I dare to think, that my opinion (I am a Pole, coming from Krakow) might be interesting for other watchers of this movie. So here are my remarks.
Polish historical background is shown properly, although movie only marks milestones of Polish history after 2nd World War. Krakow is shown in realistic way, main scenes are shot in REAL historic places f.eg.:
- Pope 'window' chat on Franciszkanska street
- Krakow's ghetto 'cleaning' on Pilsudski bridge
- meeting with Wyszynski in Corpus Christi church's garden
I am under impression of Cary Elwes performance. I always regarded him as a comedy actor. But he shows very good picture of young Wojtyla. On the beginning he is rather 'flat'. But he is getting better getting 'older'. He is in fact very similar to young Wojtyla. Very good job, Cary.
If Cary did good work, Jon Voight have done excellent work. Producers have chosen conclave as the moment of replacing main actor. It is very good idea. Jon Voight perfectly studied mimicry of old Wojtyla, his way of walking (before and after hip operation). He showed us in realistic way growing influence of Parkinson disease. I fully agree he deserves Emmy award. His last public 'dumb' appearance on Vatican window is very touching and memorable picture.
Authors of movie did extremely good research work. Movie quotes several well known memorable pictures of Wojtyla, f. eg:
- reading a book in canoe - canoe altar mess - making a 'glasses' from hand by Pope - described above last public appearance
Sometimes (especially when light dimes and Voight is taken from profile) main actor became so similar to Wojtyla, that you might have impression to watch documentary.
Unfortunately special effects are bad. Pictures of crowd (f.eg. Warsaw mass, St Peter Square) are artificial, flying doves are artificial, German airplanes over Krakow are also too artificial. Maybe it is not visible in TV, but it looks really bad in theater.
And finally last remark. This movie is now distributed in polish cinemas (Poland is probably the only country in the world which broadcasts this movie in theaters). I do not know exactly what is the difference between versions shown in USA in TV and 'polish' theatrical version. I can see it is much shorter (127 min) Unfortunately it is also dubbed. I could not hear polish accent of Jon Voight. If I could vote for main actors only my score would be 10/10. But whole movie (although very good as a TV movie) is not perfect for reasons described above. It deserves strong 8.
