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Rating:  -
It brings to light the sex abuse scandal in the catholic church leading all the way up to the current pope. I have lost what respect I had for the catholic religion as a whole, not the individuals, but the blind authority of the church. It is done in a way that does not further exploit the victims but honors them.
Rating:  -
I thought this was well done & simply presented, not over-complicated by too many witnesses for either side. I guess that's the same criteria some have used to deem this a bad documentary but I don't think Berg needed to prove much. To me it seemed a review of the past evidence & an update to present of ONE PARTICULAR BAD MAN, not the whole question of IF the church was a participant or not. If you're watching this to decide if some priests raped children, grow up. Priests raped children, okay? Many of them, for long periods of time & the mafia-like Vatican covered it up at all lengths, spent the donations of Catholics to pay for these crimes & continue to do it today. Religion justifies so much evil from time immemorial to present day. If you can't deal with that fact, then you'll watch this looking for some way to discredit Berg's choices of testimony. And those that still question it will be in church on Sunday getting their eucharist & passing their chock-full envelope to the basket. Bless your hearts & thanks for abetting crime.
Rating:  -
Deliver Us from Evil (Amy Berg, 2006)
I had to let this one sink in for a few weeks before even attempting a review of it. Deliver Us from Evil is the story of Oliver O'Grady, a Catholic priest notorious for abusing children. Over the course of three decades, the church, instead of dealing with the problem, simply moved O'Grady from parish to parish in northern California, giving him, as it were, a fresh stable of victims to choose from every few years. (To this day, O'Grady is under the protection of the Catholic Church, living now in Ireland.) More than that, though, the film provides us with O'Grady's testimony that church officials were aware of his actions as early as 1976.
This is where the film, unfortunately, breaks down. We see archive footage of testimony give by church higher-ups, none of which substantiates O'Grady's claims. (To be fair, none of it refutes them, either.) Are we witnessing evasion and evidence of a cover-up, or the befuddlement of a senile old man? It's obvious which interpretation the filmmakers would like you to believe, and that makes it even more questionable; naked emotional manipulation is annoying in romances. It's unforgivable in documentaries.
There can be no denying that what O'Grady did was a crime for which I'm not sure a suitable punishment exists, nor that the punishment he was given was in no way severe enough (nor, for that matter, that the church's continuing to offer him shelter and pension is equally unforgivable). And simply offering us this, Errol Morris-style, would have made for about as devastating a documentary as I can imagine. Why bother adding a few extra slaps in the face? ***
Rating: -
I watched this documentary tonight.
My impression of the film is that it is very well made, filmed, and edited. One of the best (and most chilling) things about it was that it gave ample opportunity for Fr. O'Grady to present his own take on his behavior. One of the people interviewing him asked Fr. O'Grady if he thought he was "dissociating" himself from his sexual offenses against others (including a 9-month old infant). I think that described his words perfectly, because while admitting that he had done some bad things, he expressed nothing resembling remorse. He even wrote letters to people he had abused, inviting them to come to Ireland and talk about it, hoping that somehow would give closure to his sordid life, I suppose. He later rescinded the invitations. I saw the film as mainly about Fr. O'Grady and to some extent about the efforts of one priest to hold the Church hierarchy accountable for abuse by clergy.
Then I read some of the reviews posted here. I would like to say to those who argue that it is biased and poorly researched, that in order to make people aware of a big problem sometimes a filmmaker must take a sharp point of view. Since there is no evidence that the Catholic Church has a significant interest in policing itself (but there is lots of evidence of attempts to both conceal and downplay despicable actions of clergy, as well as to keep them employed when they should be kicked out), it is up to courageous people such as those who made this film to present their point of view. No documentary is going to get ALL the facts straight or be able to interview everyone who might be able to weigh in on the subject. And why should I believe the Amazon reviewer who claims that the filmmaker didn't put much effort into getting the Catholic Church to agree to an interview? I didn't see any evidence presented to that effect.
Bottom line: An important film about a really big problem that needs to be watched by everyone.
Rating: -
I normally watch controversial documentaries, and generally they evoke a strong reaction - outrage, disgust, fear, exhiliration. If none of those emotions are invoked, I at leat remain deep in thought for a while. "Deliver Us From Evil", while exceptionally well made, left me without any of the abovementioned emotions, which in itself I found surprising.
The reason I found this surprising is because we as a nation have been so anesthetized when it comes to issues concerning Catholic priests' pedophilia, that it is saddening in itself. It has become like hearing that Britney Spears checked into a hospital with mental issues. That we should react in such a way to religious and spiritual leaders raping their flock should in itself be outrageous.
Oliver O'Grady has lived a proteceted life, in that he has always been protected by the Catholic church, even though the church knew of O'Grady's pedophilia and rape. Instead of removing O'Grady from the position he held in which he had access to many innocent children, the church shuffled him as new revelations of O'Grady's indiscretions surfaced. Throughout the documentary, used to the constant protection he's received, O'Grady speaks nonchalantly and in detail of what he did and to whom, to the point where one realizes that this person is truly sick. But the church never realized that.
This was just one of the stories of this modern calamity - priests raping children. If this one man hurt so many people, one has to wonder how many other people have been scarred for life because they were betrayed by a person who was supposed to protect their souls and guide them spiritually. If these people are true men of God, and the church condones them, do we really want to be associated with the God that church propagates? "Deliver Us From Evil" is not just a story of a pedophile and a rapist, but a story about religious changes and spiritual sacrifices. Highly recommended.
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