On 2010-03-12 J. Heaton, Springfield, OR USA wrote: I flashed on a scene from a different film while reading another reviewer´s apparent belief that the Chinese, facing famine, should have been required to renounce Communism and presumably embrace Christianity before receiving aid. Faced with the slave pens of Goree Island, an anguished John Paul II reflects that the horrors of the Slave trade were perpetrated by those ´who claimed to be baptized.´
The movie may be a flawed gem, but it doesn´t hesitate to ask the most fundamental questions. And if those questions weren´t being asked in the commercial media in the late sixties; well it isn´t any better now.
When was the last time any of these questions were asked in a minor much less major film or even in the local paper? What is man´s relationship with God? If God is responsible for all that happens in Creation, how do we account for the existence of evil, poverty and despair? How do we reconcile intellectual and personal freedom with spiritual obedience? I don´t find the Oskar Werner plot line ambiguous at all. The question ´what think you of Christ?´ is fundamental for all believers. And what happens when an honest believer´s understanding of the answer to that question differs from accepted dogma? We´re still trying to answer that question after how many thousand years? The film offers no easy answer to any of these questions.
While the risk of large scale nuclear annihilation may have receded since the sixties we still face a possible future ´where the earth may be blackened and there will be no flowers any more for any of us.´
And I do love Kyril´s short term solution when he realizes that he has traded a Siberian gulag for a gilded cage. He goes AWOL. If part of the sequence is a little awkward it is still wonderful in many ways. Perhaps love isn´t lost, only ´mislaid.´
In a personal way, perhaps I write as one who loves God, but find that often I cannot live with him in peace.
. And summed up by saying A FLAWED GEM. Currently The Shoes of the Fisherman has an overall rating of 8 over 10.
The Shoes of the Fisherman can also be found in the following searches:
Erwin Hillier claimed All eyes are focused on the Vatican, hoping to see the traditional puffs of white smoke that signal the selection of the next Pope. But this time, much more is at stake. The new pontiff may be the only person who can bring peace to a world hovering on the edge of nuclear nightmare. Year: 1968 Director: Michael Anderson Starring: Anthony Quinn, Oskar Werner, David Janssen, Vittorio De Sica, Leo McKern, Sir John Gielgud
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