The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima is a movie I've loved since I was about ten years old and first saw it at our local Marian shrine. How delightful that it's now available on DVD! In a reverent, and yet engaging way, it tells the story of the apparitions of Our Lady to three children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917.The score, by Academy Award winning composer Max Steiner (who also was nominated for an Academy Award for the music in this film) is particularly noteworthy. Beautiful!
The movie is sometimes unfavorably compared with its Academy Award winning predecessor, Song of Bernadette (another family favorite and certainly an excellent film). My feeling is that there's plenty of room for a somewhat lighter-toned, family friendly feature on a similar topic.
A couple of side notes (for those who may be interested in such things):
The story is slightly fictionalized for entertainment purposes. A friendly agnostic was created for comic relief and, as I understand it, Lucia's mother comes out better (more loving and sympathetic) and her father comes out worse (more troubled and inaccessible) than they were in real life. A silly little mistake in the beginning claims the date to be May 15th, but ends up being incidentally corrected a little later in the movie.
For more information on this film:
IMDB Entry
Decent Films Review
1952 New York Times Review
3 comments:
I love this movie. Yes, it's fictionalized, but in a way that makes it more accessable to everyone. The "friendly agnostic" character- the rogue (Gilbert Rowland in a wonderful role) is so charming that he draws us right into the film.
And it opens the door to interest in Fatima. The film feels like a "story" and when people find out it's based on a TRUE story... that is a good thing, especially if they try to find out more.
The ending was a bit weak- they ought to have used a different actress for the older Lucia. But that's a minor quibble.
I love both these movies! Even our kids were very interested in teh Fatima movie. Thanks for your movie articles.
Esther, I loved seeing this movie. I was 11 years old when it was first released. I remember my mother taking me on the trolly car to the Lowes movie theater in Providence, Rhode Island to see it. My Mother and my Grandmother always use to speak to me of Fatima and of Our Lady appearing to the three children there.
My Grandmother was still living in Portugal when the great miracle of the sun occured in October of 1917
She spoke to me of that all the time.
God Bless,
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