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by John Horvat II
In the supercharged atmosphere
of the abuse scandals, Peter Mullan’s film The Magdalene
Sisters is a sensationalist melodrama that only adds fuel
to the fire.
The film has just been
released nationwide and the American Society for the Defense
of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) with its America Needs
Fatima campaign is responding by sending “Outrage”
protest postcards and emails to Disney/Miramax claiming the
film misrepresents and defames the Catholic Church and its
institutions.
Through the use of pungent
emotionalism and hyperbole, the movie develops a style that
becomes hard to classify. It is called a semi-fictionalized
true account but the distinction between fiction and reality
appear constantly blurred. It is billed as a scathing social
commentary but it is laden with stereotyped depictions devoid
of any nuance. Its shoddy theology ignores the basics of any
kind of Catholic spirituality.
The story is not very
pretty. It builds upon the actual existence of what were essentially
Catholic reformatories for young women in Ireland. However,
the tragedy normally associated with delinquency is magnified
and dramatized beyond recognition. The self-righteous sisters
are turned into what the director termed “Taliban militants.”
Indeed Mr. Mullan’s
portrayal of the Catholic reformatory could not be more merciless.
He treats the sisters with all the cruelty that he imagines
they treated the girls under their care. The convent becomes
a ruthless slave labor camp complete with its evil warden,
sadistic guards and wronged convicts. The Mother Superior
is a greedy fiend counting piles of money made from the toil
of the unfortunate girls. It is easy to see why Vatican radio
characterized the film as an “angry and rancorous provocation.”
The R-rated movie is
also totally unacceptable from a moral viewpoint since it
becomes a kind of a porno-documentary which spices up its
story with scenes of nudity and implied sexual activity. The
script is peppered with sordid language as the actors continuously
intermingle obscenities in their dialogue.
In reviewing the script,
the American TFP believes that the movie gives viewers the
impression that the Catholic religion is absurd and irrational,
and that the Church forms people who are sadistic, immoral
and unbalanced. Even worse, this characterization seems to
extend to anyone who believes in a defined moral code that
the director might label stringently moralistic.
“I was appalled
to read how every nun, priest or person in authority was presented
as evil,” commented America Needs Fatima director Robert
Ritchie who is coordinating the protest. “It seems to
ignore all the good that nuns have done throughout the centuries.”
On the contrary, the
girls are presented as victim-saints, setting the stage for
a classical face off between these innocent victims and a
hopelessly corrupt and hypocritical system. The rave reviews
the movie has received indicate Mr. Mullan’s politically
correct pseudo-documentary is being accepted as Gospel truth.
The American TFP is asking
Catholics all over the country to add their voice to protest
what it considers crass distortions and porno-depictions.
Tens of thousands of “Outrage” protest cards addressed
to Miramax, the film’s American distributor, have already
been sent out.
The above opinion is based
on numerous reviews of the film and the script sent by Miramax
to the America Needs Fatima campaign.
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