THE SCARLETT & THE BLACK

REVIEWED BY JENNY SAWYER

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: thematic elements

Rated:

In a world of gory, plotless war movies, The Scarlet and the Black is an excellent choice for the movie fanatic of that genre. Originally titled The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican, the movie stars Gregory Peck as an endearing Irish priest named Hugh O'Flaherty, who uses his diplomatic neutrality to hide escaped POWs throughout Rome. He is well-countered by Christopher Plummer (Sound of Music fans will be surprised to find him a Nazi with children named Liesl and Franz) as Colonel Herbert Kappler, the captain of the Rome Gestapo and SS ranks.

It is 1943, and Rome has just been taken by the Nazi forces. Only the neutral Vatican City, capital of the Catholic church, is a safe spot for justice and freedom. In the opening scenes of the movie, Kappler visits Pope Pius to inform him that the Nazis have decided to respect the papacy and its land, but that a large white line will be painted across St. Peter's Square to show the German soldiers where their reign ends. "Every day it becomes more of a prison," comments Pius, realizing that line is not to keep the soldiers out -- but to keep him in.

In the meantime, Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, a high-ranking priest whose brothers were murdered by the British guard in Ireland, has put aside his hatred of the British to help escaped RAF pilots and others find safety in Rome. He walks on thin ice, however -- the Vatican is bursting at its seams with refugees and the Nazis know it. It doesn't take Kappler very long to pinpoint the priest as the center of the operation that has over 4,000 people hidden in and around Rome. He sends a message that, priest or no, O'Flaherty will be arrested and killed if he is seen outside the white line. O'Flaherty, however, pays no attention to the warning and stands defiant daily, reading his Bible just a few feet on his own side of the white line, inches from Nazi guards, waiting for refugees to walk up to him and ask for protection... all in full view of the enraged Kappler.

It doesn't take long for Kappler to become obsessed with killing this blatant monsignor. But try as he might, he can't seem to get a hold on the priest, despite the fact that he persists on being seen at all the fashionable gatherings in Rome. A near-fatal error, however, gives Kappler a chance and sends the operations of the priest crashing round his head suddenly -- and it will take every ounce of his clever mind to save the thousands of people under his protection.

For a fairly recent and modern-looking war film (the movie was filmed in 1983) the story is remarkably clean. The action doesn't take place on the front lines of battle; however, there is still a fair amount of violence. A dozen or so people are shot on the screen in cold blood, many of them as they try to run away from the Nazis on the streets. Jews are rounded up in the ghettos to be deported to concentration camps, and riots ensue in which Nazis repeatedly shoot and beat people into submission. Several priests are tortured and executed, but most of the violence is handled tactfully. There is little blood -- the worst of it being when one of the movie's female characters sticks a needle deep into her palm while hiding some socks she was knitting for an escaped prisoner. Language is also present but not abundant -- two uses of "d_mn" by Kappler and a few questionable uses of "hell" and the Lord's name, one or two of them by a priest. Several of these could be argued as appropriate because of the setting, but it is still worth a warning.

Sexual references are essentially none -- one of the RAF refugees implies the widow assisting O'Flaherty in his operations is really his mistress, but the question is mildly put and the widow tells him she is only helping with the refugees. The only other downside to the movie is its length -- nearly two and a half hours. Fortunately, it is fairly fast-paced. The movie's theme is basically Christian -- helping with need, and the struggles of what is right versus what is safe. The tense midnight conclusion in the Coliseum leads to a result that will have Christians cheering -- and the best part is that it is all a true story. The shining light of one man during dark times is a hope and an inspiration for generations to come -- and brings about the changing of many hardened hearts, even in the places one might least expect it.

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