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In his landmark review of “The Exorcist” written some 50 years ago, Roger Ebert emphasized the significance of casting the role of the older priest battling evil with the great character actor Max von Sydow, ‘There is a reason why he is the best character actor alive today. Having been through so many religious and metaphysical crises in Ingmar Bergman’s films, von Sydow almost seems to belong on a theological battlefield just like John Wayne belonged on a horse.’
“The Pope’s Exorcist” combines both those images by casting Russell Crowe in the title role of Father Gabriele Amorth, the world’s leading theologian, journalist, author, and the exorcist of the pope. Amorth depicts a tough, smoking priest and a skilled exorcist who embarks on each new mission like a gunslinger. Instead of pistols or rifles, he approaches the assignment with an exorcism kit that carries in a saddle bag, filled with crucifixes and holy water. For an aggressive figure like Crowe, the red-and-white scooter he rides serves as a perfect sight gag because it’s too small for him. And of course Amorth has a tiny whiskey flask that he claims he carries to ease his scratchy throat.
His wrote and acted as the hardened cynical antiheroes that aged American film actors such as Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and John Wayne portrayed in 1960s Western movies. These actors always had a tough exterior, and although they depicted the flaws within the civilization, they still stood by it. They witnessed most of civilization’s imperfections but were still susceptible to being baffled.
The movie is helmed by Julius Avery. His “Overlord” and very loosely use a real priest who was documented in a film by “Exorcist” creator William Friedkin as the basement for character creation. The narrative follows Amorth, who’s marketed as a priest but has greater objectives in mind. He visits an abandoned abbey in rural Spain with the intention to expel a demon from a child. Although the film is defined as a horror flick, it felt more busy and the direction wasn’t creepy nor scary. I was left feeling uneasy during the scenes at the Vatican where Franco Nero portrays a pope that is aware of the oppression going on in Italy. The movie is ultimately a blend of theology and action with the main character being an aged ex-westerner gunslinger who partners with Esquibel, a devoted priest without experience. Together, they aim to rescue children and women from a terrifying adversary.
Alex Essoe portrays Julia in this film, a widowed mother of two children whose husband died in a motor vehicle accident two years ago. He had left her an abbey which she hopes to refurbish in order to sell and pay off debts held by the family. Julia also has a teenager daughter Amy who is, the term is misplaced, ‘rebellious’. Her son, 12-year-old Henry, eventually becomes host to a supernatural evil, which manifests itself in pretty much the same way it has since Friedkin adapted William Peter Blatty’s source novel: profanity, blasphemy, sores, levitation, and so on. He is just a vessel for the evil spirit.
What Amorth does during the exorcism scenes reminds me of talking smack to an adversary before a big competition and having them destroy themselves, and this is why I believe the opening sequence is the most original part of the film. This one part is interesting enough to mask a character who is really out of the box – imagining having James Bond dressed in a T-shirt with a collar turned up, or a more devout Uncle Columbo, who distracts villains with his awkward behavior and messy outfits disguising his true intelligence. It leads us to believe that Amorth is about to join some new exorcism version of The Avengers. In fact, it is surprising when the final part of the movie does not end with some stellar news about Father Amorth making a comeback.
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