The Two Popes: An unconventional buddy film

The Two Popes, director Fernando Meirelles’ (City of God) intimate story about one of the most dramatic transitions of power within the Catholic Church in the last 2,000 years, stars Jonathan Pryce as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio and Academy Award-winning Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict XVI. It’s a biographical drama written by Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything), based on his 2017 play The Pope, and inspired by true ecclesiastical events.

The film debuted at the Telluride Film Festival last August and was also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. It’s scheduled for a limited U.S. release on November 27 and opens in the U.K. on November 29. Digital screening on Netflix begins December 20. Bryce Dessner of the band The National scored the soundtrack for the film.

Behind Vatican walls, this 125-minute film in English with a variety of subtitles (Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and German) portrays two very different men caught up in a struggle between tradition and progress, between guilt and forgiveness – and how each confront their past in order that they may find a common theological ground amidst political turmoil in the Catholic Church in which to forge a future for more than a billion worldwide followers.

We learn of the popular Argentinian Cardinal Bergoglio, a lover of both international football and tango – the future Pope Francis – who requests permission from Pope Benedict in 2012 to retire, doubting his ability to remain a “salesman” for Catholic values. This is happening at a time when the introspective Pope Benedict is facing scandal and self-doubt. So, he summons the man who is his harshest critic – and future successor – to come to Rome “to reveal a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church.”

While the film is historic fiction and focuses on a series of serious conversations about human understanding and fallibility – and through flashbacks, we learn much about Bergoglio’s Jesuit background and how he became a beloved figure in Argentina – there are moments of humor and surprise, none better than two popes sharing a pizza and a Fanta inside the Vatican while debating the future direction of the Catholic Church. Topical social and cultural subjects such as homosexuality, abortion, divorce, sexual abuse among priests, climate change and economic inequality are discussed – sometimes heatedly – between the two pontiffs.

Looking back, it didn’t bother me that much of what we see in this relevant film – the conversations between Benedict and Francis – is purely speculative and may not have actually happened, such as one the two share in a helicopter ride together.

Pope Benedict: “What is that plant?”
Cardinal Bergoglio: ”It’s oregano. Your gardener gave it to me.”
Pope Benedict: ”You’re very popular”
Cardinal Bergoglio: ”I just try to be myself.”
Pope Benedict: ”When I try to be myself, people don’t like me very much.”

Sure, Benedict was portrayed in the film as physically ailing and tired – “I cannot play this role anymore” – unable “to hear the voice of God.” While he is shown having a cordial relationship with the younger, more energetic and thoughtful bishop throughout the film, did he really pick Cardinal Bergoglio to be his chosen successor? Probably not. However, the friendship that is forged between the two seems genuine and both Hopkins and Pryce give tremendous acting performances in their respective roles. The visual direction (think Saint Peter’s Basilica and Square) is so very beautiful and stunning, especially the staging of the papal conclaves inside the Sistine Chapel that take place in the selection of both Pope Benedict and Pope Francis.

“Being Pope, you must remember you are not God,” Hopkins reminds Pryce. “You are only human.”

As one film critic recently suggested, “Like us, our spiritual leaders can be haunted by doubt and questions of belief. But it’s our humanity and differences that bring everybody together, sometimes over a World Cup match and beer.”

Credits: Cover photo – Courtesy Netflix. Videos – Courtesy YouTube.

An imperfect rendition: "... how sweet the sound"

President Obama / An imperfect rendition of "Amazing Grace
brought the room to its feet and resonated with an entire nation.

Last Friday, President Obama moved a congregation -- and a nation -- when he broke out into spontaneous song, singing "Amazing Grace" at the conclusion of his eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of nine slain members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Charleston, South Carolina.

That President Obama broke out in an imperfect rendition of this most spiritual of American songs was so unexpected. His surprising ability to make the music connect reaffirmed for us that music is, indeed, a ministry, one of the deepest expressions of the Christian faith. 

"Music is almost to me an echo of the sounds of the divine world, and when you hear these sounds, it stirs something deeply spiritual within you," said Grammy-nominated gospel singer Wintley Phipps, who has sung for every president since Ronald Reagan and who sang at President Barack Obama's National Prayer Service following his inauguration. In a 2009 interview with PBS' Religion & Ethics Newsweekly program, Phipps went on to say: "Music also is the most powerful way of impressing the human mind with hope."

In describing "Amazing Grace," the newsweekly magazine Time wrote: "Amazing Grace was written by an Englishman who in the early part of his life was an outspoken atheist, libertine, and slave trader. John Newton was born in London in 1725, the son of a Puritan mother and a stern ship commander father who took him to sea when he was 11 (“I am persuaded that he loved me but he seemed not willing that I should know it,” he later wrote).

"By 1745, Newton was enlisted in the slave trade, running captured slaves from Africa to, ironically, Charleston, S.C. After he rode out a storm at sea in 1748, he found his faith. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1764 and became an important voice in the English abolitionist movement. At that time he wrote the autobiographical 'Amazing Grace,' along with 280 other hymns."

President Obama embraced race and religion in his moving address in Charleston, saying: "As a nation, out of this terrible tragedy, God has visited grace upon us for he has allowed us to see where we've been blind. He's given us the chance, where we've been lost, to find our best selves." He named each victim of the church shooting and declaring each "had grace."

At the conclusion of his eulogy, President Obama turned to "Amazing Grace" -- a go-to hymn at American funerals -- as a means of comforting the grieving families. It's been said that the African American spiritual teaches each of us that we're going to come up rough sides of mountains, and from time to time experience difficulties in our lives. However, we learn, faith gives us the ability to weather any storm.

"As the president segued from the words 'amazing grace' into the musical notes of 'Amazing Grace,' the audience members could be heard murmuring their surprise," wrote the Los Angeles Times. "So unlikely was it that a leader of the free world would try singing his way out of a eulogy that many weren't sure whether to believe he was. The fact that Obama's singing was a little off-key only seemed to help the cause, inspiring the audience to join in instead of just sitting back and listening."

Indeed, as we observed, President Obama's "Amazing Grace" moment showed us all what a little music could do in the right context. It was a moment in which he notably brought the room to its feet and resonated with an entire nation.

To see a video of President Obama singing "Amazing Grace":

http://ti.me/1GFeVld

To learn more about "Amazing Grace":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace

Photo: Courtesy of CNN.com and Google images.