ELIJAH MOLATE

FILM REVIEW
JD2

THE CRIME OF PADRE AMARO


Introduction

The story was born on 1875 from a novel written by Jose Maria Eca de Queiroz. This
melodramatic film exposes the hypocrisy of the church regarding its interference to different
scandals in political and immoral atmosphere. The main casts of the film gave justice to their
characters and played it with great passion, which showed their convincing influences to the
viewers.

Setting
The setting took place in Aldama Mexico during year 2002.

Characters
Gael Garcia Bernal- Padre Amaro
Ana Claudia Talancon - Amelia
Sancho Gracia- Padre Benito
Angelica Aragon- Sanjuanera
Luisa Huertas - Dionisia
Ernesto Gomez Cruz Bishop
Gaston Melo- Martin
Damian Alcazar- Padre Natalio
Andres Montiel Ruben
Director: Carlos Carrera

Plot
Father Amaro has been ordained as a priest at a very young age. He was assigned
to a parish located in Los Reyes, Mexico, which was administered by Father Benito. Innocent
and focused on his devotion, Father Amaro started his job by assisting Father Benito in
helping the parish and in building a large hospital and recovery center.
Amelia, a minor and daughter of Sanjuanera, teaches catechism to young children.
She was about to marry Ruben who was a journalist. Their relationship turns bitter when
Ruben strongly opposed Catholicism while Amelia is a devoted one. When Ruben wrote
some opinions about churchs hypocrisy on a news circulation, Amelia broke up with him.
Father Natalio is another priest in a rural church and he was under investigation for
an allegation of supporting guerillas. During their meeting, there ensued exchange
accusations about churchs problems that opened Amaros mind. As time passes by, Amaro
started to discover corruption in the church and was helplessly attracted to Amelia.
Furthermore, Amaro also found out that Father Benito has a mistress named Sanjuanera.
Even knowing these facts and living in these complexities, Amaro still defends Father Benito
and instead of throwing away his feelings for Amelia, he chose to have a secret affair with
her.
Amaro started to fall to Amelia and they discussed things about love and sin in the
confession room. Amelia seduced Amaro when she touches his hand at the restaurant. They
kissed at the church and they started a secret affair by creating a fake story that Amelia
wanted to be a nun which they needed a secluded room. Amelia while teaching the retarded
young child of Martin went to another side of the room and started to have carnal act with
Amaro. While undressing Amelia, Amaro stated some verses from the bible while he seduces
her. Amaro was torn apart between lusts and divine, between right and wrong.

In case of Father Natalio, he was excommunicated as ordered by the Bishop.

Climax
Amelia becomes pregnant. Amaro wanted her to leave their town so that he will not
be excommunicated but Amelia instead of leaving, decided to go back to Ruben and tried to
reunite with him so her baby will have a father and Amaro will avoid the mockery, but Ruben
tells her he does not love her anymore. Father Benito threatens Amaro that he will report him
to the bishop but Amaro blackmailed father Benito that he will also tell all his secrets to the
bishop. Eventually, Amaro went to Dionisa to seek for abortion and in the middle of the night,
Amaro doubled the money and went to the clinic. However, the operation went unsuccessful
wherein Amelia bleeds intensely which caused her death.
In the end of the film, a wrong story has circulated the town. It was Ruben who was
blamed for impregnating Amelia before marriage while Amaro was praised for allegedly
saving Amelia and her child. Amaro still officiates over Amelia's funeral and while father
Benito was sitting in his wheelchair, he leaves the church disgusted.





Analysis

This is a scandalous yet an eye opener film. It inquires into the struggle of priests
between their personal desire and obedience to their vows. It is a shocking film because
priests are considered as respectful posts of the society. The people hold on to their faith
through the lifes testimony of priests and servants of the church. But this film exposes
hypocrisy of the church. It portrays different perspective and area of ideology in
circumstances wherein priests have mistresses and one of them initiated abortion. A priest
was also corrupted. It also portrays disrespect to churchs symbols as an old woman feeds
communion wafers to her cats. A priest was corrupted while the only true honest priest has
been excommunicated.
Amaro was challenged by temptations of money, pressures of society and the call of
lust of the body, all being against their vows in their vocation of priesthood while Father
Natalio is a man of principle fighting for the poor in his community against the political leaders
who oppress his people. He follows for what he believes as his true vocation. He chose the
path where he can protect his people rather his priesthood. The film creates great impact of
reality.
As a Born Again Christian, first question raised in my mind is, why does a priest have
to be prohibited to enter into marriage? In our religion, a pastor can marry and this is an
acceptable culture for us. I believe that singlehood is a gift but why does Catholicism need to
have a vow that strictly prohibits the gift of marriage for priests? If ever to consider that the
soul and body is a gift from God, I believe that to avoid any sinful desires of a priest, given the
fact that he is human, the church should give importance to his issue to be resolved.

But whatever the reason behind that, I still believe that priests should respect the
rules and regulations as well as the vows they made. In the case of Amaro, I believe that he
is not for the vacation of priesthood. He let himself to be corrupted by the worldly things and
maybe he can be a better father to his child than to be a priest. A vocation is something you
dont have to hide. It is a calling rather than a job. It is a passion rather than necessity. It is a
right to fight for not one to give up to. If Amaro is really into priesthood, he would have known
that temptations like this could be overcome by prayer and sacrifice. Yes, it is easy to be said
than done, but this is the truth. Maybe, priesthood is not his vocation that is why, he easily
had given up from the test of his faith. However, in my perspective, every people should be
given second chances. If Amaro would be able to confess, acknowledge his sins and suffer
the consequences of his acts, then God will forgive him and the church can also restore him.
However, what this film portrays is the hypocrisy that despite Amaros sins, he still pursues to
continue to administer the funeral of Amelia with blind eyes.

Life seems unfair. Ruben is innocent in all of the accusations against him while
Amaro was praised by his hypocrisy. But despite the truth, I believe that every people should
live by faith and not by sight. We turn our eyes in faith to God and not in faith to people.
Priests are also human; weak in body as so are we. But, we should all keep in mind that
though our body is weak into temptations, our spirit should be strong enough to hold onto
what we believe is right.