The Song of Bernadette

The 'Song of Bernadette' gives us (as viewers) a little insight into the life of one of the best known saints in the Catholic religion….'St Bernadette'. It was from Bernadette's efforts and deep faith, the spring of healing waters at Lourdes were given to us. From Our Lady and through Bernadette the spring started to flow….to this very day it continues to help the faithful who are sick and disabled.

A beautifully scripted film, it tells the story of Bernadette Soubirous, a young French girl who was chosen above all others to bestow her eyes on the Mother of Christ. One day in a grotto in the province of Lourdes France she has a vision of Our Lady – The Immaculate Conception. The Story follows her journey from poor peasant girl till she enters the convent.

One of the many reasons why I love this film is because of the sincerity and unrelenting faith one person can have, faced with so much doubt and ridicule shown by others. The performance of Jennifer Jones is flawless, proved in the fact she received an Oscar for her efforts. The other cast members were brilliant too; each individual character portrayed their role with conviction. So many wonderful actors; Anne Revere, Vincent Price, Charles Bickford, Lee J. Cobb and Gladys Cooper in support. The production, especially the set designs give a realism to the actual time period of France in the 1800's. Altogether this film accumulated 4 Academy Awards, and 3 of them unsurprisingly going to production; Cinematography, Art Direction and Best Musical Score. I give it a well deserved 9/10.

In 1858 France, Bernadette (Jennifer Jones), an adolescent peasant girl, has a vision of "a beautiful lady" in the city dump. She never claims it to be anything other than this, but the townspeople all assume it to be the virgin Mary.

I suspect religious folks and non-religious folks might get two different things out of this film. From a religious point of view, there is definitely a theme of religion versus the state, and how you have to be firm in your beliefs when the state comes to challenge you. Even if threatened, stay strong.

Now, I am not religious, but I think a more general theme can be taken from this. And that is to believe in yourself when others doubt you or call you stupid. It may be easy to believe in yourself when the Mother of God is telling you to do things, but it need not be so dramatic.

Oh, and Vincent Price is in the movie. So that automatically makes it worth watching.

Bernadette Soubirous, 1844-1879, was a modest, shy, retiring religious girl of strong convictions in her faith who would have passed through this world unnoticed by many, but for an incident in her hometown of Lourdes in France. If you believe it was all a hallucination than this film will mean nothing to you.

But there are a great many people who believe that the pious young lady was chosen for a visit from the Virgin Mary one day when she was an adolescent teen. The Virgin Mary appeared to her several times in that location which in fact was the town garbage dump. In that spot an underground spring was discovered that had healing properties.

The film is based on a historical novel by Franz Werfel and Darryl F. Zanuck decided on an unknown to play young Bernadette. The girl chosen was Phyllis Isley of Oklahoma whose name was changed to Jennifer Jones and in her third film and first under her new identity, Jennifer Jones walked off with Best Actress Award of 1943. She beat out such seasoned veterans as Ingrid Bergman, Joan Fontaine, Jean Arthur, and Greer Garson. I'm sure it helped Jones that Fontaine and Garson were the previous two year's winners, that the film was such a hit, and that David O. Selznick had totally flipped for her and used every bit of influence to get that Oscar.

With all of that and a great performance as well. Jones captures both the simple beauty and piety of the young girl who may have been given insights into matters spiritual. Playing the Virgin Mary in an unbilled part was Linda Darnell, a fact I believe that did not come out until after Ms. Darnell's death in 1963.

Director Henry King gave his young unknown a lot of support by assembling a thoroughly professional cast without a bad performance in the lot. Such people as Lee J. Cobb, Vincent Price, Charles Dingle, Gladys Cooper, Roman Bohnen, and Anne Revere were just perfect in their parts.

As was Charles Bickford in the role of the priest and director of the Catholic school in Lourdes. He's very skeptical at first, but becomes her firm champion. Jones and Bickford became extremely close in this film, she looked up to Bickford for the rest of his life as a father figure in Hollywood. Bickford was nominated for Best Supportin Actor, but lost to Charles Coburn and Cooper and Revere both received nominations for Best Supporting Actress, but lost to Katina Paxinou.

Even with a more recent film telling the Bernadette Soubirous story that came out in 1989 with Sydney Penny, this film is still owned and shown in many Catholic churches and schools to this day. But even the most hardened of unbelievers will be blown away by Jones's performance.

I recently bought this movie, and just finished watching it the first time. All I can say is, WOW! Why doesn't Hollywood make movies like this anymore? I know, there's more money in showing gratuitous sex and violence...at least that's what they tell themselves. But for my hard-earned dough, nothing tops a film about the purity and innocence of faith, and that's what 'The Song of Bernadette' is all about. It's also good for quite a few laughs, as you see the imperial prosecutor's scheming against Bernadette fail time and time again. :)

My only complaint is that toward the end of the movie, I found myself wondering what was left to tell. Thankfully, I liked the answer and won't be complaining next time I watch it.

This film is a must-see, especially for my fellow Catholics. It's made my top 10 list...why not give it a chance to make yours?

I'm not Catholic, but this film makes you want to believe the whole thing. I've never been so moved by a story demonstrating the incredible power of innocence and simplicity as performed by Jennifer Jones in this faithful adaptation of the true story of the now-canonized Bernadette Soubirous. Beyond this story, the sets, performances, narrative flow, and in particular, the heavenly-inspired music of Alfred Newman is nothing short of transporting. Some may find the movie overlong, but I cherished every character and angle to the story--much like enjoying the book with all of its detail. This effort demonstrates more than just the quality of the golden age of cinema and 20th Century Fox, but it adds a cast and crew clearly inspired to tell this true story like no other has been told before or since.