Stigmata [VHS]
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VHS Movie Reviews of Stigmata [VHS]
Movie Review: Thought-Provoking Horror Film
Summary: 4 Stars
Slash her, choke her, stab her, flog her: she won't die, she's the incredible Frankie Paige! Despite this, Stigmata may seem on the surface to be a run-of-the-mill horror flick, but nothing could be farther from the truth.
Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) is a hard-living, hard-partying, wild hairdresser in Philadelphia. After her globe-trotting, uncaring mother gives her a rosary she got at a small church in Brazil, Frankie begins hallucinating, and becoming injured. The doctors think these wounds were self-inflicted.
Father Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne) is sent by the Vatican to investigate rumors of a woman with stigmata. Kiernan is an investigator for the Catholic Church, documenting claims of bleeding statues and the like. But Kiernan is frustrated when he realizes the Cardinal (Jonathan Pryce) only wants to put such rumours to bed, not to truly explore them.
Kiernan and Frankie become close, which angers the Cardinal. As she spends more time with Kiernan, her hallucinations turn into full-on possession. Will Kiernan obey the Church, or defy it for a woman?
Stigmata really makes you think. The end is not at all clear. It merits much discussion as to was Father Kiernan right in the decision he made? Who was the entity that possessed Frankie really after? Was the entity angelic - or demonic?
Really a good movie. Patricia Arquette gives a sincere and feral portrayal of a sinful woman trying to control everything in her, and around her, even when it is killing her.
Movie Review: Crud
Summary: 1 Stars
I was looking forward to watching this movie but I really dissliked it. First off, I found this movie to be terribly boring and the acting to be poor, notably by Patricia Arquette. I almost dozed off because of how boring it was. I swear tht it's got to be one of the most boring movies of all time.
Also, the scenes where Arquette suffers the wounds of Christ are strange and over dramatic. Oh, and then, like a couple hours later, she's fine. After she suffers Christ's wounds, she's fine. I mean, come on! She'd take a while to recuperate from it. She'd suffer pretty bad.
You don't like any of the characters, especially the character suffering stigmata, who on top of it has a man's name, Frankie.
But, the worst is the relationship between Father Kiernan and Frankie. They fall in love. I mean come on, that's idiotic! Seriously! The movie plays off other movies, copying off them basically and has many lame scenes, notably the lame and terrible ending.
This movie deals with an interesting topic, but doesn't go anywhere and instead is boring, pointless, lame and idiotic. This movie is one that everyone should run away from and hide from.
Movie Review: Visually Gratifying, Atmospheric Movie
Summary: 3 Stars
When I first saw the movie in 2000, I was deeply moved by the central theme propounded by the Gospel according to Thomas, best paraphrased in the screenplay as: "The Kingdom of God is within you and all around you, not in buildings of wood and stone. Split a piece of wood and I am there, lift a stone and you will find me".
The special effects in the scenes where stigmata was inflicted upon Patricia Arquette, the protagonist personifying modern-day St. Francis di Assisi, were also visually striking and left a vivid imprint on my mind. The screenplay was also neat in its linkage of stigmata* with the uncorrelated Thomas Gospel and made an engaging tale of it. While the movie may come across to some as contrived, church-bashing, irreverent and blasphemous, it was artfully filmed and conveyed the meritorious theme that it is more important to look upon Jesus' teachings and how much God loves us all, not didactic doctrines which may veer towards downright propaganda supporting the ongoing financial needs surrounding much of organised religion.
However, being more exposed to biblical and extra-biblical research on the subject matter now, I would like to share with viewers that the central premise of the movie may well be flawed. John P. Meier, in his 'A Marginal Jew', the volume of three books touted by scholars as one of the foremost studies ever written on the historical Jesus, advanced the theory that "the Gospel of Thomas did depend, directly or indirectly, on some if not all of the canonical Gospels (of Luke, Mark, Matthew and John)", thereby trashing the belief that it was independently written, not least being the definitive source recording of the sayings of Jesus written without any narrative structure. This is not to say that there is no redeeming grace to the oft-quoted theme in the movie because, speaking in one voice with many secular scholars and unconventional Christian thinkers, I too desire to take hold of the message that the Kingdom of God is here and now. For viewers who are interested in gaining a perspective and the controversial anomalies of the gospel, I highly recommend "The Gospel of Thomas" by Professor Stevan Davies. This book is written by one of the foremost scholars in Thomasine who, for over three decades, studied the text of the ancient book found inside a sealed jar in a small desert cave at the base of an Egyptian cliff near Nag Hammadi in 1945.
*For a detailed and well-research account on the mystery of sacred stigmata, check out Michael Freze's "They Bore the Wounds of Christ", a book where the screenwriters of Stigmata the movie probably drew myriad ideas from. The author's work was meticulous as he covered the A-Z of sacred stigmata, from the pre-requisites/qualifications to the pain/suffering to the physical manifestation to every nitty-gritty that pertained to what defined stigmatists/stigmatics, in a tightly written 300+ page-turner. The author, a Roman Catholic of the Franciscan Order (followers of St. Francis di Assisi), wrote with great devotion of his faith in God's work through the saints being called to this particular act of trial and tribulation. His depth of knowledge of the Bible as well as the documents produced by the Vatican were well punctuated throughout the book to afford readers independent cross-referencing. Personally, I find the discussion on 'The Holy Shroud of Turin' (the ancient cloth alleged to be the burial shroud of Jesus; the chronology / biography of stigmatists; and the appendix on interviews with priests who served or personally knew modern-day stigmatics thought-provoking. For those who are squeamish, ceveat emptor: pictures of modern-day stigmatists depicted in the book are not for the faint-hearted. While I refrain from drawing any conclusions on the author's interpretation of the phenomenon (to largely afflict laypersons/women/Italian by origin) based on purely anecdotal evidence, the book's greatest merit was the author's fervent desire to be right with God. Whether readers find sacred stigamta authentic or not, this devotional material presented a timely wake-up call and faith renewal to self-professed God-believers, not least a satiating supplement to our quest for intellectual stimulation.
Movie Review: Stigmata movie review
Summary: 3 Stars
I enjoyed the movie very much but was extremely disappointed in the sub-titles. They were not shown throughout the movie, were inconsistent and sometimes displayed in a foreign language. I was also disappointed that the movie was produced in wide screen format only. It was not as pleasurable to watch on a full screen t.v. The content and quality of the DVD was excellent, however.Movie Review: Thought Provoking
Summary: 5 Stars
I am an ex-Christian and found this movie to be one of the most thought provoking about the faith I've seen. After seeing movies about Jesus-based religion, I become very cynical and talk about everything that's wrong with the faith. However, this movie was the first I've seen where I came out not hating my religious past. It made me think about the true intentions of Jesus and wonder how much of the faith had been altered by power-hungry people and doctrine. It made me want to research the history and the thoughts. This movie didn't make me believe, but it made me appreciate people who do.