Fatima movie (available online)

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Its a good overview of the Fatima events. I especially like how it is filmed in black and white and when Our Lady appears it goes to color.

Edited because of the auto corrected words šŸ¤¦ā€ā™‚ļø
 
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I think itā€™s well acted. & yes, more of an overview than anything.

Fatima is deep & it would be a tall task to condense it to a 2 hour movie.

So this is a good start & a good reminder. So many possible jumping points for a Fatima renewal in our time.
 
Iā€™m excited to watch it this week. I will return at some point with my take šŸ§ Unless I forget.
 
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I watched it, and I think it was a missed opportunity for what could have been a great inspiring film. It deviates from the historical record, and does not explain the full message. And the way it portrayed Mary was disappointing to say the least. NOTE TO FUTURE FILM MAKERS: If you are going to make a movie about Fatima, please depict the Blessed Mother the way she was described, as a ā€œlady brighter than the sunā€. Instead, this movie shows her like a very ordinary lady in an elegant gown standing having a chat with the kids. The camera view should have been from behind overlooking her shoulder looking down at the children, showing the children witnessing a Beautiful heavenly apparition, and let the viewerā€™s imagination to fill in the rest. Instead there were scenes that actually made the character of Mary look a bit creepy.
Overall, it has some very good scenes, but in the end, Iā€™m not sure itā€™s a film that will inspire someone to convert and pray the rosary,. Sorry, but thatā€™s my take. There are other Fatima films better than this one. The 13th Day movie in my opinion definitely gives a more complete and more inspiring version. Not saying you shouldnā€™t see it. I guess when one gets excited about a film and expects an amazing experience, one sets oneā€™s self up to be disappointed. I give this 3 stars out of 5. Though Iā€™m sure there will be others who might give it a 5ā€¦
 
Spoilers!

@Gab123 Yes I was disappointed by the deviations the film took from the historical record on the apparitions of Fatima as well as the deviations from Sr. Luciaā€™s own memoirs. Most prominent was having only Lucia be visited by the Angel of Portugal and not being given Holy Communion, the elimination of the the mention of Russiaā€™s need for conversion as well as the request for the consecration of Russia from the Secret of Fatima, and, in my opinion, the undermining of the penances the Children took upon themselves according to Sr. Luciaā€™s memoirs (we see in the film Lucia putting a rope around her waist for penance in desperation but Our Lady after tells them not to hurt themselves with ropes almost like they were cutting themselves on purpose with razor blades). And then thereā€™s the fact that Luciaā€™s brother Manuel Santos was not in the War.

The original screenwriter of this film was Barbara Nicolosi, a devout Catholic and a friend of Mel Gibson who defended ā€œThe Passion of the Christā€ when it came out as well as having attended an early screening of it. Unfortunately, it sounds like her original screenplay was butchered by the director and possibly the other screenwriters involved until it was ā€œunrecognizableā€. Nicolosi herself said that a lot of the Catholic stuff was removed as the director worried his colleagues would think he had gone religious.

I would highly recommend the Portuguese docu-drama ā€œApparitions at Fatimaā€ from 1992! It has played at the Shrine for almost thirty years and was approved by Sr. Lucia and St. John Paul II! Admittedly, it is a slow film but it is much more accurate that other adaptions of this story to the screen so far!
 
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Wow, it sounds like they made a huge mistake with choosing that director.
 
Yes, very unfortunate! Iā€™m not saying it was a horrible movie. It was well-made and engaging but it could have SO much better!
 
Darn it. She should have had Mel Gibson direct it. It would have been a completely different film.
 
Gab123 said:
Wow, it sounds like they made a huge mistake with choosing that director.
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I donā€™t know about that. The director obviously wanted to communicate a different message.

The movie was done well, imo.
 
I for one, was grateful they included the Angel! The original movie didnā€™t include the visits from the Angel of Peace and this one did. Also, the introduction of a couple of the prayers were used. The Shrine of Fatima has given their approval of the movie, so thereā€™s that.

I enjoyed the movie.
 
I came upon this movie earlier but I had read that since COVID started it was gonna be delayed:(
 
Wendy1989 said:
I wasnā€™t able to see how much the stream cost until after midnight. I have Xfinity and Amazon Prime and both have the price listed as $19.99.
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I did a search on my Amazon Prime Video and it is not there. I suppose it is not available in Canada yet šŸ¤”
 
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I saw it in the theater with five other Catholics; everyone was really impressed with it and quite moved.

Positives: good storytelling and cinematography, great acting, and extremely high production values. Some of our group also mentioned being pleasantly surprised that they included the Angel of Peace. Many called out how excellent the soundtrack was.

Negatives: as mentioned above, it doesnā€™t explain the full message. It spent more time focusing on an overview of the Fatima events and the experience of it and how it affected the kids, their families, and the various townsfolk. Given the limitations of the movie format, I guess I wasnā€™t surprised with that artistic decision. I can see the complaint about Maryā€™s portrayal, although I thought they way they did it was sufficiently effective for the purpose of the movie.

I know we have a handful of Minnesotans on CAF, so I wanted to let them know that the only place itā€™s playing in Minnesota is the Woodbury 10 (in the eastern St. Paul/Minneapolis suburbs) and it should be there for at least two more weeks (itā€™s doing quite well for the theater). My wife and I are working with the theater owner to arrange private showings for staff of local Catholic schools, so if anyone has a connection at a school here, please PM me and I can send you more details you could forward to them.
 
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Wampa said:
I saw it in the theater with five other Catholics; everyone was really impressed with it and quite moved.
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I donā€™t go to theaters, and will not be doing so until the pandemic is well extinguished. I will see it on streaming video at home.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
I donā€™t go to theaters, and will not be doing so until the pandemic is well extinguished. I will see it on streaming video at home.
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I am generally in the same boat when it comes to indoor spaces. I only went to this movie showing because I knew the audience would be capped at 10 people and each couple sat at least 15 feet apart from each other.

But your comment reminded me of a point I forgot to mention in my post to Minnesotans. The reason the theater owner is offering private showings for school groups is so that the staff can feel safe only being in the theater with people they are already around at school. Heā€™s even offering to do them on days when the theater is closed, so no one else will even be in the building.
 
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