Good news for Catholic movie fans! The Reluctant Saint, starring Maximilian Schell as Saint Joseph of Cupertino, comes to DVD next week from Ignatius Press. (A previous DVD edition from Nostalgia Video is out of print. You can still get it on VHS — for $45 at Amazon. The new IP DVD sells at Amazon for $19.95. What’s more, the VHS edition lops off the coda, a real crime in my opinion. Don’t know about the previous DVD ed.)
I first saw The Reluctant Saint something like 18 years ago in Philadelphia with a group of friends who met regularly for Catholic movie nights — a formative time in my life as a new Catholic.
I enjoyed it at the time, but on rewatching it recently I found it to be a more sensitive and enjoyable film than I remembered. Films can surprise you when you haven’t seen them in a long time; sometimes they disappoint you, but other times the opposite happens.
Among other things, I appreciated the film’s beauty more than I did nearly two decades ago. Perhaps that’s partly because I saw it this time on a new DVD transfer rather than VHS, but I think it’s also because in 18 years I’ve seen a lot more movies and learned to appreciate beauty in a new way.
I also have a new appreciation for the film’s spiritual milieu. Looking back today, I can’t be sure, but I suspect that in those days I may have judged all saint movies by A Man for All Seasons. The Reluctant Saint is a very different kind of film. I don’t know if anyone else has connected it to Rossellini’s The Flowers of Saint Francis, but I think there is a connection to be made, and I talk about that in my essay.
Has anyone else seen this film? (It doesn’t seem to have gotten a lot of attention outside Catholic circles.) What do you think of it?
Anyone else had that experience of revisiting a film after a bunch of years and being surprised, either positively or negatively?
I bought and watched a VHS copy a couple of years. It is a quiet and gentle film, much like its protagonist. There are no car(t) chases and only a little SFX with the levitation sometimes only suggested. It quietly says that God’s way is not our way and we would do well to remember that. I particularly liked St Joseph’s explanation of the trinity to the Bishop. It rang true to me suggesting modes of being with which we humans are entirely unfamiliar. I leave his analogy to the viewer.
Mike, does your VHS have the coda at the end (duh, where else would a coda be?) described in my article? Just curious.
Nice article – but it’s odd that in the title, you printed “<i>” and “</i>” instead of using actual italics. What year is this movie from?
I didn’t. That is, I didn’t type <i> … &/lt;i>, the way you had to do in order to get the tags to render as literal characters. Looks like a bug in the new content management system. I’ll let my developer know. Thanks.
1962. That should have been in the piece. Thanks for that too.
Sorry to interrupt the topic, but I just read that the famous Thomist/author, Ralph McInerny, was dying from cancer (he is in the hospital with family). Could I ask for prayers?
The Chicken
The Reluctant Saint is a wonderful Film wonderfully, and humorously acted by the great ‘Maximillian Schell”.
I especially love the scene where Father begins praying the Credo, and begins to levitate.
St Joseph almost constantly was levitating and flying about in ecstacy.
I wish the film had shown more of the persecution that St Joseph endured, he was not permitted to offer the Mass in public for years, much like St Pio.
SDG, I do not remember the coda as you described. My, admittedly vague, recollection is that it ended shortly after the exorcism. We gave the VHS tape away about a year back when we realized that we hadn’t had a working VHS player for over a year before that.
I was thinking about ordering a copy for my family. We have young children (under 12 yrs of age). Then in one of the comments I saw something about an exorcism. Is this a film suitable for children? Many thanks, TB
Most certainly. There is nothing scary about the attempted exorcism ritual, there being no evil spirits to exorcise. Some might find the exorcism scene boring; it goes on for awhile, since it is the climactic scene.
Greetings from Ignatius Press. Thanks to Steve for his always great insights & comments on films. I have been “involved” with this film for over half my life! I used to show it often on 16 mm reel when I was a parish DRE before coming to work at IP. Later when I made the license agreement with Columbia for IP to have the VHS rights, I told Columbia that the version they sent IP was missing the ending, as Steve mentions. Amazingly, no one at Columbia knew what I meant. I kept telling them the film is supposed to end with the friars processing and Joseph levitating, and Ricardo Montalban holding him down by the cords on his habit. A perfect closing scene. But no matter – the Columbia folks said what they sent IP was the only version. A total mystery.
So when we just recently were able to get the DVD rights from now Sony (who bought Columbia), they sent us their original archive master from the vault, and – yahoo – it has that great ending.
And a most beautiful, clear picture.
Very happy to finally get it out on DVD. Its a classic.
Greetings from Ignatius Press. Thanks to Steve for his always great insights & comments on films. I have been “involved” with this film for over half my life! I used to show it often on 16 mm reel when I was a parish DRE before coming to work at IP. Later when I made the license agreement with Columbia for IP to have the VHS rights, I told Columbia that the version they sent IP was missing the ending, as Steve mentions. Amazingly, no one at Columbia knew what I meant. I kept telling them the film is supposed to end with the friars processing and Joseph levitating, and Ricardo Montalban holding him down by the cords on his habit. A perfect closing scene. But no matter – the Columbia folks said what they sent IP was the only version. A total mystery.
So when we just recently were able to get the DVD rights from now Sony (who bought Columbia), they sent us their original archive master from the vault, and – yahoo – it has that great ending.
And a most beautiful, clear picture.
Very happy to finally get it out on DVD. Its a classic.
Greetings from Ignatius Press. Thanks to Steve for his always great insights & comments on films. I have been “involved” with this film for over half my life! I used to show it often on 16 mm reel when I was a parish DRE before coming to work at IP. Later when I made the license agreement with Columbia for IP to have the VHS rights, I told Columbia that the version they sent IP was missing the ending, as Steve mentions. Amazingly, no one at Columbia knew what I meant. I kept telling them the film is supposed to end with the friars processing and Joseph levitating, and Ricardo Montalban holding him down by the cords on his habit. A perfect closing scene. But no matter – the Columbia folks said what they sent IP was the only version. A total mystery.
So when we just recently were able to get the DVD rights from now Sony (who bought Columbia), they sent us their original archive master from the vault, and – yahoo – it has that great ending.
And a most beautiful, clear picture.
Very happy to finally get it out on DVD. Its a classic.
I think the exorcism scene is wonderful!
We get to hear some of the actual prayers of the traditional exorcism of the Church which according to the chief excorsist of Rome as well as Father Eutenauer is much much more effective in combating the Prince of Darkness, than the watered down newer, please Satan, please leave this nice person, version.
Wonderful scene, even though St Joseph was not possessed.
Dan, I agree with you that it’s a great scene. Just a few comments:
a. There is no such title as “chief exorcist of Rome.”
b. There is reason to suspect that Fr. Amorth is a bit of a nut. Besides averaging several exorcisms a day for years (which does not seem possible within the bounds of canonical procedure), he has stated not only that Hitler and Stalin were “certainly” demon-possessed, but also that “I am convinced that the Nazis were all possessed by the devil” (emphasis added).
c. It seems to me scandalous and borderline blasphemous to describe any approved rite of the Church, whatever criticisms one might have of it, as saying “please Satan” anything.
OT..sorry
SDG,
Do you give permission for your writings on the “Petrine Fact” to be distributed on-line on other websites than Jimmy Akin’s?
My name is Al Williams and I’m currently an officer of the Legion of Mary Senatus in Northern CA, and really appreciate your many writings, but particularly these on the Petrine Fact. If I have permission, I might be able to include them on our Senatus website under a proposed ‘basic apologetics’ course for Legion of Mary members who do door to door evengelization.
You can contact me at: awlms@hotmail.com if they’re available for use. Thanks, and I hope you keep up the excellent Catholic apologetics writings!