For quite a few months now, I have read
reviews in Catholic magazines and on Catholic websites about the Irish
production called Calvary. Quite a few friends urged me to watch it as
well, and denoted it to be a Catholic classic. To be honest, it wasn't exactly
on my top 10 list. Well, perhaps it was, but it was my top 10 worst list!
Perhaps it is partially because of my old-fashioned sensibilities, but I found
it to be terribly crass and graphic, with a meandering pace, a hard-to-follow
story-line, and a fall-off-a-cliff ending. It has always been my firm belief
that true art depends upon good taste, and this film, in my opinion, lacked it
considerably.
I found it hard to understand the motives and behavior of the priest,
and don't feel that what he did by staying in his parish and allowing himself
to be shot was so heroic. Actually, I thought it was rather dumb, and he really
should have gone for the police or gone on a little trip out of the county a
long time ago! We are Catholics, not Quakers. We can claim the right to defend
ourselves.
In Calvary, everyone in the village is
depicted as being sinister and morally warped to a disturbing extent, which is
a bit over the top and unrealistic. This is no doubt used to heighten the
tension, but in the end, it comes off as being a movie-maker's ploy.
I mean, I can appreciate dark themes and characters, such as in The
Hunger Games, but I personally felt this went over-the-top and was wanted
a layered mood and diversity of characters. So...yeah. I thought it had a good
premise, but fell a long, long way short of I Confess.
