Customer Reviews

Vatican Revealed [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having recently toured the Vatican, I was struck by how closely the video follows the route of my tour. Mike Farrell is the tour guide. His narrative follows very closely that of our tour guide. You approach through St. Peter's square, past Brunini's colonades, up the steps to the basilica, then inside you pass the many shrines on the way to the main altar. As as you go the narrator is describing each work of art, interspersed with some history, plus giving all the statistics: number of altars, height of the dome and so forth. Next: around the corner and up the street to the museum and the Sistine chapel, which gets the same treeatment. The video is a great reminiscence of my tour. I got the feeling all over again, which is probably why I give this five stars. It might also be a good advance preparation of the next tour. There is plenty to absorb.

Despite the provocative title I found this very disappointing. While all kinds of file footage could have been used, all the exterior shots are of the basilica covered in scaffolding for the restoration that was completed in 1999. A great opportunity was lost for this 2000 release by missing the finished result that is the most glorious the Basilica has looked for 400 years. The history was fragmented with Clement the VII, Leo X etc. sprinkled about without any concern for chronological order. Some of the most spectacular sculptures in the church besides the Pieta were not even mentioned. The excavations resulting in the discovery of the bones of St. Peter was very disappointing considering other productions that have featured the spectacular minor city complete with little streets uncovered beneath the church not even shown. The section on John Paul II was the only decent section in this production, but once again has been done much better by other video prsentations. Definately not worth the money.

The word "Revealed" in the title lead me to believe this would be a "revealing" documentary about the exploits of the many corrupt popes throughout history who have committed adultery and even murder, the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people "The Church" has burned alive or killed in some other horrible manner, or an account of the "Modernists" priests who were excommunicated in the late 19th century for suggesting that portions of the Bible be revised to support the archeological evidence scientists began unearthing in the middle of that century.

This propaganda film gushes about how "grand" the Vatican library is, and while I certainly won't dispute it's aesthetic beauty, one commentator had the arrogance to claim "the entire history of the world" could be found in this library. This man is either blissfully unaware, or choses to ignore, the Vatican's long history of destroying ancient, original manuscripts that don't support their dogma, therefore making it impossible for the Vatican library to contain "the entire history of the world."

And, of course, nothing is mentioned about the decades long effort, and successful one at that (until recently), to suppress the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other archeological findings...more evidence they surely would have destroyed had they had the opportunity.

"The Vatican Revealed" is an extremely biased propaganda film that was obviously directed, produced and narrated by devout Catholics. There is not one ounce of objectivity to it. It's a nice, clean, rosey look at the Vatican that I'm sure every good, obedient Christian will enjoy watching...but if you're looking for a more "revealing" look at the Vatican, don't be fooled by the title.