Product Details

• Actors: Josephine Byrnes, Brenda Fricker, Sandy Gore, Lisa Hensley, Naomi Watts
• Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 3
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• VHS Release Date: November 11, 1998
• Run Time: 300 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303215440
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,116 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Brides of Christ sounds like a modest miniseries about the lives of nuns in an Australian convent and girls' school in the 1960s. But within that simple summary are astonishing stories, both in the rich personal lives of the nuns and the cultural shifts at work as the Catholic Church struggled to bring itself into the modern age. Over six hourlong episodes, Brides of Christ focuses on six women: Sister Ambrose (Sandy Gore), the Mother Superior of Santo Spirito, whose gentle leadership goes astray when the school hires a male teacher; Sister Agnes (Brenda Fricker, My Left Foot), a conservative nun who resists the modernizing changes dictated by the Vatican; Sister Paul (Lisa Hensley), an uncomplicated but devoted young nun who leaves the sisterhood when she falls in love; Frances (a young Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive, 21 Grams), a student whose parents are undergoing divorce; Rosemary (Kym Wilson), a rebellious girl who fights against the sexual repression of the church; and woven through it all, Sister Catherine (Josephine Byrnes), an independent-thinking nun whose craving for reform puts her at odds with her superiors.

Brides of Christ balances respect and empathy with a critical social perspective, always channeled through these superbly realized women. The smart and deeply felt scripts are given dynamic life by uniformly beautiful performances (also appearing is a pre-stardom Russell Crowe). An absolutely fantastic miniseries that can't be recommended strongly enough. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description

Behind the convent walls of Santo Spirito, women pledge their lives and virtue to God. Set in the turbulent 1960s, BRIDES OF CHRIST intertwines the stories of six unforgettable women caught up in the climactic social changes happening all around them. In their struggles they are captured between the old order and the new, between the sacred and the profane. Sister Frances rebels against a sanctimonious bishop, Rosemary defies edicts against sex, and others leave the convent for love and to confront the changing times. Starring Academy Award winner Brenda Fricker (My Left Foot), BRIDES OF CHRIST captures the restless desperation of a reclusive society and their encounters with the outside world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Real feeling about real life - the characters are human., May 3, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Clifton, Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brides of Christ [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Brides of Christ is one of the most exceptional dramas about "real life" in a convent that I have seen yet. It portrays "sisters" as real people who struggle with real issues from the teachings of the Catholic Church to power struggles and bouts with their own humaness through love and sadness. It focuses on two sisters who have a great love for one another through friendship and circumstance yet who are seperated soon after their entering so as not to inhibit their formation. They are eventually reunited on their journey...

Sr. Catherine cannot come to grips with the teaching magesterium of the Church and speaks out against it despite much opposition from within. She has a true love for others and wants what is best for them but cannot reconcile herself to a Church and religion she loves and yet cannot come to terms with.

Sr. Paul loves the Church and God with all of her heart and seems to fit right in to convent life with a sense of humor that seems able to overcome anything. She is accepting and loving yet finds herself at odds with the community after falling in love with a "rebel" priest.

This movie is set during the Vatican II era where there is much change and tension within the Catholic Church. It is done within the settings and confines of the convent and within a Catholic Boarding School. The Catholic students within the movie play a very substantial part in the lives of the sisters and help to bring an understanding of those tumultuous teenage years.

Brides of Christ took great strides in trying to bring reality to the lives of those which remain hidden to most of the world. The only exception is that it was misleading in promoting a correct view of how the teachings of the Church come about and how and why they should be accepted. One can pick this up if they are a well instructed Catholic but if one is not they can easily be led astray. All in all the movie was just a great movie with real situations and real characters.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aussie Nuns? Say G'day again?, July 19, 2001

By 

Jeff Watkins "ringmaster" (Santa Fe, NM United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Brides of Christ [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I purchased this set for no more reason that it is Russell Crowe's first acting job. Mr. Crowe doesn't appear until the 4th of 6 episodes, and then only in that one. I meant to play through it with the sound off until he appeared on screen. But within 10 minutes of the first episode's beginning, I found it impossible not to start listening, and watched the entire series in wrapt fascination.

I'm neither Catholic nor Christian, but this program transcends its subject and looks directly into the hearts of its characters with a rare simplicity that avoids sentimentality while being infinitely touching. Brenda Fricker is lovely and moving, and holds centerstage without taking away one iota from the large supporting cast of mostly female players, young and old.

This unusual series comes highly recommended as a look into a world I'd never even considered, yet one that is varied, fascinating, and wholely worthwhile.

Oh! And Russell Crowe is BRILLIANT! Young, charismatic, charming, and just the right amount of awkward. From the start he had a nose for good material, and this show proves it.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best things ever on television, June 5, 2000

By 

Nancy-Cassandra Kenfield - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brides of Christ [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Aside from being a walk down memory lane, since I was in HS at a roman Cath. prep school during the same time as the film, and "our" sisters were very much like the sisters portrayed in the film! I found it fascinating to realize that Australians were dealing with the same issues of social changes and the Vietnam draft that we were! Wonderful writing, great insight, super performances! DO NOT pass this by! Finally, I found the character of Sr. Agnes to be one of the most interesting - when you first "meet" her, esp for those of us who may have had a teacher like her, you understand Catherine wishing she were dead! As the film goes on, you begin to understand her point of view, her capacity for compassion and the breadth of her mind - she is a superb theologian! The other characters are equally fleshed out and real.