Faith: Pope John Paul II

2005 has been the "Year of The Pope". There have been three TV movies about John Paul II's life this year. I think this one is the best. The one with Thomas Kreutschmann in the title role was too rushed and it tried to cram Karol Wojtyla's life into only 2 hours. This one goes at a more relaxed pace. Cary Elwes, Jon Voight, Ben Gazzara, James Cromwell, Christopher Lee and the rest of the cast are excellent. Voight adopts a perfect Polish accent when he plays Wojtyla as an older man.

I recommend that all religious teachers throughout the world show this movie to their students, whatever their religion may be. John Paul II reached out to people of all faiths, and he was even the first Pope to welcome a visit by the President of Iran!

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.

Fascinating recounting of the Pope Juan Pablo II , Karol Wojtyla , his early life (1939-78 period) well played by Gary Elwes , and subsequent epoch magnificently acted by John Voight . The film concerns about the majestic figure , the Polish Pope Karol Wojtyla (John Voight , though Ian Holm was originally cast for the role but left for personal reasons) brought to the life at much expense and with sense and thought since his youth in Poland ,the early years , until his appointment as Pope of the Catholic church in Rome(1978). The movie starts on October 12,1939 when the evil men Nazis get taken the world , Nazis have invaded Poland , they've destroyed the Polish air force, 500 plane pulverised before they could take off , bombed cities , radio station , Churchs... Meanwhile Karol lives with his father but he wants to join the Army . He hides but the Nazis as well as the Russians have invaded the border . Hitler and Stalin made a pact ,the Red army has betrayed to Poland and now they don't take prisoners . Hitler appointed Hans Frank chief civilian officer for occupied Polish territory and then Governor-General of occupied Poland . Hans Frank described his policy in this post : ¨Poland shall be treated like a colony:the Poles will become the slaves of the Greater German Empire¨ . He destroyed Poland as a national entity and exploited its human and material resources for the German war effort . Frank ran Poland in imitation of the Nazi state.He ordered the killing of Polish Intelligence and Military officials in an attack of destruction and hatred against the Polish universities and the Catholic Church . He warned that Jews and Poles could be sentenced to death for any act of force against the German or for damage to a public installation , he confiscated Jewish and Polish property , he expropriated valuable paintings for his own house and he allowed huge quantities of food to be smuggled from Poland to Germany . By December 1942 more than 95 percent of the Jews in Poland had been transported to extermination camps . The future Pope must to confront these adversities and misfortunes,he suffers cruel experiences but the God's faith and the love is the cure for the badness . Then he assisted the holiness call and goes into the seminar and as priest he serves his first mass . After he's appointed bishop and Cardinal and continuing consoling the mankind . Later was elected Pope , the first no Italian from 1523. His second period dealt his fruitful pontiff (1978-2005) and the pastoral journeys he made to America , Mexico and many others countries, making an intense diplomatic labour and problems that were taking place in the Catholic church ,including the 1981 attack by Ali Agca . Thanks to his unshakable tenacity , Pope John Paul II helps to change the course of history : liberty in Poland helped by Lech Walesa and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 decrees the collapse of Communism . But the Pope does not stop being the voice of Christ, even among the injustices of the capitalistic Western world , even among the provocations and challenges of modern times , as developing the faith to inspire millions begins with the power of one .

The film captures splendidly the goodness and generosity of the immortal Pope . Cary Elwes as well as John Voight give fine acting portraying accurately the unforgettable Pope renovating the moral sense and thoughts , giving hope , fighting for human rights and winning the hearts of the people . Footage of the real Pope John Paul II , albeit with his face obscured , was used for a few scenes, most notably the televised meeting with foreign people and US President Ronald Reagan . The film was approved by the late Pope John Paul II. The project started before his death, and Pope John Paul II was very hands-on with the production and knew of the script ; also , Pope Benedict XVI praised the film after watching a screening on November 2005. The motion picture is magnificently played by an excellent plethora of support actors such as James Cromwell as Cardinal Adam Sapieha , Christopher Lee as Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski , Ben Gazzara as Cardinal Agostino Casaroli ,Vittoria Belvedere as Eva and the recently deceased Giuliano Gemma as Navarro Valls . Furthermore , Daniele Pecci as Roman , whose role is based on Jerzy Kluger, a Polish Jew and lifelong friend of Wojtyla . There also appears Pope Benedict XVI, he is briefly depicted in the film as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger played by Mikolaj Grabowski . Special mention to touching , evocative musical score by Marco Frisina , he is also a Roman Catholic priest and director of the Pastoral Worship Center at the Vatican . The picture was rightly directed by John Kent Harrison . This film's release smashed box office records in Pope John Paul II's native Poland.

Other films about this majestic figure are the followings : ¨Karol , the Pope , the Man¨ (2006) by Giacomo Battiato with Piotr Adamczyk as John Paul II , Michele Placido , Daniela Giordano and Leslie Hope ; ¨Have No Fear : The Life of Pope John Paul II¨ (2005) (TV) by Jeff Bleckner with Thomas Kretschmann as Pope John Paul II , Joaquim de Almeida as Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and Bruno Ganz as Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski "Karol: A Man Who Became Pope" (2005) with Piotr Adamczyk as Karol Wojtyla , Ken Duken as Adam Zielinski , Raoul Bova , Kenneth Welsh and Violante Placido , ¨Pope Juan Pablo II¨ by Herbert Wise with Albert Finney and Brian Cox , and ¨From a Far Country¨ (1981) by Zanussi with Sam Neill , Christopher Cazenove , Lisa Harrow and Daniel Olbrychski .

I have always been a Cary Elwes fan and of course, I love John Paul the Great and will always love the greatest saint of modern times but I was never a fan of John Voight until that Sunday night and now I can say that he is one of the best actors of his day he became the late great Holy Father for ninety minutes. yes the mini series made JP II look like saint, but hey is one. Elwes was fine, too old for his his first hour on screen, but passable. my only complaint was that it was too short and rushed in places. the film was reverently, well acted and handsomely crafted. I think it's crime that Voight is not up for a golden globe but I expect him to win an emmy for this one.

I watched this film with my Polish girlfriend this morning in a cinema in Krakow... It was dubbed in Polish, so I didn't understand a word that was said (apart from the very basics), but I really enjoyed it all the same...

A very simple and moving story about a honest man who believed in love and peace - simple as that... I am not a catholic (and never will be), but I was really moved by his story...

Jon Voight did a great job as the older pope - could really feel his frustration as the Parkinsons syndrome took hold...

By the way they are going mad about this in Poland - cinema was full at 10.45am on a Monday morning...

Many Thanks to my girlfriend who did her very best to translate for me! You should have seen the look of horror on her face when she realised it was dubbed in Polish and not polish sub-titles!