Customer Reviews

Penitent [VHS]

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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.

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.

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.

I personally like this film. It is an intriguing story that really makes you think what the world is today and what it is far approaching! A must for all religious folk especially! For drama lovers, you'll like it! If you're into comedy then it's not your thing AT ALL!