Product Details

• Actors: Ian McKellen, Larry Boes, Everald Brathwaite, Thomas Paul Carey, Brian Carroll
• Directors: Glenn Holsten
• Producers: Brendan Fay, Malcolm Lazin
• Format: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Arts Alliance Amer
• DVD Release Date: November 21, 2006
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000ION2IU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,188 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Saint of 9/11 - The True Story of Father Mychal Judge" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

The spirit of a gay priest father mychal judge is celebrated in this uplifting & poignant documentary about the compassionate chaplain of the new york fire department who was among the first to rush to the world trade center on septmeber 11 2001. Studio: Arts Alliance America Release Date: 08/14/2007 Run time: 90 minutes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Power of Honesty, Acceptance, Non-Judgement & Loyalty, October 20, 2006

By 

Peter Kahrmann "PSK" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saint of 9/11 - The True Story of Father Mychal Judge (DVD)

The power of Father Mychal Judge's impact on those who knew him and those, like me, who only met him through this documentary, is his honesty, his ability to accept life as is, and his thoroughly non-judgemental way of interacted with others.

I did not experience this work as a work about a gay man or gay priest or an alcoholic man or an alcoholic priest who showed courage on 9/11. Instead, I experienced this work as being about a man who dealt with alcoholism and who happened to be gay. Each truth is but a component of the man, neither one is his definition. The defining truth about Father Mychal Judge is found in his courage, honesty, capacity for acceptance, his non-judgement of others and his unflinching loyalty to the firefighters. A loyalty that is underscored when one learns that Mayor Guiliani told Father Mychal, who was at the WTC with the firefighters, he could join the mayor's party and go to a safe place. Father Mychal said, "No, I've got to stay with my men."

Father Mychal was administering to a dying firefighter when he was killed in the collapse of the first tower. Father Mychal Judge understood that, as I have heard in the rooms of AA, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking less about yourself." I think everyone should see this documentary. Perhaps Father Mychal Judge knew there is no safer place than heaven.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Selfless, Gay Clergy Member, October 17, 2006

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saint of 9/11 - The True Story of Father Mychal Judge (DVD)

Father Judge died on 9-11 being of assistance to his beloved firefighters. This work explores his life through people who knew him best.
If you loved Mother Theresa, you should love this guy. He helped the homeless. He had ethnic pride. A black man was interviewed who spoke of how Judge befriended and aided him; I get the sense the Father was an anti-racism advocate.
He was human like everyone else, just with a big heart. He admitted to struggling with alcoholism. He got a shamrock tattoo "somewhere private" without realizing it. He was not out everywhere, so the closet was a challenge for him, like many gay men.
Many bigots say that gay men can't be patriotic and are immoral. Here was a man full of ethics. He died helping those in need. He should be respected by people of all sexualities.
I read a review elsewhere that said he couldn't be gay because he was a priest. However, in this work, the people who knew him said he identified as gay. Deal with it if you can't! If I remember correctly, they do not say whether he was always celibate. They could have been braver by truthfully addressing that issue.
Ian McKellen follows Harvey Fierstein in being an openly gay man narrating a documentary about another openly gay man. His voice has the resonance and authority that one would expect for such an accomplished actor.
At times gushy, this piece was still a powerful one that every American should enjoy and from which every American should learn.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do as I do..., October 14, 2010

By 

Jean E. Pouliot (Newburyport, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saint of 9/11 - The True Story of Father Mychal Judge (DVD)

In spite of his humility, humanity and martyrdom, Fr. Mychal Judge, "The Saint of 9/11," is unlikely ever to grace the stained glass of any Catholic Church. A gay man who fought with Cardinals is a hard sell for the advancement-minded prelates in their ivory rectories. This, even though Mychal presided over firefighter's funerals and browbeat high-end boutiques into coughing up jackets for New York's poor. The film combines interviews with friends and colleagues with footage of Mychal in his white fire chaplain's helmet in the North Tower of the World Trade Center just before its collapse. The film discussed Mychal's love for AIDS victims. Early in the HIV crisis, when even health care workers turned their backs on victims for fear of catching their devastating disease, Mychal burst into their hospital rooms bearing love, embraces and even kisses for the afflicted. Yet he came to the attention of most of us by his tragic death on 9/11. The images of him pacing the lobby of the tower, looking fearful and worried, coming just moments before the end of his earthly life, were moving and sad. But it was less his final moments than the decades of loving service beforehand that made his death so significant and so painful for so many.

"Saint of 9/11" provides glimpses of Mychal's struggle with the consequences of his homosexuality and alcoholism, but only slivers of light on the battles with the Church hierarchy. The snippets of tape from a Mass he celebrated with firefighters the day before 9/11 show a priest of ordinary homiletic prowess. But it was the power his deeds that far outshone the rather ordinary theology he preached from the pulpit. His desire to share the lives of his men, even as planes were crashing and bodies falling, was what set him apart from his brother priests, and from the rest of us as well. Requiem in pace, Mychal, you have been a good and faithful servant.