17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A dissappointing film about a great man and Pope, August 24, 2004
I agree the with reader above that Frontline has not accurately portrayed the Pope in this video. Weigel's Witness to Hope is a superior production and representation. This one spews a lot of misinformation - specifically regarding the Catholicism, Pope Pius XII and the Jews during the holocaust as well as Maximillian Kolbe. It paints the Catholic church negatively while occassionally giving the pope credit for things as though they originated in him and not in the actual teachings of the church. They interview very liberal English-speaking Catholics who make sweeping unsubstantiated statements based on personal opinion and bias that detract from John Paul II and his accomplishments. History will remember John Paul II as John Paul II the Great, a modern doctor of the church. This video does give him credit for hastening the fall of communism. One scene shows the communist Polish head of state literally shaking at a press conference in the presence of the Pope. It's hard to eclipse so bright a star.
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The pope through a very dark lens, April 7, 2005
I was surprised and disappointed by the "Millennial Pope."
From the very start, with an MTV-stlye montage of graphic images culled from the Holocaust, violent video games and horrific war zones, it states John Paul II was "a man at war with the 20th century,'' not a particularly insightful way to sum up his papacy.
Then, before the facts of his life are presented, we hear from three people, two of whom think he's sending the chuch in completely the wrong direction - one of them, a writer who has left the church, essentially says the pope is killing the church. (Later we hear repeatedly from a former priest, a woman who's angry because she can not be ordained a priest and other critics of the church. Rebuttal or contrasting views are absent.)
The organization of the video, too, is odd for a biography. It skips over some aspects of his life with hardly a mention and then divides the film into sections such as "The Jews," "Liberation Theology," "The Women." I'm not saying that these issues don't have a place in a discussion of his papacy; the question of the inhumane treatment of Jews in Poland (and the world) during the Holocaust is an important one and one that shaped his life and his papacy. But together, those three subdivisions take up almost 75% of the video.)
In addition, I'd stronly advise against children and even younger teens being shown this as a biography. If it were a movie, it would almost certainly rate an R for the amount of graphic violence: video of a martyred, bloodied priest after his death, bodies of Holocaust victims being tossed into heaps, people hanged in trees and swollen in death.
This video presents a dark and frankly disturbing take of John Paul II's papacy and it leaves me with more questions than answers about his life.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
unforgettable; a real contribution, August 27, 2008
I happened on these reviews while I was simply trying to remember the name of the amazing person who did this film (Helen Whitney! it came back to me). These reviews (or the stars assigned) simply fail to recognize the artistry and profundity of this film. This was a powerful, riveting, hugely respectful look at John Paul II. I have tried to give copies of this film to as many people as I think might take a look. Helen Whitney did a superb job of searching very deeply into the witness of this great man in the midst of our culture's contradiction.
The persons who contributed comment in the film are remarkable in themselves: people like David Berlinski and Lorenzo Albacete.
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