El crimen del Padre Amaro (2002) Reviews

• Mexico in the middle of a film renaissance...

  Nazi_Fighter_David2007-04-15

  For many priests, celibacy is a true vocation which liberates them... For others, it is a lifelong struggle... If celibacy was made voluntary, not only would many priests be happier, but the Church would be richer... Above all, it might decide the only way to restore the numbers of the priesthood, and that seems to me not a bad idea... In "The Crime of Father Amaro," the top film in Mexican box-office history, Carlos Carrera shows that even a man with morals and scruples betrays the nature of his profession, mostly when he brazenly criticizes the priesthood, and questions the Catholic Church's representatives on a variety of charges like illicit love affair, corruption, drug dealing, and hypocrisy... The story takes a liberal priest, Father Amaro(Gael Garcia Bernal), protégé of a repulsive obese bishop (Ernesto Gomez Cruz), to the remote dusty village of Los Reyes to assist the older priest of the parish Father Benito (Sancho Gracia) in his daily work... Amaro quickly realizes that virtually every fellow priest is involved in something immoral, and that his aging superior is receiving financial help from the region's drug lord for the construction of a new church-run hospital, and is secretly spending his cold nights with the proprietress of a local restaurant Augustina (Anjelica Aragón). He also discovers that Father Natalio (Damian Alcazar) is suspected of aiding the revolutionary factions in opposing the drug lords and mobsters... Amaro's own weaknesses is put to the test when he finds himself led into temptation by Augustina 's extremely sensual teenager Amelia (Ana Claudia Talancón) a relationship that eventually goes way outside the bounds of his priestly oath... and, without any sign of inner turmoil, he embarks on a passionate affair with the devout catechism teacher... Amalia—for whom loving a young priest serves as an extension of her deep piety—decides that the good-looking priest is the one for her and rejects her disappointed boyfriend, the aggressive reporter Ruben (Andres Montiel) who wrote an article alleging that the hospital is a front for laundering drug money... The polemical film focuses on blasphemous scenes as on a vicious priest who stops at nothing, even by continuing the lies and hypocrisy to protect his career...

• The way of all flesh

  valadas2002-11-20

  From a novel by the 19th century Portuguese well-known novelist Eça de Queirós, the Mexican director Carlos Carrera made this good movie in which to the main ingredients present at all times everywhere (lust, the temptations of the flesh haunting Catholic priests, religious hypocrisy, love and bourgeois prejudices) he added specific Mexican ones of our times such as the fight for independent journalism, drug traffic, complicity of authorities and the fight of the peasants for dignity, freedom and a better life. He was very successful in telling the same story contained in the Portuguese novel, transposing it from the atmosphere of a Portuguese provincial town in the second half of 19th century to rural Mexico of present times. The acting of all performers is sober and efficient with special prominence to Ana Claudia in the role of the sensual nymphet who seduces the young priest not with great difficulty it must be said.

• Oh... my... god...

  McHuevo2002-08-21

  This is, without a doubt, the most controversial mexican film ever. I don't know if people from around the world will understand the impact it had here in Mexico, but here are some hints: a) almost everybody in Mexico is catholic, b) Mexican catholics have an enormous respect for priests. So, imagine the chaos when a film is about a priest, Father Amaro (García Bernal), who falls in love with a teenage girl (Talancón) and is under the supervision of the local priest, Father Benito (Gracia), who is involved with one of the most wanted drug dealers in the country. And it gets better. Nevertheless, the film does not criticize the catholic religion; it criticizes people, wether they're in a robe or not (as always, there's a lot of jabs to mexican politics too). "El crimen del padre Amaro" is a movie about human flaws and passions. Passion for a woman, passion for justice, passion for success; even passion for a religion. Another plus is the performance of each and everyone of the cast members. Everybody is in character and brings to life a great plot. You can't help but thinking "Oh my, now how are they going to get out of this one?". This one is a must-see. Remember: have an open mind, it's just a (very good) movie.

• What it had to say...

  soul_scion2005-12-04

  I enjoyed this movie, not because it was gripping or exciting, but because of what it had to say. I'm not completely aware of everything to do with the Catholic Church, but the controversy in this movie is a necessary one. I've never seen a Gael Garcia movie before and I thought this was good. The most powerful part of the movie is what it leaves you with - the message at the end; the themes of confession, of sin, of mistakes, of being human. If you can't watch something that is quite slow and is not edge of the seat stuff, then forget it. Even the music isn't very memorable. But the movie stuck in my mind.

• A film we can't afford to ignore...

  spacedogg19792002-12-08

  `El Crimen' was not a bad film, although it was hardly worthy of accolades. While the acting was passable, the story did not move along in a provocative enough manner to thoroughly captivate its audience-- in simple terms, the movie was somewhat slow. What is interesting to notice is the reaction that the public-- especially the Catholic public-- has had to this film. As a Catholic, it saddens me to see the amazing amount of rage focused around the lust of the film's central character, Padre Amaro. The film, on a superficial level, was rebellion against stale relics of Catholic tradition-- such as requisite chastity for clergy and the deification of inanimate objects-- that may well spell the end of the faith if they are not shed. It is on these superficial levels that Padre Amaro is decried as a criminal of the faith by the viewing public, but lust is not this priest's true crime. Central to the film's controversy is the corruption that propels the church. The truest crime of the film is the web of cover-ups and lies that the church creates in order to propagate its cause. The church is held deep in the pockets of the drug cartel and in order to maintain their stability, the majority of the church leadership, from the bishop down to the sacristans, are quite comfortable with, at worst, lying and falsifying evidence or, at best, looking the other way. The crime of Padre Amaro is not so much that he acted upon his human impulses as that he accepts the corruption of the church by participating in its lies and creating lies of his own. Unfortunately, this film's only exposé is not the corruption of the church, which has become more and more evident in recent times, but the faithful church body's willingness to pretend that none of this goes on. One of the most terrifyingly ironic cries of foul against this film, as evidenced in many of these reviews, is, `Priests would never act that way!' How can one, in today's climate, make such assertions? While this film should, in an ideal world, be objectionable, the current outcry by supposedly devout Catholics represents a denial of epidemic proportions. If one would set aside one's group think for two hours while watching this film, one might gain a perspective of the church that our priests do not offer in their Sunday morning Masses. This film may not represent what we would like our church to be, but it does represent what our church is. If we continue to pretend that the current state of affairs of our faith is acceptable, then el crimen de Padre Amaro will also be our crime: complacence.