Reviews

Goretti Publications is proud to begin offering reviews: analyses of artworks, primarily films at this time, from a Catholic and traditional persepctive. They will be published more or less randomly, as they are ready.

Our ratings are on a six-star system, with six being the best and zero being the worst. Stars awarded are filled (★); stars not awarded are empty (☆). So a four-star rating appears as (★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆).

The Passion of Joan of Arc: A Silent Spectacular

Art type Film

Director Carl Theodor Dreyer

Summary The Passion of Joan of Arc is a silent film covering the trial and execution of St. Joan of Arc, the unlikely hero that saved France, and the unlikely saint that reconstituted a nation. The film presents incredible performances from many actors, especially the lead Maria Falconetti; it nobly and worthily depicts this great shame of Christendom, this great triumph of grace and faith, in a way that no film has been able to since. Recovered against all odds from a Danish collection in 1981, this film is a treasure for all humanity, but especially for those who love Joan and the Faith.

Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Version Version 1.0, 05 June 1209

Link The Passion of Joan of Arc: A Silent Spectacular

Black Robe: A Tale of Charity

Art type Film

Director Bruce Beresford

Summary Black Robe is an epic-scale historical drama set in the middle of the Beaver Wars, following a Jesuit missionary in French North America being guided by Algonquins to the mission his order has established among the Hurons. Filmed in English, Algonquin, Huron, and Mohawk, the historical details of the work are fantastic, and the overall thrust of the story is beautiful and edifying. Sadly, three far too explicit scenes of obscenity mar this film's otherwise stellar rating.

Rating ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Version Version 1.0, 07 Mar 1208

Link Black Robe: A Tale of Charity

Master and Commander: Fairly Seeing the Past

Art type Film

Director Peter Weir

Summary Master and Commander is a historical drama set during the dragging years of the Napoleonic wars, released in 2003. Captain Jack Aubrey, master of the Surprise, is in pursuit of a French privateer, the Acheron, in a thrilling journey that takes us around Cape Horn and culminates in an exciting battle near the Galapagos. Exploring themes of leadership, hierarchy, and courage, this is an excellent film for anyone who can tolerate the realistic violence of nineteenth-century naval combat.

Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Version Version 1.0, 15 Dec 1208

Link Master and Commaner: Fairly Seeing the Past

The Island: In Russia With Love

Art type Film

Director Pavel Lungin

Summary The Island is a spiritual drama which could have come from no country other than Russia; it was released in 2006. Anatoly, a young sailor in the Russian northern fleet in World War II, kills his commander at the behest of German officer to save his own life; he spends the rest of his life in a monastery, praying for his young commander's soul and begging the Lord for forgiveness. Soon, though, we see that Anatoly is a wonderworker, that God has chosen to do great things through him; yet he is a murderer, and doesn't understand why he should be so favored. Anatoly purges his guilt and gives a great lesson of guilt, penance, forgiveness, and the all-knowing Providence of God.

Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Version Version 1.0, 0E Mar 1208

Link The Island: In Russia With Love

Earth Abides: The Agnostic Post-Apocalypse

Art type Novel

Author George R. Stewart

Summary Earth Abides is a post-apocalyptic novel written in 1165 (1949), detailing the development of a small community in the San Francisco Bay Area surrounding graduate student Isherwood Williams (“Ish”). Mostly ignoring the facts of the apocalypse itself (a great plague), the novel centers on the following decades, the birth of the community, its growth, and finally its maturity as Ish lays dying. Its agnosticism is thoroughgoing, so it can only be recommended for its limited virtues, but it is (mostly) clean, lacks profanity, and provides some interesting examples of virtue that can make it worth reading.

Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Version Version 1.0, 21 Jan 1208

Link Earth Abides: The Agnostic Post-Apocalypse

Signs: Divine Providence in Cinema

Art type Film

Director M. Night Shyamalan

Starring Mel Gibson; Joaquin Phoenix; Rory Culkin; Abigail Breslin

Summary Signs is probably the last of M. Night Shyamalan's well-received films, though only his fifth (and third highly-publicized) film overall, and on the surface is a movie following a single family coming to grips with, and eventually resisting, an alien invasion. Much more deeply, however, Signs is a film about faith and unbelief, and an artistically beautiful affirmation of Divine Providence.

Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Version Version 1.0, 13 Jan 1208

Link Signs: Divine Providence in Cinema