In the future of 1988, archbishop and political prisoner Kiril Lakota (Anthony Quinn) is finally freed from a Siberian labor camp by a deal made between Premier Piotr Ilyich Kamenev (Laurence Olivier) and the Vatican. During his first meeting with The Pope (John Gielgud), he is made a Cardinal, an honor he did not want. He also becomes acquainted with elderly Cardinal Leone (Leo McKern), who represents orthodoxy, and befriends sick Fr. David Telemond (Oskar Werner), who represents radical change. These are dangerous times as famine is pushing China to attack its neighbors, and the US and Soviet Union are looking at a nuclear response. And then the Pope dies, which is announced by news reporter George Faber (David Janssen).
People forget—I forget—that this is a science fiction film, at least lightly so. It’s set in the then future and involves political shifts in the world. It was also one of the last of the road show pictures. It’s 162 minutes, and has an intro and intermission. Critics are rightly harsh on its significant flaws, particularly that length, the unnecessary reporter and his subplot that goes nowhere, excessively long discussions of Telemond’s views, and a focus on pomp and circumstance over plot.
All of that is fair. Yet I love this film. Yes, it’s long, but it doesn’t feel it and sweeps me along. Yes, the reporter serves little purpose, but he doesn’t get in the way, and the scene with his wife meeting Kiril is excellent. Yes, it goes into a lot of detail on Telemond’s philosophy, but that allows me to become more emotionally invested with his trials. And yes, it’s filled with grand ceremony, but that’s the point. This is an epic film, not of action but of sumptuous pageantry. Perhaps the movie was made for me, a person brought up with Catholicism but who doesn’t dwell on it day-to-day. At times The Shoes of the Fisherman plays like a documentary on the election of popes, but shot so much more gloriously than any doc could manage. And sticking it in a sci-fi global frame gives a feeling of importance to all the scenes of grandiose architecture and magnificent wardrobes.
It’s been suggested that the film is a wishful fantasy, one in which the Church has unrealistic power to save the world, or let it die. Perhaps, but films are often wishful fantasies, and few are this sumptuous while having a very human core.
Anthony Quinn makes for a thoughtful, reserved lead. As a Mexican actor in the 1960s, he was given all the best non-American parts, so he played Arabs, Frenchmen, Eskimos, Greeks (a lot of Greeks), Spaniards, Romanians, Italians, and Mongols. He isn’t particularly believable as a Russian, but he doesn’t need to be in a film with Gielgud as an Italian pope. He does get across that Kiril is a man who doesn’t fit in with his surroundings, and that’s all that’s needed.
I can’t say that The Shoes of the Fisherman is a great film in whatever objective sense films are rated, but it is a great film for me.