Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II (2006)
The eventful life of a humble Polish priest who once decried the pomp of the Catholic Church "a circus" and labeled the Pope a "prisoner of the Vatican" before ascending to the papal throne to usher Catholicism into the 21st century. Born in Poland and forced to carry on following the untimely death of his family, Karol Wojtyla endured both personal hardships and the rape of his homeland by the Third Reich to spread the word of God through the Catholic Church. Later, as Pope John Paul II, Wojtyla was beloved by millions of Catholics worldwide. From the sexual-abuse scandal that shook the American Catholic Church in the later-20th century to the murder of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and the near-fatal assassination attempt made on his own life, Pope John Paul II endured to bridge the gap between various faiths until his death resulting from Parkinson's disease in April of 2005.
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Don't listen to the negative reviews
This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.
Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Great movie about a great man. Thomas Kretschmann is first rate as in all of his other movies.I would never have envisioned him as Pope John Paul. It speaks volumes for the casting director. Why do they keep casting him as German officer in the movies? And he only came to universal attention after "the pianist"? Of course he looks so hot in the uniforms. I know a lot of girls drool over his handsome face. But this guy is a great actor and has such great potentials. If you don't believe me, go watch "Stalingrad". I hope he will get a lot of excellent roles in the future with more diversity. Otherwise, what a heartbreaking waste of great talent.
I have now seen both the CBS and ABC versions of the story of Karol Wojtyla. After seeing the ABC version, and not even aware yet that CBS had a biography planned, I was ready to say this movie would get Emmy nominations. Now I'm not so sure, but it was still good, even if only a limited number of scenes from the Pope's life are shown.This movie does a much better job than the CBS miniseries in showing us the life of young Karol, or Lolek, as they called him. The boy was effectively portrayed by Jasper Harris and then Ignas Survila. We see his loving parents who were obviously a great influence, and Lolek's special relationship with his brother Edmund. Several events, some tragic, apparently played important roles in shaping the man who became Pope. Paulius Ignatavius did a fine job as Edmund Wojtyla. Inga Sakalauskaité impressed as Emilia (Karol's mother), and Petar Goranov was wonderful as Karol's father.Karol is shown doing theater as an adult, and he has a girlfriend, but he feels God's call and has to make a choice. Menawhile, the Nazis are invading his homeland. Karol has numerous challenges to face and he handles them well. Once he becomes a priest, his superiors see his abilities and take advantage of them, giving him more and more responsibilities. At each stage of advancement, Karol is achieving more than most would at his age. Karol cannot believe what he is being asked to do, yet he accepts all challenges given him. Both movies show what can be described as a Christmas miracle, though there are differences which make me unsure if it was actually the same event. One day, when a new Pope is needed ... well, we all know what's going to happen. Amazingly, though, the death of Paul VI and the election of John Paul I is left out of this movie. John Paul II is shown as a very caring and very moral man who needs to be with the people, a man who stands up to challenges as difficult as the Soviet Union. He is also shown as flawed, believing he has sinned, in an incident not shown in the CBS miniseries. Hard to believe this man sinned, right?This movie also goes into more detail than the CBS version with the Pope's visit with Mehmet Ali Acga. Despite the limited number of scenes from the Pope's life, the ones we do see include outstanding writing and performances. Well, perhaps "outstanding" isn't quite the word to one who has seen the CBS production, but this movie certainly was impressive. We see enough to inspire us to live better and to know what it really means to serve.
The people at ABC forgot to do their biographical research... so many scenes were just plain wrong! The actor playing JPII was very rigid, there was no personality there. It is very very obvious that this movie was on the bottom of the programming totem poll, the move is so low budget. The script is terrible. Conversations like: "You must follow the rules" "No, the people are starving." Lame. Plus, the movie was jumping like crazy from event to event in order to fit it into the two hours. Terrible! A better use of your time would be to watch a PBS documentary on JPII. Also, CBS put out a miniseries on JPII that is better than ABC by far. JPII was a wonderful man, and it bothers me to think that my grandkids might get a hold of this ABC movie and think that THAT is what he was really like!
When I first heard that this movie was going to be made, I was very excited to see it. The ideas to make a movie of this caliber, as good as it was, must have been very difficult. I wasn't really sure if anyone could encompass all of the Pope's many amazing qualities in a movie, but the movie did his memory justice. In my opinion the most important task was to reveal to the people who the Pope started out as. To his days in Poland, all the way to his last days in the Vatican, this movie followed every aspect of his life. Thomas Kretschmann, the man who played the Pope in his adult life and on, did a very good job at getting the emotion across. Overall this movie was educational, but also very entertaining.