Customer Reviews

Entertaining Angels

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An acquaintance at my (non-Catholic) church told me recently about a wonderful, saintly woman that he had known many years ago, who had devoted her life to helping the poor. When he said that her name was Dorothy Day, it didn't really ring a bell. But a few days later this movie was on a cable channel, and I knew that I had to watch this.

The movie totally blew me away! It was great seeing Dorothy slowly learning to accept a form of religion, then trying to apply that to her life. It seemed as though the more she applied the lessons, the tougher the lessons got. And the ultimate lesson of the movie was one of compassion: how can you care for people who won't care for themselves? How can you feed and give shelter to winos, prostitutes, drug addicts, and the insane? Add to this the difficulties presented by the Depression, and the fact that most people at that time thought that Dorothy was either evil or foolish.

I enjoyed the way that they portrayed the lead characters as being well-meaning but sometimes less than perfect, having doubts along the way about whether their actions really had any value (in other words, they were depicted realistically). Watching the movie, you can't help but learn vicariously through Dorothy's actions, evolving as she's evolving, until she reaches that level where she can finally see the good in everyone.

This is something that we all need to learn. We can't all become a Dorothy Day or a Peter Maurin (her mentor), but at least we can try to move in the right direction.

this movie is beyond inspirational. I had to watch it for a college religion class and I wasn't looking forward to it but I was extremely pleasantly surprised. I am not catholic but I am a Christian and this movie inspired me to live by the extreme Biblical standards that I have heard all my life. dorothy day actually lived those. she struggled, she cared, she worked. she is everything that I hope to be one day.
watch this movie and see a person that truly cares about other people more than herself! that is a heroic feat!

I've been using this video for years in the context of morality and social justice religious studies courses. The movie is a good representation of Dorothy Day's life though it gets rather melodramatic at the end. It does a great job illustratiing the transformation that happens in Dorothy's life and how she and Peter Maurin develop the Catholic Worker together. Another critique would be that Maruin's role in the process is minimized but it is, after all, a movie about Day, not Maurin who generally gets less credit than Day. The movie certainly opens up a lot of discussion about faith, transformation and our call to social justice.

For years I have had only a vague knowledge of Dorothy Day. I knew that she had founded something called "The Catholic Worker" and that in her time she was considered by the likes of J. Edgar Hoover to be a dangerous radical. Yet she was always only a footnote in someone else's biography. Last week in a used book store at the Library in Cornwall, NY, I happened accross a copy of By Little and By Little: The Selected Writings of Dorothy Day. After reading it, a whole new world opened up for me and I had to explore everything connected with this great woman and her beautiful life. Naturally, I purchased this film.

Entertaining Angels, produced by Paulist Films, is as fine a film biography of Dorothy as one could hope for. Moira Kelly, a great actress, gives a sensitive, sympathetic performance in the title role. You may remember her portrayal of Oona O'Neill, Charlie Chaplin's fourth wife in the film "Chaplin". Martin Sheen is also great as Peter Maurin, Dorothy's friend and spiritual mentor.

The film tells the story of Dorothy's evolution from political radical to her conversion to catholicism and the hardships and joy she experienced on the journey. Dorothy Day was a "true Christian", the personification of that very overused and abused term. She not only worked tirelessly for the poor and unloved, she lived among them and considered herself to be one of them.

When one puts her in juxtaposition with some of today's "men of Christ": the Jerry Falwells and the Pat Robertsons - praying on TV for tax relief for the richest two percent or calling for the assassination of a sovergn leader of another nation - one wants to weep. Jesus wept.

A beautiful film.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

I'm not sure how this would be rated by "Hollywood" standards -- and I don't care. This film gives insights into struggle for identity and self-worth, holiness of ordinary people, mission of the Christians and mission of the Church through the beauty of a very human person who became very Christian. I used this with my class of sophomores: they were intrigued and easily "got the message." Most importantly, they found a genuine role model in Dorothy Day.

I had only briefly read of Dorothy Day and didn't really know much about her before I watched this movie. Moira Kelly is very believable in her role as Dorothy, and I think the movie does a good job of portraying her life. In a very touching scene Dorothy says to God, "You really sneak up on a person, don't you?" This is so true. Sometimes when we least expect Him.

"The film's description says "Dorothy Day is no saint." I'm not sure if that's true. Saints are not perfect, only God is. In one scene Dorothy says, "I don't think God will judge us on how successful we are at changing the world. I do think He will judge us on how faithful we are?" She certainly was faithful.

Having recently watched a movie about Mother Teresa and the poverty in India, I was somewhat surprised to see just how bad things once were in our own country. Dorothy, like Mother Teresa, was open to God's words to her. She, like all of us, had times when she felt God had deserted her. Her words: "Where are you? Why don't you answer me? I need you!" have certainly been mine own at times.

I saw this film when it was originally released. At the time, I was not as impressed with it as I had been with "Romero" another film produced? by the late Paulist Father Bud Kaiser. I reluctantly used this movie in a recent adult religious education series in our parish entitled "American Catholics", after not finding a filmed interview with Dorothy Day I had seen years before. The participants in the evening were taken with the story, especially as they are reading Day's "The Long Loneliness" as part of the series. After viewing the film for the first time in ten? or more years, I found my opinion had mellowed. It presents a portrait of Dorothy Day which is compelling, entertaining and quite useful as a means to introduce contemporary Catholics to this most fascinating and perhaps most influential American Catholic in the last 100 years.

While not a blockbuster hollywood extravaganza, by comparison it certainly falls into the top notch "tv movie" genre and well worth a viewing.

I had been trying to explain Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement to my wife, but I was failing miserably. I had seen there was a new documentary out on her and asked my priest if he'd seen it- he hadn't, but wrote down the name. He did suggest that we try and find a copy of this film as a fine introduction to Dorothy Day.

He was right.

If you're looking for an in depth study of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, you won't find that here. You start with her in her early twenties, and leave off with her at about age 40, with a small scene that caps the beginning and close of the movie with her in her mid seventies. The movie focuses on her conversion experience, from a bohemian radical who smokes and drinks and sleeps with men (and they do mention the abortion) to a devoted christian radical, all the while showing how her commitment to justice and help for the poor.

The movie covers a great deal of ground, and does a capable job. I think I was only dissapointed because I know as much as I do about Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day (case in point- I was irrationally dissapointed that there was no discussion of Distributism in the film and talk of the farms the community started) - if you have someone that is unfamiliar with these two, get this movie.

Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day are America's St Francis and St Clare, and the more people know of them, the better.

I was impressed with Dorothy's converstion experience and her commitment to the poor. However, the film could have used better editing, especially when it moved forward in Dorothy's life. Scenes were too chopped up.

This is a very inspiring and thought-provoking film and especially so for Christians. What makes a saint? As far as Dorothy Day goes, she belongs among that same category as St. Augustine who started awkwardly but finished strongly. Here is the story of someone who acted on her beliefs and had the strength and persistence to see things through even if it meant hardship and even multiple bouts of imprisonment.

The film also addresses issues that many Catholics still face in their parishes from questions such as "how much should I give of myself or be involved in my parish?", "why do I face so many obstacles and even from clergy(in Dorothy's case, the Cardinal) or the very people I'd expect to gain support from?" Dorothy shows us the way by persevering in doing God's work despite the obstacles knowing that she must be doing something right for the "adversary" to take enough notice to even bother to put obstacles in her path.

The acting by the cast is very, very good and as far as low budget films go the sound and picture quality are both very good. Next to "The Song of Bernadette" this is the best film biography of a future saint that I've seen to date and is very relevant to the problems and issues of today.

Highly recommended.