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Home Video Picks & Passes 11.08.20

The new ‘Fatima’ gets a thumbs-up.

Above, the child seers are portrayed by (l to r): Jorge Lamelas (Francisco), Stephanie Gil (Lucia) and Alejandra Howard (Jacinta) in the new film ‘Fatima.’
Above, the child seers are portrayed by (l to r): Jorge Lamelas (Francisco), Stephanie Gil (Lucia) and Alejandra Howard (Jacinta) in the new film ‘Fatima.’ (photo: Courtesy Picturehouse; Claudio Iannone/Picturehouse)
Deacon Steven D. Greydanus Arts & Entertainment

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) — PICK
Fatima (2020) — PICK
Silverado (1985) — PICK

New on DVD, the story of the 20th century’s most celebrated Marian apparitions comes to life in Fatima, a fine retelling from co-writer and director Marco Pontecorvo and Catholic screenwriter Barbara Nicolosi.

Filming entirely in Portugal, the filmmakers create rich, atmospheric images with a vivid sense of place. When the Lady appears to the children, the transcendent experience is suggested with subjective, impressionistic camerawork and editing — eyes gazing at the children; hands extended to them, holding a rosary; a trickle of blood on her breast — interspersed with the empty space that others see.

It’s easily the most compelling dramatization of the Fátima story to date. The DVD comes with a number of making-of featurettes that are sometimes interesting; conspicuously lacking, alas, is any bonus material on the story of Fátima itself.

Among new arrivals on Amazon Prime are a couple of mature action films that are personal favorites of mine: Ang Lee’s art-house martial-arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Lawrence Kasdan’s star-studded neo-Western Silverado. Both great fun.

CAVEAT SPECTATOR: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Stylized martial-arts violence; a brief but steamy love sequence (no nudity). Adults. Fatima: Disturbing visionary images of battlefield violence and a brief visualization of hell. Older kids and up. Silverado: Action violence; fleeting sensuality. Teens and up.

Deacon Steven D. Greydanus

Deacon Steven D. Greydanus Deacon Steven D. Greydanus is film critic for the National Catholic Register, creator of Decent Films, a permanent deacon in the Archdiocese of Newark, and a member of the New York Film Critics Circle. For 10 years he co-hosted the Gabriel Award–winning cable TV show “Reel Faith” for New Evangelization Television. Steven has degrees in media arts and religious studies, and has contributed several entries to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, including “The Church and Film” and a number of filmmaker biographies. He has also written about film for the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy. He has a BFA in Media Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York, an MA in Religious Studies from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook, PA, and an MA in Theology from Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ. Steven’s writing for the Register has been recognized many times by the Catholic Press Association Awards, with first-place wins in 2017 and 2016 and second-place wins in 2019 and 2015. Steven and his wife Suzanne have seven children.

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