The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005)

The Hiding Place (1975)

 

The Passion of Bernadette (1989)

Content advisory:

Greatest Game: A few objectionable words; a fleeting glance of fisticuffs (fine family viewing). The Hiding Place: Some harsh depictions of concentration-camp life (teens & up). The Passion of Bernadette: A few graphic images of a bloodied soldier and an ugly lesion (okay for kids).

New this week on DVD, The Greatest Game Ever Played is perhaps the most visually and emotionally dynamic film ever made about golf. The film tells the rousing, true underdog story about a poor, young American caddy named Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) who, in 1913, at a time when golf was a rich man’s hobby, stunned the genteel golf world and the nation with his performance in the U.S. Open. Francis’s amazing story helped democratize the game, raising general interest and leading to the institution of public courses.

It’s a rare sports film that doesn’t demonize the opposition. Yet here’s a story of humanity, honor, courage and friendship, in which the noblest stroke is made not with a club, but with a word. John Flitter is a scream as little Eddie Lowry, the 10-year-old caddy that Francis got stuck with because Lowry’s older brother got nicked by the truant officer. Lowry’s too cute and smart to be true, except that it seems he really was.

I can’t say it has made me a golf fan, but if I ever find myself watching a round of golf in the future, I don’t think I’ll watch it quite the same way.

Also new on DVD is The Hiding Place, the deeply inspiring 1975 adaptation of the autobiographical account of Corrie ten Boom, a leading figure in the Dutch underground during WWII whose family hid Jewish refugees in their Amsterdam home until they were caught by the Nazis and sent first to prison, then to the Ravensbrück camp, where nearly all of them died. Produced by Billy Graham’s World Wide Pictures, The Hiding Place is a very well-made, moving portrait of Christian faith and charity in the most dire of circumstances.

For Corrie (Jeannette Clift) and her family — devout Dutch Reformed believers — to close their doors to anyone would be to close them to Christ, and even in the horrors of the camp there is no room for hating anyone, even Nazis. The film avoids stereotyping: Not all the Germans are bad, not all the Dutch are heroic, and most but not all the Jewish refugees are sympathetic. The Hiding Place is one of the best films ever produced by a faith-based group.

Recently released on DVD from Ignatius Press, The Passion of Bernadette is French director Jean Delannoy’s sequel to his earlier Bernadette (1988), both starring Sydney Penny (“All My Children”) as the visionary of Lourdes. The first film tells the well-known story of Bernadette’s visions of Our Lady at the grotto. The sequel covers the rest of Bernadette’s life in the convent at Nevers, where Bernadette seeks sanctuary from the oppression of celebrity.

Delannoy directs in the same unembellished, matter-of-fact style as his earlier film, seeking to serve Bernadette’s story as truthfully and simply as possible. Given the inherently less dramatic subject matter, The Passion of Bernadette doesn’t “tell a story” the way Bernadette does, but the portrait of Bernadette’s unassuming heroic sanctity and occasional tart rejoinders remains moving and worthwhile.

Where the first film was shot in dual French and English versions, The Passion of Bernadette was shot only in French. An English dub is available on the Ignatius DVD, but you can also watch the film in French with English subtitles. Order online at ignatius.com or by phone at (800) 651-1531.