Product Details

• Actors: Sofia Polanska, Pavol Simon, Ivan Lukac, Patrik Minar, Michael Rispoli
• Directors: Agnieszka Holland
• Writers: John Romano, Richard Vetere
• Producers: Andrew Stevens, Ashok Amritraj, Daryl Sancton, David Siegel, Don Carmody
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: January 16, 2001
• Run Time: 119 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004STDD
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #318,966 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The unsuspected healing properties of Group A blood, February 12, 2001

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Third Miracle [VHS] (VHS Tape)

THE THIRD MIRACLE opens with an Allied air raid on a Czech town late in WW II. The sequence focuses on a little girl praying as the bombs fall, and on a wounded German soldier who sees her and the pigeons.

Fast forward to 1979 in Chicago. Father Frank Shore, played by Ed Harris, is a Roman Catholic priest undergoing a crisis of faith regarding his God, his Church, and his role as a cleric. Yet, he's also the diocesan postulator, i.e. the priest who investigates the life of any individual being popularly acclaimed for sainthood, and who makes a subsequent recommendation (thumbs up or down) to the bishop preparatory to the possible involvement of Rome. Fr. Frank is known as "The Miracle Killer" for his previous work debunking potential sainthood. Thus, the bishop tasks him with scrutinizing the life of one Helen O'Regan, who is, after her death, being proclaimed a saint by the members of a local parish at which she worked. Ostensible evidence for her special relationship with the Lord is the blood that drips from the eyes of a parish statue of the Virgin Mary during November when it rains. (Helen died in November during a rainstorm.) One miracle has already been reported, the complete cure of a little girl with fatal lupus erythematosis, Maria Witkowski, after she comes into contact with the blood while praying to Helen at the foot of the statue.

This is more a story of Shore's search for renewed faith than that of O'Regan's possible eligibility for sainthood, though the latter serves as the vehicle for the former. Shore is desperate to revitalize his life, and seems ripe to do so with Helen's daughter Roxanne, vivaciously played by Anne Heche. The scene between the two on Helen's grave is positively effervescent. Will Frank compromise his priestly vow of celibacy?

As the probe into the reported miracle and Helen's life continues, Shore comes into conflict with Archbishop Werner, played by Armin Mueller-Stahl, an arrogant, contemptuous, German prelate who believes that America doesn't need another saint, or at least one whose elevation is predicated on such evidence as presented in the O'Regan case. Werner is a member of a tribunal sent by the Vatican to hear that evidence, during which process miracle #2 occurs, again involving Maria. Even then, Werner's adamant opposition is not softened.

All actors in this film are splendid, especially Ed Harris, whose Fr. Frank is likely to be an enormously sympathetic character, especially with Roman Catholics, who are well acquainted with priests, bishops, saints, and the concept of miracles. I would even go so far as to say that only a Catholic could appreciate this movie. Those of other faiths might consider it a fairy tale about superstitious nonsense. Be that as it may, the film's "gotcha" is the plot twist surrounding THE THIRD MIRACLE. For Catholics, the film is a must-see, along with those gems from the past, CATHOLICS and AGNES OF GOD. All three serve to remind that, in the Age of Science, Faith cannot be absent.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply Haunting, August 12, 2001

By 

K. Dickson (New England, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Third Miracle (DVD)

'The Third Miracle' is one of my all time favorite movies for a few simple reasons: an intriguing, haunting plot; moving, believable actors; and beautiful cinematography. The visual aspect is stunning, conveying the emotions of the movie, or even a particular scene, without characters or words. I don't know if bits of it were filmed on location, but it seems so, beacuse of the stirring reality of the landscape.

Ed Harris and Anne Heche are fabulous, as is Mueller-Stahl. The preformance by Ed Harris, however, is Oscar-worthy on so many levels - brilliance, brilliance, brilliance. Overall, perfect.

Perfect actuallys sums up the entire movie. Moving, spiritual (I am an aethist, and as corny as this sounds, I was very close to re-examining my beliefs after watching this movie. The Catholic religion never looked so good!) and beautiful. Displays well all aspects, good and bad, terrible and wonderful, of the human spirit. Not to be missed.

And, contrary to some belief, also not at all boring. Intriguing in many ways.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Overlooked Movie, July 6, 2000

By 

Jeff Cordell - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Third Miracle (DVD)

Very smart movie which manages to simultaneously attack the Catholic church and hold it up for admiration. Watching this film I got the definite impression that the writer and possibly the director have a love/hate relationship with the grand old institution. The movie examines in depth the contradictary state of affairs in which the Catholic Church is an unofficial nation/goverment within an established nation, very much of this world, and at the same time a source of faith and inpiration to millions by following the investigation of possible miracles done in the name of a simple German woman who is now dead. In Ed Harris's character we witness the struggle between his desire to believe in god, the miracles , regaining his faith and his attraction to the dead woman's daughter. He's desperate to believe, but he wants also to have more from the physical world. All in all I have to give this movie high marks. It's suspenseful, thoughtful, intruiging, well acted and smartly directed. You care for the characters and those who are not as attractive you come to understand if not sympathise with. I didn't know what to expect when I rented this disc, but I gave it a chance and I'm glad I did. Give it a try. You also may be pleasently suprised.