When
The Crime of Father Amaro (El Crimen de Padre
Amaro) begins, a handsome, twenty-four-year-old
priest is taking a busride to his new pastoral assignment
in Los Reyes, a mythical Mexican town. The bus is robbed en
route, but he gives a wad of cash to his seatmate as he exits,
thus establishing him as a generous, thoughtful person. Upon
his arrival, Padre Amaro (played by Gael García Bernal)
hears and sees a lot of sin. His superior, Father Benito (played
by Sancho Gracia), sleeps with a female café proprietor,
Sanjuanera (played by Angélica Aragón); Father
Natalio (played by Damián Alcázar) is in league
with guerrillas to help poor peasants by opposing the druglords;
and the mayor of the town contributes his cut from nonenforcement
of drug laws to the construction of a hospital that the church
is building for the village. Meanwhile, Rubén (played
by Andrés Montiel) decides to write a news story to
expose the money laundering; as a result, he is fired, so
he takes his journalistic skills to Mexico City. He also parts
company with his sixteen-year-old girlfriend Amelia (played
by Ana Claudia Talancón), daughter of Sanjuanera (and
possibly fathered by Father Benito). Meanwhile, Amelia is
taking a liking to Padre Amaro, and he likewise finds lust
in his heart for her. The two then have passionate sex until
Amelia is pregnant. Although Amelia expects Amaro to resign
the priesthood so that they can get married, he refuses, ultimately
suggesting that she should have an abortion. At this point
the purpose of the film becomes clear--to criticize the Catholic
Church for not allowing priests to marry and for not allowing
abortion. Although trailers announce that the film focuses
on an event that "shook the world," the ending is
much more conventional than the moral issues. El
Crimen de Padre Amaro, directed by Carlos Carrera
and based on an 1875 Portuguese novel by Eca de Queiroz, tells
the Vatican that narrowminded theology stands in the way of
a more humane approach to the human condition and that priests
cavalierly reject celibacy as something "forced"
on them. As Sanjuanera says, "The only hell is loneliness,"
to which Father Benito replies, "I hope God sees it that
way." The film also states two more uncomfortable realities
in the 2002 update of the story--that some priests support
guerrillas for the right reasons, and that druglords enjoy
the protection of bribable public officials. MH
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