Product Details

• Actors: Raul Julia, Armand Assante, Rona De Ricci, Julie Carmen, Lucy Reina
• Directors: Cliff Osmond
• Writers: Cliff Osmond
• Producers: Michael Fitzgerald
• Format: Color, EP, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Avid Home Ent
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301948343
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #258,505 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent story for Christians entering the Lenten season, March 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Penitent [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film reminds us that good acting does not always mean a lot of dialogue. The three main actors, Raul Julia, Rona Freed, and Armand Assante speak to the camera with posture and facial expression in a profound way.

There are two stories told here. One is the town that has a passionate expression of the passion of Jesus Christ, though the way in which the community has a need to reenact it is distorted. The other is the story of the three characters who show us that salvation does not come from our human expectations, but from a divine source. Both stories help us to recall the events of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and allow us to enter the Lenten season of the Church year.

Various symbols throughout the story lead us to understand that suffering and surrender are part of the faith that Christians must have.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How far would one go for the love of another?, March 11, 2007

By 

lupe,lou. 1972 "Anonmously Louie G." (omaha, Ne USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Penitent [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The eternal triangle is the theme in this well acted film. Played in a back wood small south american town, old religious beliefs are tested and abused to prove his love for his "best fiends" wife. Assante is the suitor, Julia is the husband, Carmen the wife, very well casted. This film has no time, no place, no social strata, it can and does happen any time, any place, any where, to any one. The unique twist is what part the Crucifixion plays. See it to believe it.

5.0 out of 5 stars How an American film can challenge the European métier., March 7, 2005

By 

rsoonsa (Lake Isabella, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Penitent [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In many hamlets within southern Colorado, New Mexico and northern Mexico, a cult of Roman Catholic flagellants, Penitente, is active, its rites culminating each year just before Easter as one of the members from each village is chosen by lot to be crucified in the manner of Christ, and this exceptional film interlaces actions occurring from its scenario with this pious event. Raul Julia portrays Ramon Guerola, a devout penitent whose young bride Celia (Rona Freed) remains a virgin because of fear, but who is strongly attracted to Ramon's lifelong friend Juan Mateo (Armand Assante), newly released from prison and now visiting his compadre, and a romantic conflict which arises over Celia will be decided at last upon the cross. This is actor and acting teacher Cliff Osmond's only film as director, and it is simply splendid in every respect, with his screenplay spare and dramatically nuanced, and actors as strongly idiosyncratic as Julia and Assante being skillfully guided; a salutary score is contributed by Alex North and the work is deftly edited by Peter Taylor.