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The Crime of Padre Amaro | 
 enlarge | Director: Carlos Carrera
Actors: Gael Garcia Bernal, Ana Claudia Talancon, Sancho Gracia, Angelica Aragon, Luisa Huertas
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.94
Buy New: $12.00
You Save: $7.94 (40%)
Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 10333
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 99
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 119 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: 00467
ISBN: 1404926003
UPC: 043396004672
EAN: 9781404926004
ASIN: B00008AOX5
Theatrical Release Date: 2002
Release Date: April 22, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
This controversial film follows a handsome young priest, Padre Amaro (played by Gael Garcia Bernal from Y Tu Mama Tambien and Amores Perros), who arrives in a small town and finds himself surrounded by hypocrisy and corruption--and also finds himself tempted by a beautiful young woman who confesses that when she "touches herself," she thinks of Jesus. What makes El Crimen del Padre Amaro (The Crime of Father Amaro) particularly effective is that Amaro is no innocent--he skillfully forces a newspaper publisher to retract a scandalous story about the Church and is willing to take extreme steps to preserve his career. Some of the movie's harsher digs at the Catholic Church have provoked accusations of prejudice; but though Padre Amaro portrays a world in which no one's hands are clean, it also finds redeeming qualities in every character. A complex, completely engrossing movie. --Bret Fetzer
Product Description
Stars Gael Garcia (Amores Perros) as the title character. He's a newly ordained priest sent to work in a small church community in Mexico by the Bishop. He arrives wide eyed and full of optimism hoping to serve God and his parish however he quickly butts heads with the elder priest in charge Father Benito. Benito is known to accept drug money from the local drug lord in order to subsidise the construction of a new hospital and in addition is carrying on an affair with a local woman. To complicate matters father Amaro soon finds himself in a love affair with the young Sunday school teacher. After a newspaper report linking the drug lords with the Church is published Father Amaro is then trying to cover up and mend the public relations fiasco. Amaro has also been asked by the Bishop to reign in the renegade priest who has affiliations with guerrilla soldiers. Needless to say moral dilemmas abound and Father Amaro's idealism is put to the test by personal political and church pressures.System Requirements:Running Time: 119 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: FOREIGN/LATIN Rating: R UPC: 043396004672 Manufacturer No: 00467
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| Customer Reviews: Read 52 more reviews...
 amateurish September 22, 2007
Kate Higgins (Winchester, MA)
After being pleased with "Motorcycle Diaries", I thought I would check out more of Gael Garcia Bernal's work. This movie was a huge disappointment. It was so amateurish that the darker aspects seemed silly, and the ending that could have been poignantly tragic, seemed sordid and pointless. As a practing Catholic myself, I was curious to see what the Mexican Church found so scandalous about this movie. At the end of the movie, I was left thinking that philosophical differences with the Church should be explored, but sophmoric mudslinging might just deserve repression.
Great movie July 22, 2007
Aida Baez (Miami, Fl)
I saw the movie and although I realize things happens like this, I still could not accept it. Good movie, recommend to see.
 Sins Of The Flesh March 9, 2007
Chris Luallen (Nashville, Tennessee)
Father Amaro (Gael Garcia Bernal) is a young priest sent to work in the small, rural town of Los Reyes, Mexico. Father Amaro is idealistic at first. But soon discovers that his senior priest, Father Benito, has an ongoing affair with a local woman named Sanjuanera and that he is also laundering drug money for some murderous narco-traffickers in order to raise funds to build a "First World quality" hospital.
Soon Father Amaro finds himself involved in his own forbidden love affair with a romantically obsessed young girl named Amelia (Ana Claudia Talacon). When Amelia becomes pregnant the selfish Father Amaro seeks to protect his own career by pressuring Amelia into having an abortion. But the illegal abortion is botched and Amelia ends up bleeding to death. Yet, despite all his horrific misdeeds, Father Amaro is wrongly credited as being a hero for trying to save Amelia while the blame for her pregnancy and abortion is falsely placed on her "heretic" ex-boyfriend.
This movie depicts a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, with the worst characters, most notably Father Amaro himself, making out fine. While those with good intentions tend to suffer. For instance, the idealistic Father Natalio is ex-communicated by the Church for his devotion to a village of poor peasants. So, yes, this movie does offer a critique on the corruption within the Catholic Church. But, more importantly, it is about the corruption of the soul, which each of us, as human beings, are susceptible to.
"The Crimes Of Father Amaro" was one of the first in what has turned out to be a long line of intelligent, artistic Mexican films made over the last 5 years. I also highly recommend "Amores Perros" and "Y Tu Mama Tambien". This is a great movie. Go watch it!
temptation February 27, 2007
Stalwart Kreinblaster (Xanadu)
this is an important movie about the nature of temptation and the complications of living a double life.. It is also an interesting look into hypocracy.. All of the characters are involved in some dirty business.. and this leads to a tragic outcome that will leave us lost in thought at the end.. Very captivating..
Mexico's official entry for this year's Foreign Film Oscar nomination consideration... December 24, 2006
Roberto Frangie (Leon, Gto. Mexico)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
For many priests, celibacy is a true vocation which liberates them... For others, it is a lifelong struggle... If celibacy was made voluntary, not only would many priests be happier, but the Church would be richer... Above all, it might decide the only way to restore the numbers of the priesthood, and that seems to me not a bad idea...
As I understand, a Catholic priest must clearly know that he belongs body and soul, with all that he is, to the church, to her task, to her mission, her work, and her destiny... He must be a public icon of strength, virility, honesty, and dedicated service...
But in 'The Crime of Father Amaro,' the top film in Mexican box-office history, Carlos Carrera shows that even a man with morals and scruples betrays the nature of his profession, mostly when he brazenly criticizes the priesthood, and questions the Catholic Church's representatives on a variety of charges like illicit love affair, corruption, drug dealing, and hypocrisy...
The story takes a liberal priest Father Amaro(Gael Garcia Bernal), protege of a repulsive obese bishop (Ernesto Gomez Cruz), to the remote dusty village of Los Reyes to assist the older priest of the parish Father Benito (Sancho Gracia) in his daily work...
Amaro quickly realizes that virtually every fellow priest is involved in something immoral, and that his aging superior is receiving financial help from the region's drug lord for the construction of a new church-run hospital, and is secretly spending his cold nights with the proprietress of a local restaurant Augustina (Anjelica Aragon). He also discovers that Father Natalio (Damian Alcazar) is suspected of aiding the revolutionary factions in opposing the drug lords and mobsters...
Amaro's own weaknesses is put to the test when he finds himself led into temptation by Augustina 's extremely sensual teenager Amelia (Ana Claudia Talancon) a relationship that eventually goes way outside the bounds of his priestly oath... and, without any sign of inner turmoil, he embarks on a passionate affair with the devout catechism teacher...
Amalia - for whom loving a young priest serves as an extension of her deep piety - decides that the good-looking priest is the one for her and rejects her disappointed boyfriend, the aggressive reporter Ruben (Andres Montiel) who wrote an article alleging that the hospital is a front for laundering drug money...
The most over-the-top performance is provided by Luisa Huertas as the town frightening parishioner Dionisia who takes great delight in exposing heretics... This malicious lady (who, apparently, knows absolutely everything there is to know about anyone...) pretends to put coins in the collection plate but cleverly palms paper money back...
Gaston Melo plays the tender lay-assistant to the elder priest, who cares for his invalid-epileptic daughter, and carries many secrets but tells none..
"The Crime of Father Amaro" is polemical today as Martin Scorcese's 'The Last Temptation of Christ.'
The film focuses on blasphemous scenes as on a vicious priest who stops at nothing, even by continuing the lies and hypocrisy to protect his career... His value system is completely corrupted... Father Amaro's ability to stand behind his beliefs extents to nothing... His generosity and wealth of spirit becomes selfishness and bitterness... His ambitions to rise in the church hierarchy clouds his judgment...
Mexico is in the middle of a film renaissance which is wonderful if they come up with a new wave of irreverent movies thundering forward juicier targets than the church's vices... sex, abortion, abuse, witchcraft, betrayal, and political corruption...
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