disregard for human life. maintaining interest. I love Hanks, but this is an example Catholic News Service Media Review Office gives these ratings. of a book that does not translate well A-1 A-2 A-3 L O to the screen. General Adults and Adults Limited adult Morally patronage adolescents audience offensive A-3, PG-13 • Peril, war violence, and drama. Source: USCCB.org/movies StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2020 • 45
Susan Hines-Brigger
Susan has worked at St. Anthony Messenger for 26 years and is an executive editor. She and her husband, Mark, are the proud parents of four kids—Maddie, Alex, Riley, and Kacey. Aside from her family, her loves are Disney, traveling, and sports.
Susan welcomes your comments and suggestions!
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A Tale of Chronic Anxiety
Ihave been writing this column for 19 years, I have tried to explain what one of my and I have covered a lot of topics and panic attacks is like. The best analogy I can chronicled many of the aspects of my and my think of is a train. You’re going along with life, family’s lives. I have addressed difficult topics and then something happens to cause you such as death and sex abuse, and I have also anxiety or worry. The train starts picking up written about gentler, everyday topics such as speed, which leads to more worry and more faith, marriage, and the various adventures speed. Before you realize it, worries—rational of raising four kids. But one topic I have not or not—are flying at you fast and furious. You addressed head-on—or at least as strongly as I are barreling down the track at breakneck could—has been mental health. speeds. When you grab the brake to try to
This year, with all of its unsettling issues— stop yourself, it snaps in your hand, and your COVID-19, race relations, the upcoming elecmind tells you a massive, and probably deadly, tion, and a whole host of other stressors—has crash is inevitable. created a perfect opportunity for anxiety and Best-case scenario: You use all the tools other mental health issues to flourish. you’ve collected over the years and breathe or
According to the National pray yourself to a stop. WorstAlliance on Mental Illness case: You end up at the ER. (NAMI), anxiety disorders In the aftermath can lie are the most common mental “And when you the embarrassment of feeling health concern in the United cannot stand it, that people are looking at me States. Over 40 million adults God will bury you as if to say: “Get it together. in the United States have an in his arms.” Everyone’s stressed.” True. But anxiety disorder. —St. Francis de Sales there is nothing I/we can do TELLING MY STORY It’s biology. Just as I would call I have always sworn that, my neurologist if I had an MS whenever possible, I would use my own relapse, I will check in with my doctor about experience to help others. So, in that spirit, this. My anxieties/panic are no less clinical I’m going to share a bit of my story to put a and real than my MS. face on chronic anxiety and panic disorder. about it. It feels very real to us. I’m writing it in the hopes of letting some AN ONGOING PROCESS people know they are not alone in struggling Above my desk at home hangs a prayer attribwith this and helping others understand what uted to St. Francis de Sales. I don’t remember they don’t. where I got it or when I put it up there, but I
A few months ago, I suffered a panic do know that I rely on it often. Two lines, in attack. It was not my first one. Some are worse particular, have become my mantras when than others, and this was one of those Do I I’m feeling anxious: “And when you cancall 911, because I think I’m having a heart not stand it, God will bury you in his arms” attack? But I don’t want to do that and go to the and “Be at peace, and put aside all anxious hospital because then I could get COVID-19. So thoughts and imagination.” Sometimes the I’m probably going to die either way types of words work; other times they don’t. Anxiety is panic attacks. unpredictable.
Most of them follow a similar narrative. It’s Again, I write this in hopes that it might always hard to pinpoint what starts the ball help one person or someone they love underrolling because I could pick from a wide range stand the chronic anxiety that many of us of things that haunt me daily—just like most are struggling with. Maybe it’s you or maybe of us. Those fears—many irrational, I (we) it’s someone you love. Whoever it is, be kind, know—are always lurking just beneath the be patient, be loving, and remember that as surface, building up, waiting for the one thing imperfect and broken as we may feel or seem, that will make them burst through, spewing we are all made in the image of God and, panic and fear into the open. therefore, perfect.
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TRIVIA QUESTIONS
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Which two songs did Andrea Bocelli sing for the
movie Fatima? Who founded National Evangelization Teams?
In which state is the farm featured in The Biggest
Little Farm?
What popular saint’s feast day is September 5?
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THANKS FOR MAKING US AN AWARD-WINNING MAGAZINE!
The Catholic Press Association (CPA), established in 1911, is an association of publishers and communicators. Every year, the CPA holds an awards program to honor published works that inform and promote the mission of the Church.
FIRST PLACE
Magazine of the Year, National General Interest: St. Anthony Messenger Best Reporting of Social Justice Issues: Welcome Home: Life after Prison (February 2019) Best Short Story: A Greater Peace (July 2019)
Second Place
Best Layout of Article or Column:
Facing the Opioid Crisis: A Catholic Response (August 2019)
Best Photograph:
A Mission Reborn (November 2019) Third Place
Best Regular Column - Arts, Leisure, Culture and Food:
Culture section (launched in October 2019)
Honorable Mention
Personality Profi le:
Brother Marinus: War Hero and
Selfl ess Monk (March 2019) Honorable Mention (cont.)
Best Coverage on the Sexual Abuse Crisis:
Help. Heal. Hope. (June 2019)
Best Photo Story:
Mary, Our Muse (May 2019)
Best Reporting of Social Justice Issues:
The Death Penalty and the Myth of Closure (January 2019)
BOOK AWARDS Second Place:
Backlist Beauty: Breathing Under Water, Richard Rohr
Third Place:
Spirituality, Soft Cover: Mystics: Twelve Who Reveal God’s Love, Murray Bodo, OFM
Collections of Prayers: The Way of Simple Love: Inspiring Words from
