This film will not help you make your mind up. It will make your mind up for you. We've all heard the personal stories, the local lawsuits, the international scandals. It always seems incontrovertible. What we've maybe skimmed over are the finer details, the proof, for it is proof. Alex Gibney is a most rigorous of documentarians, and he will pore over material in order to unravel complex cover-ups with simple truths at their heart. The cover-up here is that of the catholic church and sexual abuse, and Gibney's scrupulousness has revealed the full extent of the complicity, implicating members of every level of the canonical hierarchy, including the Pope himself - quite directly, and frequently. Incontrovertible proof indeed it seems, for indeed it is. What servant of god could live in peace knowing that they had perpetrated such acts as the serial rape of minors, or of concealing this from police and public, or of lying about it, or of persecuting victims and their families? There are few admissions from those responsible, as there can be no denying what has occurred, not in the eyes of the people nor in the eyes of their lord, and no justification. The catholic church practises avoidance in such matters, and actively perpetuates acts not just in violation of the teachings of catholicism, but also illegal, and morally indefensible. But hey, what's new? This is documentary filmmaking as legal indictment; narrative momentum eventually sags, but Mea Maxima Culpa is more cinematic treatise than anything else. It has no business entertaining us, and no desire to do so either.
Your predictions for-
ReplyDelete1. USC Scripter ?
It has to be Goodwin-Kushner right?
2. ASC ?
My pick - Claudio Miranda, only because Malamaire.Jr isn't nominated to support.
Is it too obvious or do you see Deakins as possible surprise?
Deakins & Mcgarvey may have better chances at Bafta, methinks.
Yup, I think Lincoln at Scripter and Life of Pi at ASC. You're right, though, it could be Skyfall at BAFTA, but I'm also predicting Life of Pi to win there for Cinematography, in a narrow victory albeit.
DeleteThis is probably my favorite documentary of 2012, and it's nice to see that we are on the same page with all the differences we've had this movie season! Ha! MEA MAXIMA CULPA is a wrenchingly powerful documentary about the abuse of deaf young boys at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Milwaukee from 1950 to 1974. that began over fifty years ago by Father Lawrence Murphy. The director Gibney employs uses voice over and subtitles for the victims’ stories, but accentuates the audio for telling re-enactment. It does not require sign language to translate the pain and humiliating committed at an impressionable age by a serial predator. Some vignettes are deeply disturbing, like one in which a victim says he was chosen by Father Murphy while watching Bambi in a dark theater. He confesses that he felt Father Murphy bumping the back of his head for attention. Many years afterward, he realized that it was Murphy’s erection he felt against the back of his neck. Others tell tales of how Murphy masturbated them in the confessionals. One man remembers Father Murphy telling him that ejaculation relieved him of his sins. Chris Cooper and Ethan Hawke are among the voice cast, and Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk and therapist reports the nefarious findings. In the end the film is deeply affecting and a rightful condemnation against Catholic authorities who attempted to downsize or overtly cover the crimes. Father Murphy, who died in 1998 was forced into retirement, but was never charged with with what is now estimated as nearly 200 individual cases of sex abuse.
ReplyDeleteGreat point by saying this documentary is a "legal indictment." Excellent piece here.
Thanks! Excellent comment yourself!
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