Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

just watch it!

Fantastic!

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

I was once reading a book about the Oscars, and the author, whose research required him to watch Oscar-winning and -nominated films throughout the years, said he had put off "The Song of Bernadette" because he was turned off by the religious subject matter and assumed it would be a heavy-handed, sanctimonious film for believers. Then he finally saw it and was surprised by how intelligent and reasoned it was. Based on this, I was curious to see it myself, because I usually feel the same way about religious-themed films, especially biopics that are prone to hagiography even when they're not about religious figures. I too found it to be a pretty articulate depiction of a humble woman's witnessing of miracles and subsequent rise to sainthood, even if it does not leave any room for those who don't believe in the Christian God. It acknowledges the existence of nonbelievers but pretty much says we can't be helped.I didn't expect even as much complexity from a film made in 1943 as "The Song of Bernadette" provides, so I was happy that it addresses various viewpoints, from the skeptics who are willing to be convinced given enough empirical evidence, to those who refuse to believe out of a sense of jealousy that they weren't the chosen one, to those who want to cash in and profit from the devoutness of others. One thing the movie nails is the reluctance of the religious community to accept supernatural occurrences when they occur in the real world despite its insistence on believing in them when they occur in the Bible. If a film like this is ever remade, I hope it leaves more room for people like me, people who don't necessarily rule out the possibility of miracles, however you want to define them, and believe that there is much about the natural world we can't and will never be able to explain, but don't believe that any of it is the work of a sentient deity. As with most things, our culture demands that people pick a side and refuses to acknowledge shades of gray, so in that way this film was a bit much to take by the time it ended, which is a LONG 156 minutes from the time it started.Jennifer Jones received the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, and she's fine, but it's the supporting players around her that are far more interesting, including Oscar-nominated Charles Bickford as the village dean, and Gladys Cooper as a bitter nun who has a marvelous scene late in the film during which she faces a crisis of faith. Cooper shared the Best Supporting Actress field with Anne Revere, who plays Bernadette's mother. The film also won Oscars for its black and white art direction and cinematography, and Alfred Newman's lovely score. It won the most Oscars of its year, though it lost the big prize to "Casablanca." Also nominated in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director (Henry King), Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Recording.Grade: B

True miracles come through spiritual enlightening, not earthly gifts. For Bernadette of Lourdes, she was already suffering-from asthma and in her own words, her own stupidity. Humiliated in her catechism class by imperious nun Gladys Cooper, she is the last person whom the zealots of the Catholic church would seem worthy of a visit by the "immaculate conception", in short the virgin Mary herself.Newcomer Jennifer Jones became an instant star in what wasn't necessarily her film debut, but her introduction to A films. And what a prestigious film it was, taking her to Oscar gold and in her own right, film immortality. But Bernadette, as delicate a flower as she seems, takes on her fate with strength and nobility, standing up to authority with respect but silencing them with divinely inspired words.Among those she finds herself up against are Gladys Cooper as a psychotically envious nun who believes in extreme suffering rather than spiritual joy; Charles Bickford as the initially disbelieving priest who eventually becomes one of her biggest champions, as well as Vincent Price and Charles Dingle as two political big wigs who fight to stop her besmirching of their community.On her side are Anne Revere and Roman Bohen as her hardworking parents, going from embarrassed to willing to risk everything to aid her, and Blanche Yurka as her extremely supportive aunt who dares any disbeliever to stand up to her when she escorts Jones to the grotto. They are all outstanding, but perhaps of the supporting cast, it is Cooper whom you will be mesmerized by as she becomes increasingly angry, then falls apart over realizing her sins.Non believers need not bother with this if their hearts and minds are closed to the possibilities. This is for those who live by faith, not by sight, and for those who are either desperate to find spiritual enlightenment or truly believe in the words of the son of the immaculate conception, the greatest gift to the world from God who has allowed the world to continue to live the way they see fit, yet with hope that through the lives of people like Bernadette of Lourdes.

In the midst of World War Two, a strange trend began to appear in the Hollywood movie. The success of Gone with the Wind in 1939 had made long movies popular and viable, but wartime shortages meant that massive sets and thousands of extras were simply not feasible. As a result we got a lot of pictures that were big in length but not in scope or budget, other examples including For Whom the Bell Tolls and Since You Went Away. The Song of Bernadette is also one of a number of Christian religious pictures from the war period.Playing the eponymous saint is Jennifer Jones in one of her earliest roles. Jones accurately captures the innocent manner of a young girl, as well as the earnest naivety of her character, and as such does a good enough job for the picture's requirements. A great supporting act comes from Anne Revere who, as she often did, anchors the movie with the sober naturalism of her performance. It seems however that the makers of the picture were a little unimaginative in their casting of many of the smaller roles, especially the villainous ones. Vincent Price is always good fun to watch, and he is actually at his most restrained here. However Charles Dingle sounds like the guy who does Richard Nixon's voice on Futurama, and it's hard not to chuckle at him. And is comedy ham actor Sig Ruman really appropriate for this kind of picture? Maybe he is – at least he brings a bit of jollity to what is largely a rather po-faced movie.In the director's chair is Henry King, Fox Studios' long-serving veteran who was currently at the high point of his career. King is in many ways ideal for a picture like this. While the religious epics of the 20s and the 50s would emphasise the spectacle of the gigantic, King is a master of bringing beauty and personality to smaller settings. Look at, for example the outdoor scenes where Bernadette has her visions. The setting is not expansive and we don't see any horizons (it's probably a small patch of backlot) but King shows it off as a landscape nonetheless, making every rock and tree part of a rich visual tapestry. The Soubirous home is small but with it is certainly not plain. The government offices are shot (and lit, thanks to Arthur Miller) like a Gothic mansion, rather appropriately given Price's presence. King shows us people framed amid their environment, and in so doing gives us some elaborate yet subtle optical illusions. In the scene where Vincent Price has his talk with Jones, the bay window behind seems to project him outwards, making him seem more imposing.There's nothing wrong with making a longer movie on a small budget, but I think the problems with The Song of Bernadette lie more in the type of picture it is. This isn't just a religious movie, it's a movie about miracles. And all faith or lack thereof aside, a picture like that should have a bit of showmanship. That's why DeMille made the best religious movies in town – he was a showman and he gave his work the necessary pizazz of a bible story. The Song of Bernadette tries to portray the events at Lourdes in almost realist terms, and in spite of an attempt at grandeur in the blaring Alfred Newman score, and in spite of King's fine handling of the small canvas, it just doesn't seem to work.

Jennifer Jones plays Bernadette Soubirous, the young girl who claimed to see the Virgin Mary at Lourdes. I must say right up front that I am not religious at all. Yet I have been moved by religious films, notably The Passion of Joan of Arc and The Gospel According to Matthew. Obviously both are foreign films. Frankly, I can't think of any Hollywood films offhand that I believe tackle religious matters very well. Pretentious of me? I don't know, maybe. I just think that Hollywood is way too in awe of it. I don't necessarily need the style to be skeptical, just muted. In The Song of Bernadette, there's no doubt whatsoever whether the girl is seeing the Virgin Mary or not (hilariously played by a pregnant Linda Darnell, which, as much as I like her as an actress, is undoubtedly blasphemy, even to an atheist like myself). Everyone who believes Bernadette is a wonderful person. Those who doubt her are mean, though some of them are forgiven by accepting her later on. The worst case of this is Vincent Price's character. You can see the horror movies in his future in this performance. The real-life person he plays, Vital Dutour, was a devout Catholic. As he's the big baddie in this movie, he's made into an atheist. Okay, I should just suck it up. The film itself isn't too bad. It's well directed by Henry King, and very well shot. I wasn't that impressed with Jennifer Jones. This was her first performance under that name, though she had made several films as Phyllis Isely previous to this. She won the Oscar. Ingrid Bergman should have won for Casablanca that year, but instead she was nominated for For Whom the Bell Tolls. She still should have won. Bergman turned a completely useless character, the only flaw in Hemmingway's otherwise masterful novel, into a flesh-and-blood human being. Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier also deserved it more (I haven't seen Joan Fontaine in The Constant Nymph or Greer Garson in Madame Curie). Jones is okay, but her little kid act gets monotonous fast.