Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

One of the best films of all time and maybe Henry King's best - the real story of Saint Bernadette. Henry King tells the story as should be told - no more no less. We should remember France was under the Nazi yoke at the time - making such a film was a real message of hope and faith for the suffering French. This is great art beyond any doubt.

Based on the novel of the same title written by Franz Werfel , just the year before, provided with a lavish budget, and a stable of excellent supporting actors to interact with the star: Jennifer Jones, in her first film with her new name. Jennifer was, at this time, switching her romantic affiliation from actor husband Robert Walker to wealthy producer David O. Selznick, who loaned her to Fox, to star in this film. Reportedly, she was chosen partly because of her innocent youthful-looking beauty, and her superior ability to look as if having a mystical experience.Werfel was a Jewish playwright refugee from Nazism, who fled from Paris, initially to Lourdes, near Spain, during the unexpectedly quick conquest of France by the Germans. Several families in Lourdes protected his family from the Germans, while he learned about the most famous local historical resident : Bernadette Soubirous, whose story somewhat resembles that of Joan of Arc: another illiterate obscure peasant teen, whose apparently divinely -inspired visions eventually excited the French people into celebrating her as chosen by God to have special gifts relevant to others. In appreciation, Werfel vowed to write a novel based on her life. This he did not long after escaping to the US, incorporating some fictional events and persons.As reproduced in this film, Werfel sought to use the example of Bernadette in an attempt to somewhat restore the credibility of tales of supernatural interventions and visitations against the scathing skepticism of non-believers, most clearly represented in this film by Vincent Price's Imperial Prosecutor: Vital Dutour. The latter is probably largely based upon the French novelist Emile Zola, whose "Lourdes" provided a scathingly negative view of the many claimed miracle cures from drinking water from the seemingly magically-appearing spring in the grotto where Bernadette experienced her visions.The film is quite long at more than 21/2 hours, for a screenplay that seems better suited to a play than for a film audience. Initially provoking marked skepticism and suggestions of intent to profit from notoriety, Bernadette eventually wins over nearly all her doubters, including the jealous Sister Vauzous: her school teacher, who labeled her a lazy stupid girl, and who later reenters her life when Bernadette joins the same convent. There is the local doctor(played by Lee Cobb), who tries to keep an open mind as to whether she is suffering from a mental condition, faking her visions, or is really experiencing divine visitations. He is also involved in assessing some of the reported cases of apparent cures from drinking or bathing in water from the grotto spring. The most celebrated claimed cure comes from the empress, in regard to her feverish son. Interestingly Bernadette is unable to cure herself of her debilitating asthma, or her later lethal bone TB problem. She states that "the spring is not for me", an interpretation of the statement by 'the lady in white' that she could not promise Bernadette happiness in this life, only in the next. Bernadette is also denied the opportunity to live the normal life of having a husband and children, partly because of her asthma, and partly because her protector: Father Peyramale convinced her that "since heaven has chosen you, you must chose heaven", meaning that she was meant to serve God and her community by becoming a nun rather than a wife and mother. Her repeating "I love you", during 'the lady's' last visitation, as she is dying, sounds almost lesbian. Father Peyramale had initially been skeptical of the validity of her visions, but came to be her chief non-peasant supporter against her doubters, who tried to have her declared insane or having criminal intent. Clearly, Jennifer developed a close relationship with Charles Bickford, who played Father Peyramale. When he died, several decades later, the then reclusive Jennifer immediately tried to commit suicide, apparently by a combination of drugs and drowning. That she very barely survived was a miracle worthy of being include in this film!This film is not for everyone. As I said, it's overly long for a mostly grim drama, and was filmed in B&W, which will put off many viewers today. If you don't believe in miracles and divine interventions, that won't help appreciating this story. Jennifer's Bernadette isn't terribly charismatic, like Joan of Arc: being very soft spoken and humble throughout, although being very persistent about the validity her visions. Jennifer isn't really called upon to do a lot in her acting to earn her Oscar. It does give a reasonable snapshot of provincial French society during that era. and a dramatization of the events which led to Lourdes becoming a major pilgrimage destination for Christians throughout the world.Yes, I believe some people have special spiritual attributes. For example, my wife once was put into a trance by an Indonesian shaman, in an attempt to find an American who had not returned from a solo trek on a volcano. Supposedly, the American's soul was called to enter her body and speak through her where he was. Well, this worked. He had fallen down a ravine and had a broken leg. Previous searchers had missed him, not searching in this unexpected area.

The Song of Bernadette is a faith based movie released in 1943. Jennifer Jones is radiant as the fourteen year old girl who reports vision of the Virgin Mary. Her father is working odd jobs in order to feed his family. One day, Bernadette is walking with her sister and a friend collecting firewood when she feels a breeze and sees a woman holding a pearl rosary. The story soon spreads throughout the village and initially only her Aunt Bernarde believe in her while everyone else, including her parent's, doubt her story. Both the civil authorities and the Catholic Church ridicule the girl until one day a spring spouts water from barren ground and becomes famous for miraculous healing powers. A bishop closes the grotto but when the emperor's infant son is cured by the water, the site is reopened and a review is ordered by the bishop. They reluctantly declare the visitations valid and Bernadette joins the Sisters of Charity. She lives a relatively quiet life but suffers from tuberculosis of the bones which causes tremendous pain. At her deathbed she has a final visit from Mary, and even after one hundred and fifty years, Lourdes remains a popular destination for pilgrims from around the world. An interesting side note is the doubting Thomas prosecutor played by Vincent Price who later gained fame in grade b horror films; he is actually quite good in this movie.

It's a fine example of the kind of reasonably accurate, historical biographies that studies like 20th Century Fox were turning out in the 30s and 40s. The acting is professional, the mise en scene convincing, the characters recognizable, and the determinedly middle-brow story easy to follow. If the movie and its premise go unchallenged, it can be moving. You must overlook some minor discrepancies between history and a recent movie. For instance, Bernadette Soubirous (Jones), who is better looking than the original, not only washed her face in the mud when advised to do so by "the lady" but she actually ate some of it. It would have been as commercially offensive to show that as it would have been to show the tubercular infection of her leg that killed her in her 30s. Today, of course, it would be different. The camera would linger lovingly on the mouth full of mud and the pustular wound.As Bernadette, Jennifer Jones won an Academy Award. She's pretty, and she progresses from a teen ager to a mature woman believably, but she's not really required to do very much except, as one character (a mean nun) observes, act and speak "disarmingly." When the vision appears, Jones' face lights up brightly, just as Denzel Washington's did in "Malcom X" when HE sees the light. Anne Revere is outstanding as the tough mother who holds the family together. Charles Bickford as the village priest is gruff and hard to convince. Vincent Price does a villainous turn as the Prosecutor but in the end is converted. Gladys Cooper as a bitter, jealous, unbelieving nun is splendid -- what a face! From a scientific point of view it can be said that -- well, there IS no scientific view. This is around 1860. Freud was only four years old. His cases don't look anything like those we see today. Yet, Bernadette Soubirous herself aside, social psychologists would recognize the pattern of crowd behavior. Lourdes attracted hordes of followers during the period when Bernadette was having her visions. The pattern is typical of a certain kind of collective behavior -- begun by a young girl who serves as the index case. The conformation to the template would have been more convincing if some of the other children claimed to see the same or similar visions. Such an event is the subject of savage parody in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" and is taken well over the top -- to some distant, unimaginable planet -- in "The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima" in which the sun is made to stop and dance around.Lourdes today doesn't look much like a small village near a filthy grotto. As I recall, it's built up considerably, not just the town but the various chapels, and it's surrounded in summer by hundreds of pilgrims hoping for something. It all seems as commercial as this movie.But none of that should keep a viewer from seeing the film. As I say, it's a good example of its period and its genre and is in no way insulting. Poor Bernadette.