`Gran Torino,’ `Doubt’ and the Catholic priesthood
I am struck by the contrasting portrayal of Catholic priests in the last two movies I’ve seen – Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” and John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” – and wondered what thoughts others might have on this.
Each film starts with the priest delivering a homily that frames the moral and spiritual issues to be exposed as the plot unfolds. In “Gran Torino,” the very young-looking Father Janovich, played by Christopher Carley, speaks at the funeral of the wife of the Eastwood character, retired auto worker Walt Kowalski. It is an uninspired re-hashing of church teachings on death and eternal life, and only succeeds in reminding Kowalski – who believes he understands death because of his experiences as a soldier in the Korean war – of how much he hates the church. In “Doubt,” adapted from the stage play and set in 1964, Father Brendan Flynn, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, preaches in praise of doubt. He seems to be preaching over the congregation’s heads, and succeeds only in planting doubts about himself – at least in the mind of the principal of the parish school, Sister Aloysius Beauvier, played by Meryl Streep. The two homilies echo in the closing scenes of the films.
Both priests yearn to induce positive change in their communities, but the similarities seem to end there. Father Janovich may be naive, but he truly believes and persists in his attempt to get the Eastwood character to confess his sins, his late wife’s dying wish. Father Flynn, even absent the sexual allegations made against him, is a more cynical sort, self-indulgent and grounded in an old boy network. Yet he seems to have a genuine desire to bring positive change to the church and society around him.
In the end, both priests stand aside as the epiphanies experienced by others – Eastwood’s Kowalski and Streep’s Sister Aloysius – bring the stories to a climax. In different ways, the messages the priests delivered in the opening homilies have struck home: Their messages are relevant – and, in two of the season’s major motion pictures, so is the priesthood.
While Eastwood’s Kowalski character is way over the top,I feel that the Catholic message of grace and redemption will reach a wider, younger audiance than Doubts’ Catholic ‘inside baseball’ message. I liked Doubt more, having been taught By Mother Seton’s Sisters of Charity in NY. However ,if getting out a message trumps art Gran Torino scores.. the medium is the message?
Kevin Hunt is a Trappist monk and an ordained Zen roshi. Hunt tells us that doubt has a been gift to him. Doubt keeps his interior life messy and the messiness keeps him going.
When I was a kid, I often went to church with my grandmother. I can still remember how I reacted one Good Friday to a Spanish Jesuit who preached about ‘Las Siete Palabras’. It is still meaningful for me to remember those days and to remember that priest.
To quote the renowned Medieval theologian, Brother Cadfael: Sometimes I like to put sands of doubt into the oyster of my faith.
Then there was Sir Francis Bacon: If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
But my favorite has always been from Bl. Mechtilde of Ubaldigor: When in wonder, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.
Haven’t seen Gran Torino yet, but will. Doubt, on the other hand, was brilliantly done! The final scene was unexpected (but it shouldn’t have been). I think the show was stolen by the part of the mother of the student alleged to be an object of undue attention by Fr. Flynn. I think she overshadowed the junior nun’s part, which has been getting so much praise.
I have wanted to see both movies, and I will eventually. I certainly have seen enough to know that they are worth seeing. The point once again is the human desire to connect with the divine, and that will never go out of style! The medium is the priest and the church, and often times humanity gets in the way of that connection. Kudos to hollywood for these films!
Will have to see Gran Torino now. Did see Doubt. BTW, Paul, I may not agree with your conclusions but I like your style; written so well I almost want to agree with you.
Doubt seems to have something for everyone. He juxtaposes a lot of things. So one wonders whether the person is real or the fantasy of the author. The priest of reform is fastidious and does not just have doubts. He celebrates it. Is he calling the boy out of class to help him or rendevous with him? Nice tie in with the Nun, who is eventually revealed to have doubts, severely objecting to the sermon on doubt. Was there this much suspicion in the sixties? Were there any nuns that aggressive? Guess I was pretty naive.
So I wonder about the weave of the story. But the acting was superlative by all four major characters. Hoffman has the range and ability to grasp a character that may make him one of the great ones.
Good to see that Hollywood will not just idealize priests. But why can’t someone do Hesburgh?
I liked the Bacon and Mechtilde references.
Re: Doubt the film
Except for the milieu recreated by the film, complete with blistering paint and pews filled with docile parishoners, I found myself not caring for the movie much.
I wish I’d seen the play. The Commonweal review, including comments on the standout performances by Cherry Jones’s and Brian O’Byrne, gave the work high marks.
In the movie version, Sr. A’s habit seemed like a kind of carapace to me. I’m still wondering where the chink in that armor is? For that reason, unlike most others here, I found Sr. Aloysius’s epiphany unconvincing. I wonder what I’m missing. I guess I now have my doubts.
“Now I bow my head and try to pray in the mornings, not because I don’t doubt the reality of what I have experienced, but because I do, and with an intensity that, because to once feel the presence of God is to feel His absence all the more acutely, is actually more anguishing and difficult than any ‘existential anxiety’ I have ever known. I go to church on Sundays, not to dispel this doubt but to expend its energy, because faith is not a state of mind but an action in the world, a movement toward the world…”
~ Christian Wiman
http://www.theamericanscholar.org/gazing-into-the-abyss/
As the thread has moved along, I’m surely in sync with the real world evaluation of doubt as healthy part of grown up faith. “by faith, …”
I’m not sure of the cinematic relevance of the priests qua priest.
Doubt’s priest comes from another era, one now long gone, changed by many phenomenon we’ve talked about:
-JP II priests
- shrinking numbers in growing size parishes
-priests in tension with their bishops-
-priests now long since affected by the sex abuse matters becoming public.
etc.
The issue of priest and their relevance is a subject that needs far more than movies, but real in depth thinking on priesthood, ecclesiology and the parish.
Doubt makes me think about today’s NYT article on the decline (demise) of parocial schools.
The fully nun staffed indoctrinating schools of long ago are gone for the most part.
The article underscores the need to have schools for the poor (note, eg. Memphis, Washington) as models of service.
The role of Catholic education/formation in the future may lie not only in better catechetics for kids, but even more in our higher education efforts in formation, as a lifelong project.
It strikes me that the current divisions within hamper this effort that needs strengthening. it is sad to me that “our Hearts Were Burning” met so little enthusiansm. Hierarchy and laity will need a better effort on the same page if formation is to occur and continue.
And IMHO formation is what’s critical, because it brings us into dealing with ….doubt.