Masterful Movie

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This film is a clear example of faith, healing, and mourning in practice. Interpreted through the cinematic language and style of the film, which is non-sync and non linear, Mychal was a man who could see through many contradictions. As a gay man and religious supporter, he was predominate religious figure in the 80's, for loving and accepting AIDS victims in a time when most are plagued with shame and had been forsaken. He supported gays when the church had abandoned them. He was a man who was not afraid to go against logic. Contrary to conventional story telling, Glenn Holsten also defies logic in her editing and arrangement of the film. Assuming there was nothing wrong with the print I saw, her arrangement of edits is dysfunctional. The audio track seems intact, where as the video jumps around, and suggests a certain level of subjectivity and displacement. Where most people might change the channel or turn the movie off, the importance and beauty of what is being said outweighs your vision and keeps your attention. There are many films that are considered documentaries of death, such as tributes to famous rockers, or historical films on concentration camps, or even studies on religious after life practices. "Recording death or documenting the act of dying can be a sensitive one. A filmmaker walks a thin line between a cathartic experience and exploitation." Renov explains. If films like Saint of 9/11 bring resolution or comfort to people who share a similar loss, or affection, the act of mourning will bring about positive change. " The camera incites, records, and preserves these sustained efforts to speak the most unspeakable of losses." It is with memories of loss, love, and sorrow that a person can feel very vulnerable. There is a fine line filmmakers walk when giving a face to a biography of death. Capturing body language in the vulnerable state of silence, the camera now becomes an objective viewer, like the liberated soul of Hinduism. Speaking about a personal interview with a former SS member, "Something like the holocaust changes a person in a way that it's impossible to retreat back into the free and uninhibited ego." Renov addresses predominantly films that respond to private or familial sorrows, but told in a way that implicates others. In his best summery of his thoughts on death and the documentary, Renov states, "In regards to the world of mourning, cinema and video possesses a remarkable potential for creating new therapeutic communities, joined by bereavement, loss, and the need for healing." There are new potentials with moving image and sync sound, before unknown with literature. The medium can better serve a direct path into the lives of others. We do not imagine, but watch and listen to the resolution of death manifest in another, which is the only way after all one can experience death in life.

This is a really touching and inspirational movie. The guy was a saint, and not just because of the way he died. This film shows how truly Christian this man was: kissing and cradling AIDS patients in his arms back when health care professionals were wearing gloves and masks around them, staging peace marches through violence-torn Northern Ireland, handing out valuable gifts that he'd just been given to more needy people he encountered in the streets, and much more.Why don't more people know about this man? Why hasn't the Vatican put his cause on the fast track to sainthood? So he wrestled with his demons...but in that sense, he's no different than any other saint. And evidently, he won these private battles, daily. America needs to be reminded that you don't have to minister to Untouchables in Calcutta to be a contemporary saint. We've got Mychal Judge, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton who emerged right from our own back yard. It's a shame that more people don't know about them.This movie is on DVD, and I highly recommend it. My only frustration is that it doesn't have more archival footage of him. But why would it? He went about his virtuous business anonymously. As the movie says, "he wasn't a hero, he was just doing his job." Hopefully, they'll make a dramatized movie of his life so he'll get more exposure. John Mahoney HAS to play him.

This film was a major letdown. I rented it with high hopes that it would actually portray a faithful Catholic priest in a positive role. Rather, the film concentrates heavily on the ALLEGED homosexual orientation of Fr. Judge. According to the site HTTP://www.catholic.org/featured/ headline.php?ID=19 Fr. Judge was not homosexual at all.Since the orientation of this man is in question it would make sense to concentrate on his public life and all the good he did, which the movie makers do for the first 50 or so minutes. The second half of the film is nothing more than gay propaganda. (I don't mind it so bad but they need to be straight, no pun intended, on their motives with the film.

This quote comes from a Fransiscan Brother for whom Father Mychal Judge was a mentor.The people interviewed for this documentary are not the erudite, intelligent and moral but for the most part the dregs of society, the lost souls and the outcasts. Sure NYFD guys and fellow priests are there but the stories told about him in this film are mostly by drunks, addicts, the homeless, sick and the poor.This film is a reminder of what being a Christian is actually about without the preaching and proselytizing. While 9/11 is featured at the beginning of this film and again toward the end (Father Mychal held a Mass for many NY Firefighter on September 10 from which most of the film of him as a priest is taken), the documentary is really about a man and his works.