Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This film seems to convincingly portray the inner workings of the Church in its central story of the rise of a newly ordained priest to the rank of cardinal. It has some excellent dialogue among the leaders of the Church that could strike some as stiff but actually reveals a deft combination of mutual respect under which lies Machiavelian diplomacy. The Vatican scenes are exquisitely detailed, with a keen eye to Church politics and ambition disguised behind very well delivered dialogues of diplomacy. The film is a historical dramatization that begins in Rome with Tom Tryon's ordainment as a priest just as World War 1 is about to begin and comes to an end as Tryon, now a bishop, is in immediate post-Anschluss Austria as the Nazis lead violent anti-Catholic riots. His part is very well played throughout, capturing the trials he faces with his family life in Boston as well as his strong convictions to uphold the teachings of the Church, especially when they conflict with political realities. This is a dense film.

I was surprised to read the many criticisms of this film as dated. In a real sense, as the film belongs to a particular historical era, it along with any film set in a particular time period would be dated. It is against that historical background, the licentiousness of the 1920s, the rise of dictatorships and totalitarian regimes in the roman church's heartland of southern Germany, Austria and Italy, and the onset of world war II that the priest, Stephen Fermoyle (Tom Tryon), always with an element of self-doubt, rises up the roman church's rigid hierarchy during those turbulent times to receive the red hat and deliver the acceptance speech at the end.The prime motivation for rushing this film into production was the uproar over the controversial play THE DEPUTY which openly criticized the Vatican for its involvement with Germany. This film suggests that the church of Rome was more a victim of the fascists than a conspirator with them. That issue may be the subject of endless debate. Yet, there is an important historical lapse in the film. The film correctly states that many officials of the roman church collaborated with the German New World Order, but the portrayal of the occupation of Austria as a violent act of aggression accompanied by a brutal assault on a church is not true. The Germans entered Austria with oompah bands and were enthusiastically greeted there.The US however never treated Austria as a full-fledged opponent and thus Austria needed to be liberated rather than defeated.Tom Tryon's performance received much criticism from others as weak. I found it worthy of a Jeffrey Hunter, a better known star of that time. Indeed Tryon's performance could stand up to Gregory Peck's portrayal of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty in The Scarlet and the Black (1983) which dealt with similar issues.

Otto Preminger crafted an impressive film here, taking his time to tell the story (all 3 hours of it), but alas making a film that will be of most interest to Catholics.There are many interesting characters portrayed in this film, and some in rather interesting ways. One wouldn't expect Chill Wills to be a monsignor...but he was quite good. Burgess Meredith, as a failing and dying priest -- a little more predictable, but nevertheless played with relish, as Meredith always did. John Huston, interesting (as always) as a cardinal. A relatively young Ossie Davis as a parish priest in the South.Of course, the focus is on Tom Tryon, as the priest who must sort through all the good and bad features of Catholicism. Was he just a bit stiff in the role? Perhaps, but good enough to make me wonder what happened to him (a rather interesting life).The settings here appear to be authentic and impressive -- Rome, Austria, for example. Perhaps the most powerful scenes are related to racism and the KKK and anti-Catholicism in Georgia. The "chapter" on Nazism seemed a bit contrived, yet effective. The script is a bit episodic...almost as if when one chapter ends another begins...but perhaps this is necessary considering the time spanned, as well as the scope of locations. In fact, Preminger took a huge risk here -- any single "chapter" could have been a film in and of itself, so to weave together such a huge tapestry was quite an undertaking. Interestingly, the Vatican's liaison officer for the film was Joseph Ratzinger -- today's actual Pope! I don't feel this film is a "watchable" as a film such as "The Shoes Of The Fisherman", but this is a really good, absorbing (if long) movie.

***SPOILERS*** Otto Perminger's three hour extravaganza on the inner workings of the Catholic Church is a bit heavy handed but still worth watching in his star Tom Tryon, as Father Stephen Fermoyle, unique performance in it.Father Stephen's faith is badly shaken when his sister Mona, Carol Lynley, who's both pregnant out of wedlock and on the brink of death. With only the abortion of her unborn child being able to save her life Stephen chooses the life of the child Rigena who's also played, when she's grown up, by Carol Lynley over that of his sister Mona leaving her to die in childbirth on the hospital operating table. Stephen going by his Catholic ethics has the child saved at the lost of Mona's life and that hunts him for the reminder of the film.Temporally giving up the priesthood, but not the vows he took , and becoming a teacher in Vienna Stephen meets and falls in love with one of his students Annemarie, Romy Schneide. It's when Annemarie finds out that Stephen is a Catholic Priest she drops his like a hot potato knowing that the church takes precedence over her. It's some time later when Stephen again meets Annamerie she's happily married to banker Kurt Von Hartman, Peter Weck. It's then, March 1938, that the Nazis march into Austria and Kurt, being part-Jewish, jumps to his death, out of his and Annemarie's six floor apartment window, to avoid being arrested and put into a Nazi concentration camp by the dreaded Gestapo.Annemarie herself is arrested by the Gestapo in her being accused of trying to escape from Nazi controlled Austria which Stephen, if she only asked for his help, could have saved her from. During that same period, the late 1930's, Stephen risks his life by traveling to rural Georgia to help fellow-and black- priest Father Gillis, Ossie Davis who's church was burned down by a bunch of local Klansman.Being kidnapped and brutally horsewhipped by the hooded Klansman Father Stephen's courage to stand up to them encouraged the local black parishioners to come forward and testify against the head of the Klan in the area that put him behind bars. This, according to the movie, was the first time in the south that a white man was convicted on only the strength of a black man, or black mens, testimony!Back at the Vatican Father Stephen's boundless courage and convictions for his fellow man has him rise to the point where he's appointed as a Cardinal to the Catholic Church. The movie ends with Father, now Carndial, Stephen telling his audience at the Vatican to follow God's rules and resist the dangers that are now surfacing all over the world in the coming, this is in the early summer of 1939, conflict with Fascism. A warning that was sadly ignored, by the world powers at the times, and that resulted in the biggest and most destructive conflict, WWII, in human history.P.S Actor Tom Tryon who-as Father Stephen Fermoyle- was told by his superior in the film Cardnal Glennow, John Huston, that he needed to be thought a lesson in humility. Tyron was given that hard lesson by the director of the movie "The Cardinal" Otto Preminger himself. Being constantly yelled and screamed at by the ill tempered and demanding Preminger Tryon needed all the humility he could muster up to be able to finish, and not walk off, the movie set! This in itself showed what an excellent and, in taking all that guff from Preminger, disciplined actor the late Tom Tryon really was!