Posted on 03/15/2024 8:43:43 AM PDT by Antoninus
My wife and I went to see Cabrini last night. Given the mixed yet passionate reaction to the film by a variety of folks whose opinions I respect, I was looking forward to it. Having now seen it, I think the mixed reaction is completely appropriate.
My reaction was also mixed, though tending more toward the negative.
On the positive side, the film had a lot of spoken Italian in it which was fun. It was also well acted and beautifully shot, with a moving soundtrack that reminded me of a cross between The Village and Master and Commander. Though there have been some complaints that Catholic spirituality is not overtly put into the mouth of a Catholic saint (a valid complaint to be sure), Catholic spirituality saturates the background of the film. There are crosses and other Catholic symbols in practically every scene, and several scenes take place in beautiful Catholic churches and buildings. So we end up with some beautiful Catholic settings for a not particularly Catholic film.
The lead role was well played by Cristiana Dell'Anna who provided a convincing likeness of Mother Cabrini. Pope Leo XIII is played sympathetically by Giancarlo Giannini, though I thought he resembled Pope Pius IX more than Leo XIII.
That said, I felt that the film was too dark and brooding for the story of a Catholic saint. The first third of the film is purposely dark, focusing on Mother's illness and all of the "no" answers she receives from the men who are in positions of authority over her. The film does lighten up in spots, but the overall ambience is darkness and obscurity.
What truly drove Mother Cabrini was left largely unexplored. The inferences one must draw from the film are the typical boring Hollywood tropes -- follow your heart; don't let the naysayers get you down; I am woman, hear me roar. The film presents a woman primarily motivated by an altruistic desire to help other Italians. So rather than being driven by the Gospel message of Jesus Christ to take care of the poor, Mother is portrayed, rather, as the celibate CEO of an Italian NGO in America. There is also an insinuation that she is at least partly driven by spite. Every time she faces an obstacle, the Cabrini in the film hears in her head an admonition given early in the film by a patriarchal archbishop: "Stay where you belong." This very worldly urge, rather than any divine inspiration, seems to motivate her to do bold things.
The film also spent considerable time building up the Italian immigrant-as-victim trope. While nativist sentiments were no doubt major obstacles for the first waves of Italian immigrants coming to America, there was another issue at play that the film studiously avoids: the hatred of Catholics by the largely Masonic ruling elite. (This particular angle was effectively brought to the fore in the film For Greater Glory, another imperfect though more inspiring film.) Though forty years after the height of the KnowNothing period when Catholic churches were torched in several cities, there was still a strong antipathy toward Catholics among the upper echelons of American society that persists to this day. While it wasn't long before Italians were accepted as Americans, devout Catholics have never really been. If you need evidence of that, consider the overtly anti-Catholic emails of Hillary Clinton campaign chair, John Podesta in 2016, or how our current "Catholic" president's Department of Justice classifies traditional Catholics among potential terrorist groups.
As other reviewers have pointed out, the filmmakers also managed to turn Mother Cabrini into something of a Mary Sue. Whatever she accomplishes, she does via the force of her own powerful will. She draws her strength not from God nor from the Gospel, but from within herself. That is not a Catholic mentality at all, and I'm sure the real Mother Cabrini would have been horrified at being portrayed that way. This seems to have been done in service to a narrative that is not in keeping with the actual life of the saint.
Finally, the ending of the film was anti-climactic and strange.
SPOILER ALERT -- stop here if you don't want to read what happens at the end...
In the movie, Mother Cabrini achieves her final victory via political blackmail -- threatening the mayor of New York that she will unleash a negative publicity campaign against him and work to get him defeated in the next election unless he allows her hospital project to go forward. She also indicates that she is willing to help him if he helps her -- a sort of "pay to play" arrangement. The fictitious Mayor Gould (who is portrayed effectively by John Lithgow as a racist political animal) is impressed by Mother's rather savvy tactics and agrees to her terms. I have no idea how much of this scenario is based on reality, but it didn't strike me as a particularly fitting denouement to a biopic of a Catholic saint.
So overall, I give Cabrini two stars. It's worth watching once, but having now seen it, I have no desire to see it again. Instead, I'll go and read more about The Intense Catholic Spirituality of Mother Cabrini.
I was going to watch it but I see it’s going over 2 hours which just seems self indulgent. Very few movies can justify going over 90 minutes and this film doesn’t seem like it’s one of them.
While it wasn’t long before Italians were accepted as Americans, devout Catholics have never really been. If you need evidence of that, consider the overtly anti-Catholic emails of Hillary Clinton campaign chair, John Podesta in 2016, or how our current “Catholic” president’s Department of Justice classifies traditional Catholics among potential terrorist groups.
A bridge too far. Catholics (and Mormons) are routinely portrayed as being morally upright, and not generally in a bad way. Look at “Blue Bloods”- honors a Catholic family’s Catholic traditions. Look at “The Mission” or any number of other films over the last 40 years. On the other hand, Protestant Christians are routinely portrayed as overbearing, judgmental racists longing for “the good old days”.
BTW, The Colonel’s Wife and I saw it last weekend. I had never heard of Mother Cabrini before and was awed by the breadth of the ministries she founded worldwide.
Excellent review. I agree with every word except that I would have given it three stars despite its flaws.
We streamed “Nefarious” and were surprised when Glenn Beck popped up at the end of the picture.
He’s been promoting “Cabrini.” I hope he doesn’t have a cameo in it as the pope or something.
Give Blue Bloods a try. In virtually every episode, the entire family sits down to dinner, prays over the meal and discusses matters of substance.
I just saw “Cabrini”, and though it was a well-done movie, it edited out one character central to the nun’s story:
God!
Daughter and I saw it a few days ago. We are not Catholics and had never heard of Cabrini. Awed by the amount of good she did while ill much of the time. Good for Italians and all immigrants. I have to wonder if anyone else would have wanted to start a Charity Hospital in the 1800’s or even now.
At any rate we learned a great deal of NYC and early American history. And we both have great respect for America’s first Nun proclaimed “Saint Cabrini”.
No, the scenes with Sister Cabrini and the Pope are done in Italian. The Pope is Leo XIII and the actor looks nothing like him. Leo XIII was small, wizened, with white hair (think a Papal version of Yoda). The Italian actor who plays him looks like a retired pro football player with salt-and-pepper hair.
It took quite a while before Italians were fully accepted, even by the Church in America. I an 50 50 Italian Irish. When my parents celebrated their marriage at the Hotel Shelton in Manhattan they were the only 2 people to cross the dance floor. My mom went to Epiphany Church and school in Gramercy Park. She was treated wonderfully as she was Gramercy Park Tammany aristocracy. Italians in the parish were not permitted in the main church for Mass but had to go to the basement Church. They reacted by literally building their own Church, St Sebastian, and calling to the old country for priests. So in a very real sense Mother Cabrini was the NGO Italians needed in America to guide them past the bigoty of the Church in America.
I really don’t want to be obnoxious or put anybody down, but I have to say it is so very upsetting when I read a suggestion that only an immigrant (”good for all immigrants....I wonder if anyone else..”) would have started a charity hospital. Woeful ignorance which is excusable but not the thought pattern behind it.
The second oldest charity hospital in the US was founded in New Orleans May 10, 1736. The oldest dates from a few months earlier in NYC. Bellevue traces its origins to the city’s first permanent almshouse, a two-story brick building completed in March 1736. Side note, almshouses date from the 10th c in Britain.
I am begging you not to make knee jerk poisoned assumptions about US history. The liberal propaganda runs deep. Please, please attempt to extirpate it from your and your daughter’s minds.
I taught for ten years in the 70s in northern Bushwick in Brooklyn. It was the home to the last wave of Italian immigration, the postwarera. I keep in touch with a lot of the kids I taught. One funny thing. They mostly stayed bilingual but many on visiting Italy, to their parents towns, whether in Sicily or Calabria or the Alto Adige, the locals had trouble understanding them since starting with Musolinni and continuing post war local dialects were suppressed and replaced with Roman Italian.
Lithgow is a super far left jerk
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