Product Details

• Actors: Gael García Bernal, Ana Claudia Talancón, Sancho Gracia, Angélica Aragón, Luisa Huertas
• Directors: Carlos Carrera
• Writers: Eça de Queirós, Vicente Leñero
• Producers: Alfredo Ripstein hijo, Atahualpa Lichy, Claudia Becker, Daniel Birman Ripstein, José María Morales
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: April 22, 2003
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00008AOX5
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,950 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  #5 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > Latin American Cinema > Argentina
  #30 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > Latin American Cinema > Mexico
  #40 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > European Cinema > Spain

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
This controversial film follows a handsome young priest, Padre Amaro (played by Gael Garcia Bernal from Y Tu Mamá También and Amores Perros), who arrives in a small town and finds himself surrounded by hypocrisy and corruption--and also finds himself tempted by a beautiful young woman who confesses that when she "touches herself," she thinks of Jesus. What makes El Crimen del Padre Amaro (The Crime of Father Amaro) particularly effective is that Amaro is no innocent--he skillfully forces a newspaper publisher to retract a scandalous story about the Church and is willing to take extreme steps to preserve his career. Some of the movie's harsher digs at the Catholic Church have provoked accusations of prejudice; but though Padre Amaro portrays a world in which no one's hands are clean, it also finds redeeming qualities in every character. A complex, completely engrossing movie. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description
A recently ordained priest is caught between the divine and the carnal when he finds himself in a passionate affair with a beautiful young woman. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 12/21/2004 Run time: 119 minutes Rating: R Director: Carlos Carrera

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of the New Mexican Cinema!!, May 24, 2003

By A Customer

I loved Amores Perros (once I got over the dog fighting) and Y Tu Mama Tambien - to be honest, I did not expect El Crimen del Padre Amaro to come anywhere close to these two gems. I was happily mistaken. The acting was magnificent, the directing apt, and the setting eminently appropriate to the subject matter. The film, based on a Portuguese novel written in 1875, is very apt not only in the context of the Mexican Catholic Church but also in light of recent events in the North American Catholic Church. The film addresses many issues facing the church - celibacy being the most advertised, but also liberation theology, women's rights, corruption, and the church hierarchy in itself. Though it deals specifically with the Catholic Church, this film reaches viewers of all faiths, and its relevance to today's society cannot be stressed enough.

Now on to the more specific comments on the DVD version. I found the *extras* to be interesting, especially the movie trailers, but I found the Making-of to be a disappointment in that it did not offer much insight into the process of making the film. The commentary, on the other hand, I did find to be interesting and useful. Overall, the film itself overcomes any flaws in the DVD presentation.

If you have not seen this film yet, you need to. It will not be 2 hours wasted.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazingly Powerful Film, April 23, 2003

By	Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

EL CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO packs a wallop on many levels. Based on an 1875 novel, this story of the gradual downfall of an idealistic young priest sent out into the reality of the clerical world in the small villages in Mexico updated to contemporary times is unrelentingly fascinating, visually stunning, uncompromisingly frank in its stance on Catholic decadence, and directed and acted with finesse. Gael Garcia Bernal continues to mature as an actor and as a screen presence, making his Padre Amaro metamorphose from committed innocent to fallen sparrow in a wholly credible fashion. Despite our sadness with his bad decisions and choices, Bernal is able to keep us with this complex young priest and in doing so we are able to clearly examine the fragmented state of affairs in the hands of various priests tainted with lust, pride, sloth and a bit of each of the seven deadly sins. Director Daniel Carrera knows how to create both spectacular and intimate scenes and he masterfully leads his gifted cast through a more than difficult story.

If there is a tendency to berate this film for its anticlerical stance, then the point of the story is missed. Each of the myriad characters, sacred and profane alike, has a soul of good and one of vulnerability, and given the current tenuous state of the Catholic Church under seige, I think this film helps explain how even men of the cloth can be human. Kudos for Gael Garcia Bernal, Ana Claudia Talancion, Damian Alcazar and all of the fine cast and crew that created this very impressive and disturbing piece of art.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Sacred and the Profane, November 29, 2002

By	MICHAEL ACUNA (Southern California United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Father Amaro (Gael Garcia Bernal) arrives at his new assignment in a small town in Mexico with fervor for Catholicism and a deep and abiding desire to do good. But, regardless of Father Amaros calling and his innate goodness, he is of the year 2002: a young man in his twenties with contemporary ideas who, on the one hand respects the traditions of the Church yet on the other, yearns for change. In a meeting with his superior, Padre Benito (Sancho Gracia) asks:dont you think the Church should do away with its vow of Celibacy. Later on in the story he tells Padre Benito that he took the vow because he was forced to, not because he believed in it.
This clash between the old traditions of the Church and the new thoughts of the young are at the very core of El Crimen del Padre Amaro. Whats also very interesting is that this film is based on a story that was written in 1845! This eternal battle between the old and the new, the religious and the carnal has been going on in the Catholic Church for many hundreds if not thousands of years.
The best thing about this film is the very Mexican-ness of it: the beauty of the Mexican people and the charm of its towns and the beauty of its landscape, the attitude of Rome towards the Mexican Catholics, the necessary yet tortured role of the priests who work among the guerillas, the drug lords and the indigenous people. This film is the third major Mexican film to be released in the United States recently, along with Amores Perros and Y Tu Mama Tambien. Oddly enough all three films also star Gael Garcia Bernal who is fast becoming the Tom Cruise/Brad Pitt/Edward Norton of Mexico. There is no doubt that Bernal has the acting chops and the looks to be a major international star and like the three mentioned above he is a major presence on the screen: his physical body and his soul are luminescentliterally glow from within.
Unfortunately, Amaro is not in the same league as Amores or Mama. Its a rather turgid melodrama and except for Bernal and Ana Claudia Talancon (Amelia), the acting is soap opera quality. Also, Padre Amaros transition from the sacred to the worldly is done so quickly and without much character-driven motivation that it simply doesnt ring true. And, as a sidelightis it any wonder that this film caused a furor in Mexico with the image on the films poster of Padre Amaro, in his clerical collar, and Amelia necking in a church pew? On the one hand it is shocking and on the other it is very smart marketing.
El Crimen del Padre Amaro is valuable as a political document in that it calls for substantial and humanistic reform. Its a shame that its director, Carlos Carrera didnt surround the political with the dramatic in a more profound and artistic manner.