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Circus Vagabonds Find Virtue on the Road
BY John Prizer La Strada, Fellini's 1954 classic, offers an enduring message for modern believers
May 10, 1998 Issue 
Jesus included the socially marginal in his ministry. Modern middle-class believers often find it difficult to follow his example because the behavioral norms of society's outcasts are very different from those whose lifestyle is more secure.
Italian director Federico Fellini's 1954 masterpiece, La... READ MORE
Featherweight Creatures From Heaven
BY John Prizer In City of Angels, happiness and personal fulfillment are everything
May 10, 1998 Issue
Angels are currently popular with people who have few other religious beliefs because there is no hard work involved. If detached from their Judeo-Christian origins, the heavenly messengers can satisfy the need for comfort and guidance from a supernatural source without a tough-minded moral code.... READ MORE
Character Studies In the Old West
BY John Prizer Stagecoach has more on its mind than just who can shoot a six-gun
May 3-9, 1998 Issue
Westerns are not a genre usually associated with spiritual values. Violent shootouts are the norm, and revenge is a frequent and much admired motive.
Stagecoach is the exception. When the movie was released in 1939, westerns were primarily low—budget items aimed at the bottom half of double bills.... READ MORE
Portrait of a Sad and Sordid Childhood
BY John Prizer Anti-Catholicism badly damages critically acclaimed drama of a young criminal
May 3-9, 1998 Issue
Getting inside a criminal's mind, particularly that of a murderer, is a difficult challenge for a filmmaker with a sense of morality. On the one hand, the criminal's deranged sensibility must be presented as non—judgmentally as possible so that the audience can understand how such a person operates... READ MORE
A Fifth Grader’s Theological Search
In Wide Awake, a charming story of a young boy's temporary loss of faith, Catholic schools are portrayed-for once-in a positive light
April 12-18, 1998 Issue
For the past 20 years there has been a continual stream of movies and plays that portray Catholic schools in a negative light. The teachers are shown to be bullies and occasionally perverts; their faith is presented as rigid, narrow, and oppressive; and the students suffer deep psychological... READ MORE
Misreading Anne Frank
BY Peter John Cameron OP The current Broadway production doesn't do justice to a young Holocaust victim's famous diary
April 05-11, 1998 Issue
Why would anyone want to mount a revival of The Diary of Anne Frank? In a certain respect, the film Schindler's List has determined the definitive way to remember the unspeakable atrocities of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, thereby rendering less eloquent depictions of those events redundant. What... READ MORE
‘You’re No Abraham Lincoln’
BY John Prizer In the world of Primary Colors, politics--not the president--is the bad guy
April 05-11, 1998 Issue
Politics is always the art of the possible. Compromises are necessary to get candidates elected and legislation passed. The hope is that the dark side of these activities will be justified by the importance of a larger cause. It's often a difficult piece of moral calculus.
Primary Colors is a deft... READ MORE
Misreading Anne Frank
BY Peter John Cameron OP The current Broadway production doesn't do justice to a young Holocaust victim's famous diary
April 05-11, 1998 Issue
Why would anyone want to mount a revival of The Diary of Anne Frank? In a certain respect, the film Schindler's List has determined the definitive way to remember the unspeakable atrocities of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, thereby rendering less eloquent depictions of those events redundant. What... READ MORE
‘You’re No Abraham Lincoln’
BY John Prizer In the world of Primary Colors, politics--not the president--is the bad guy
April 05-11, 1998 Issue
Politics is always the art of the possible. Compromises are necessary to get candidates elected and legislation passed. The hope is that the dark side of these activities will be justified by the importance of a larger cause. It's often a difficult piece of moral calculus.
Primary Colors is a deft... READ MORE
A High Society Hostess Reflects on Life
BY John Prizer
March 22-28, 1998 Issue
Mrs. Dalloway captures the spirit of the liberal-thinking Bloomsbury set, but gets weighed down by its too-literary approach
The celebrated Bloomsbury group of early 20th-century artists and intellectuals had a single goal-the destruction of the institutions and values on which Victorian England... READ MORE
Looking for Love In the Golden ‘80s
BY John Prizer
March 15-21, 1998 Issue
The Wedding Singer fondly remembers—and pokes fun at—conventions of the recent past
For those of you who thought the 1970s revival films (Boogie Nights, The Ice Storm, etc.) brought to the screen an era best forgotten, brace yourself for the latest nostalgia-driven fad—movies that celebrate the... READ MORE
Celebrating Self-Centered Materialism
BY John Prizer An Oscar-nominated documentary paints a glowing picture of Ayn Rand's radical atheistic individualism
March 8-14, 1998 Issue
Most people don't pay much attention to the Oscar nominations for best documentary. Their focus is on the much-hyped feature film sweepstakes that this year pits mega-blockbuster, Titanic, against critics' darling, L.A. Confidential. But the documentary contests, divided into long- and short-form... READ MORE
FILM Clips
February 15-21, 1998 Issue
February is Black History Month. In recognition, following are VHS videocassette reviews of movies with black themes from the U.S. Catholic Conference (USCC) Office for Film and Broadcasting.
Black Orpheus (1959)
Vibrant intercultural feast updating the Greek myth to Rio de Janeiro where trolley... READ MORE
From Hermitage to Magnet For the Multitudes
BY John Norton Wag the Dog is a delectable, biting satire. Or is it a documentary?
February 15-21, 1998 Issue
Life sometimes imitates art, or in this case, Hollywood. The recently released Wag the Dog depicts a president faced with a sex scandal who manufactures a military crisis abroad to save himself. Sound familiar?
Few people believe, however, that President Clinton has provoked a confrontation with... READ MORE
A Screwball Comedy for the ‘90s
BY John Prizer As Good as It Gets offers laughs, psychological insights, and a pinch of Hollywood-style political correctness
February 08-14, 1998 Issue
Screwball comedies were one of Hollywood's most successful genres in the 1930s and '40s. Classics such as Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday got their laughs from the antics of offbeat men and women who pursued improbable romances in improbable circumstances. The fast-paced dialogue was noted for... READ MORE
Religion Gets a Fair Shake
BY John Prizer The Apostle isn't perfect, but it bypasses Tinseltown's usual treatment of evangelical Christians and delivers an intriguing portrait of a man of God
January 18-24, 1998 Issue
The mainstream media dislikes evangelical Protestantism more than any other religious movement. Print journalists routinely do hatchet jobs on its leaders, implying that its followers enjoy taking orders, can't think for themselves, and threaten American democracy with a judgmental, theocratic... READ MORE
FILM clips
January 11-17, 1998 Issue
Following are VHS videocassette reviews from the U.S. Catholic Conference (USCC) Office for Film and Broadcasting.
The Abyss (1989)
Derivative sea adventure tracking the attempt to rescue a U.S. nuclear submarine that has sunk in waters inhabited by mysterious, benign alien creatures.... READ MORE
The Wages of Modern War
BY John Prizer With melodrama and documentary footage, Welcome to Sarajevo produces an affecting portrait of one of this century's darkest events
January 11-17, 1998 Issue
The genocidal ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia was one of this century's worst crimes against humanity. The primary, though not exclusive, perpetrators were Serbs who murdered Muslims and Catholic Croatians en masse. Its horrors are well dramatized by the siege of Sarajevo, which was the lengthiest... READ MORE
At Institute, Prayer Counts as Much as Intellectual Rigor
BY Steve Rabey Conviction and creativity win followers for Jars of Clay
December 7-13, 1997 Issue
JARS OF CLAY aren't exactly an overnight sensation, but the band's four Gen-X members come close: Their 1995 self-titled debut has sold 1.5 million copies, the best-selling debut in Christian music history.
“It's always been one surprise after another,” says Dan Haseltine, singer and lyricist for... READ MORE
Sister Wendy Brings the Saints to Life
BY Stephen Hopkins In a new PBS special, a simple and strangely charismatic British nun sheds light on some of the world's finest illuminated manuscripts
November 30-December 6, 1997 Issue
As the millennium approaches some of the world's greatest libraries and museums, including the Vatican Art Museum, are celebrating with an unprecedented display. Many are mounting an exhibit of their most precious illuminated manuscripts, some are on public view for the first time.
PBS will... READ MORE
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