September 15, 1999
The trailer lied!
The trailer made it look like some gay-ass Exorcist ripoff, but it’s not. I promise! There is so much more going on in this film than that. It caused a long theological discussion with my friend Rhett afterwards, a subject I am usually loathe to discuss with friend, lest they discover my rather radical views on the subject. Not only is it ‘visually stunning,’ but there is something this film has to say. I know the critics have all panned the film, saying that it is not an accurate representation of real stigmata, that it is just another conspiracy film or that it is simply an Exorcist remake. But I don’t think it is. Maybe I am seeing something that isn’t there, but think that society at large doesn’t realize just how evil the Catholic Church really is. The Crusades for example – most people don’t realize what the crusades where all about. Reclaiming the holy land, my ass. It nothing but a church-sanctioned massacre. And people say that it couldn’t happen today…Waco? Anyway, what I mean to say, is that people dismiss this film as anti-Catholic, new age bullshit. And Catholics dismiss Protestants as bullshit and everyone dismisses Mormons and Scientologists as bullshit because they are so new. Christianity is about 2000 years old. Thousands of religions have existed and disappeared before Christ and will exist afterwards. Compared to the age of this planet, Christianity is a drop of water in the neverending sea of human spirituality.
Sorry, I’ll get off of my soapbox now. I enjoyed Stigmata a great deal. I went to see it twice last weekend (Okay, I admit it, I went the second time because of a boy). It was good to see a colorful film after the bleakness of The Blair Witch Project and the spacy darkness of The Astronaut’s Wife. It was fun for my eyes! (Eye candy goes a long way for me…)
The soundtrack kicked ass and I am very ashamed of digging on a Chumbawumba song. I didn’t catch the Bjork song until the second viewing, but it was pretty cool. Billy Corgan did a pretty good job, despite this, he still sucks.
So shoot me, faithless scholar that I am, I enjoyed a religion flick. Just don’t tell anyone else.
Rating – R
Runtime – 103 minutes
Genre – Religious Thriller
Director(s) – Rupert Wainwright
Writer(s) – Tom Lazarus
Actor(s) – Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Pryce, Portia De Rossi
BOB Rating – Four BOBs
Favorite Quote – "Would you like a haircut, a manicure or your nipples pierced?" - Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) to Father Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne)