bless me, Father

Rating: 9/10 (21 November 2006)

Max Von Sydow has made a career out of playing religious figures. Besides a number of religious allegories in Sweden with Ingmar Bergman, for English-speaking audiences he was Jesus in "The Greatest Story Ever Told," an over-zealous missionary in "Hawaii," and, on the other side of the spectrum, he was the devil in "Needful Things." Whichever side he's on, you know that Von Sydow will be the big boss man: his commanding presence and natural air of authority make it impossible to see him as an "average Joe." His Father Merritt is a reassuring figure: you know we're in good hands when he arrives at Regan (Linda Blair)'s bedside. This movie raises some interesting questions. Although it was made a quarter-century before pedophile priests became fodder for "Oprah," I can't help wondering just what kind of problems Father Karras (Jason Miller) was dealing with as a psychiatrist to his fellow priests. Throughout the film there's a sense that something is amiss in the world . . . and in the Church. If a twelve-year old virgin can be possessed by the Devil, who is truly safe? Conversely, why should the Prince of Darkness invest all his powers in claiming the soul of a movie star's quite ordinary daughter when he could just as easily possess the President of the United States or the Premier of the Soviet Union? Nevertheless, this is a great movie with an air of moral seriousness that prevents it from being merely exploitative. It's hard to understand how Christians like Billy Graham could say the movie itself is evil when if anything it reaffirms Christian values without being as shrill as later examples of "Catholic horror" like "The Omen." William Friedkin's direction has the same gritty authenticity that distinguished "The French Connection": his priests are believable as priests, just as in "The French Connection" his cops were believable as cops. Even after thirty-three years, this film still packs quite a wallop.