Great Film overall

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

As Christopher Reeve said himself, this movie could have been really good but the bad editing ruined it. And I wholeheartedly agree. It was a pretty bold movie, even for the bold 80's: a tale of a Vatican priest who deals with the mafia, seduces a nun and takes up arms in the war, bloodying his hands. This was clearly still a taboo, any kind of negative portrayal of the Catholic church and the Vatican. But somewhere during its 2 hours this movie lost its boldness and became just another failed experiment with an interesting idea.In the year 1982, Reeve was clearly looking to establish himself as a serious actor and it couldn't have been easy for a guy who so convincingly looks like a superhero and who came to prominence as THE superhero. He was in Deathtrap that same year and did well in that part. One might say that this role has something in common with that one, because he plays an opportunist who is morally unclean. This movie has a really top notch cast, with Jason Miller, Fernando Rey and Genevieve Bujold as the brightest part of it. Miller, though somewhat miscast in the role of the Sicilian mafioso, brings the dark intensity similar to the one in his role as Father Karass. Only difference is, here he has a mustache. Joe Cortese is also good in the part of Reeve's old friend who becomes his business partner and the link with Miller. Fernando Rey plays the part of cardinal Santoni, who represents the political side of Vatican, the ambitious and power-hungry priest who is willing to close an eye to illegal stuff in order to achieve his own goals.Anyway, this movie is interesting to follow but sometimes it can't decide whether it wants to be a drama about corruption and moral or a love movie. Some scenes are well shot and gripping, like the scene where the nun played by Bujold discovers Reeve's true identity and occupation. It is the dramatic highpoint of the film. But the love story lasts too short to really give the movie the edge it needs, another angle. Christopher Reeve is one of the film's bright points because he really does make his character believable. He's a priest who tried to be both a priest and a man. I guess you can say that this is the ultimate theme of the film, how hard it is to be a priest and give up the good things in life in order to serve God.I think it's a great shame that this film has been largely forgotten and scorned by the critics and by the audiences. For despite it's editorial flaws and despite the screenplay not holding up till the very end, it still can be an interesting watch and a spiritual lesson.

***SPOILERS*** Not too convincing film about a hot shot and well intentioned priest who gets in over his heed in trying to saved his beloved Catholic Church from going bankrupt.The Second World War is soon to be over and the Catholic Church has suffered major financial losses because of it. American priest Father John Flaherthy, Christopher Reeve, comes up with this master plan to save the church but there's just one hitch: It involves the Mafia who's the only one who can make it happen. Getting involved with his childhood friend-from Brooklyn NY- Lodo Varese, Joseph Cartese, a master sergeant in the US Army Father John has Lodo through his Mafia and black market connections sell thousands of cartons of cigarettes from the Vatican commissary, that Father John is the administrator of, for a mark up of over 400%. The very naive Father John thinks that his friend Lodo together with his Mafia boss Don Vito "the Apple" Appolini, Jason Miller, will be as honest about this strange arrangement that he cooked up in secretly saving the church as he is.While all this is going on Father John, using the alias of US Army Lt. Finnigen, gets involved with the not yet confirmed Catholic nun Clara Genevieve Bjold, whom he rescued from getting drenched from a sudden downpour with her fellow nuns while driving his army jeep. In a matter of days the very handsome Father John, or Lt . Finnigen, had the impressionable Clara, who thought that he was a black marketeer, have an affair with him. Thinking that she was involved with a corrupt US Army solider not a Catholic priest, or Monsignor which he was at the time, Clara flipped out when she saw Father John at a ceremony at the Vatican together with his mentor Cardinal Santoni, Fernando Rey, and the Holy Father himself the Pope played by Leonardo Cimino!Father John not knowing what to say later, while in Church praying for forgiveness, let himself have it, by being sapped around,by an outraged Clara who accused him of ruining her, as well as his, life! The relationship between Father John, a CPA before he entered the church, and his good friend Lodo also started to sour with Lodo taking off with some 40 million dollars of the church's money as well as losing over 600 million dollars playing the very speculative currency markets.***SPOILER ALERT*** The mad as hell Don Vito who's money, in connection with the Catholic Church, Lodo also ripped off has a hit put out on him which a tearful Father John begs him to put off. This turned out to be about the only good thing that Father John did in the movie and even that backfired on him!Insulting, especially to Roman Catholics, in how the movie treats members of the clothe by making them look worse then the hoods and gangsters that their shown to be working with. Christopher Reeve as the corrupt Father John is anything but sympathetic in his being so obsessed with both money and sex, as well as power, that whatever good there was in him quickly evaporated within the first ten minutes of the movie. Even though Father John's attempt to save the Catholic Church from going bankrupt was in the end successful his methods were anything but Christ-like. Which made you wonder if, in the movie, with the underhanded and sleazy tactics that Father John used to save it was in fact worth saving at all!

I had never heard of this movie but thought I would spend the 2 hours watching it. I was very disappointed. The acting, including Christopher Reeves was very disappointing. Many times throughout the movie the sound seemed impossible to hear clearly what was being said, so it made the movie hard to follow. I am surprised that the catholic church didn't object to this movie, it paints the catholic church and the Vatican in very poor light. The plot line left much to be desired as well. The entire movie did not fit well.... I believe there was suppose to be time lapses, but they are never explained and it leaves you scratching your head wondering what is going on. This movie is not worth the 2 hours to watch it.

If you love bad movies this rates a 10. A sad Camp Triumph for the great, for a while, Frank Perry the director. Christopher Reeve stiffly makes no impression, as he did in most of his non superman roles. Some good European actors do what the can, for Genevieve Bujold all this amounts to is stripping naked. John Williams composes perhaps the most over the top piece of music in film history for the scene in the cathedral where sinner and saint meet. Also in the mix are some mob killing scenes leftover from a Godfather movie, actually these are the best done scenes in the film, the only ones that work. The rest is either over or under acted and done in a way that tries to be serious in a way that makes it totally campy. A better approach would have been to just go for the sleaze and make this one of those sort of exploitation sex-in-the-confession-booth films, that's really all this is at heart. In case you are a snob and think that only low budget films can suck, look at this beauty and realize that with money you can suck really really hard, and I mean that in a bad way. Everyone involved in this should or could rate this as a career low. Reeve claimed there was a great film and they lost it in the editing room. Well, no it's still here to be enjoyed. One of the worst Hollywood films ever, but if you take in in the bad film frame of mind there are many highlights.