The Shoes of the Fisherman

Movie Review: The Shoes of the Fisherman

Year of Release: 1968
Country of Origin: USA
Director: Michael Anderson
Cast: Anthony Quinn, Laurence Olivier, Oskar Werner, David Janssen

Plot outline: After twenty years in a Siberian labor camp, Kiril Lakota is released and sent to Rome, where the ailing Pope makes him a Cardinal. When the pontiff dies, Lakota finds himself in the running for the papacy, but is plagued by self-doubt, by his years in prison, and by the strange world he knows so little about (IMDb).

Based on the Morris West novel written a decade before the election of Karol Wojtyla, The Shoes of the Fisherman imagines an Eastern European cardinal, a Slav from an Iron Curtain country, who becomes “the first non-Italian pope in 400 years.” Played by Anthony Quinn, the cardinal’s very name, Kiril Lakota, is eerily similar to Karol Wojtyla. The similarities don’t end there. While Lakota has none of his real-world counterpart’s sense of presence or drama, he places great stock in the power of words to change the world and even the destiny of nations, and makes a memorable speech to that effect during a private summit with two world leaders. This resonates with John Paul II’s faith in the spoken word to move the world - a faith that served him well during his 1979 trip to Poland, when his words helped launch the Solidarity movement, dealing a substantial blow to the Iron Curtain. The filmmakers realize the rituals of the conclave process and the pageantry of the coronation ceremony with remarkable persuasiveness. The movie’s fictional politics stand up to consideration; faux theological debates involving a controversial German priest named Fr. Telemond (think Teilhard de Chardin by way of Hans Küng) are interesting. Although Lakota doesn’t emphasize orthodoxy as a major concern, the movie strongly emphasizes obedience and submission to authority despite disagreements or objections, whether it is the heterodox Fr. Telemond or the hardline (but ultimately surprisingly sympathetic) Cardinal Leone. While Telemond is probably the most textured character, Leone ultimately gets the best scene and the best lines as he addresses the loneliness and difficulty of the road that the pope walks alone in the shoes of the fisherman. The climax may turn on a naive conceit, but The Shoes of the Fisherman is well worth a look. (SDG)

My judgement: *** out of 4 stars