Drama Films

"[struggling to walk] I'm a sportsman! I've always been a sportsman! Now every step I take, is like a knife."

"Watching this film has renewed in me a sense of profound gratitude to God for having given the Church and the world a Pope of such an exalted human and spiritual nature."

"When you have a person who's the most recorded person in history, you have a lot of information coming at you, and it's him-not people talking about him, but him. You can look at his behavior, feel his emotion, see how he touches people, hear his own words in your language, because he spoke so many languages. It's a treasury that's a tremendous gift for all of us. I'm thinking, with all this available, why do we need a fictionalized portrait? But I found that interpreting him was a great joy for me, and I felt we did bring some things to the table that made it a responsible contribution."

"Christopher Lee - Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński"

"[First Encyclical 'Redemptor Hominis'] Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is comprehensible for himself. His life is senseless. If love is not revealed to him. If he does not encounter love. If he does not experience it, make it his own. If he does not participate intimately in it..."

"Friendship is one of God's greatest gifts. A rare place where the truth is spoken."

"[learning about his illness] Let's get to it. I have work to do."

"I wish to sing a hymn of praise to Divine Providence which has allowed me to come home as a pilgrim. [the crowd of people cheer] I son of polish land. I John Paul Two. I shout from all the depths of this Millennium, I cry on the vigil of Pentecost: Lord, let your spirit descend! Let your spirit descend and renew the face of the earth. The face of this land!"

"To discover your own unique person. This is a difficult undertaking. To become what you must become. You are asked to make sacrifices to bear burdens, and why you do all of this? It is a time in your life, you are asked to encounter the mystery of God. I can tell you this: When your way becomes too difficult. You must always remember, you are not alone. You are not alone. The living God walks beside you. He is, and always will be, your best friend. I also can say to you: I feel so refreshed by our celebration together this day that I believe we must repeat it next year. And the year after, and the year after that! We will call it - we will call it "World Youth Day"! It is our invention! How beautiful you are! God bless you all!"

"[to Cardinal Ratzinger] It's worth suffering for the truth. Without such will, we should not undertake that path. These words are yours, aren't they?"

"James Cromwell - Adam Stefan Cardinal Sapieha"

"I leave no property behind me of which it is necessary to dispose. My personal notes are to be band. I ask that this be attended to by Father Stanislaw, whom I thank for his collaboration and help, so prolonged over the years and so understanding. As for all other thanks, I must leave them in my heart before God himself. Because it is difficult to express them."

"I believe this film constitutes the latest example of the love that the people had for Pope Wojtyla and their desire to remember him, to see him again and to feel him close."

"Freedom to worship is a sacrosanct right of workers, all workers! And the fact that we are all here together demonstrates that this Catholic community is already a reality! As we stand here in the middle of Nowa Huta! There is already a church!"

"[when being asked about the Soviets removing their cross from Nowa Huta] Next Christmas, we shall put it back. We will put it back until it stays."

"[to his friends on sexuality] Listen, sexuality is dear to God. As long as it is an expression of true love. It is the matter we use to give ourselves to another person. Not for fun or for a moment. But completely. Sexuality expressed in an irresponsible moment is only another way that we can dehumanise each other."

"[seeing Roman for the first time after years] Praise God's mercy."

"Man does not live by rocks alone."

"Faced with this abyss of evil. I can only respond with an abyss of love."

"I will do whatever God asks."

"[praying] Is this what you always intended to guide me? Like me, perhaps Peter felt great trepidation. Perhaps he would prefer to remain by his lake, with his boat and his nets, like me. In you, there must be suffering ahead. The pope needs to be intimate with suffering. So, guided by you, he arrived here. And now you ask me... to leave Kraków, and my people, my friends, my beloved mountains. If this... is real. So be it. Mary, Totus Tuus. I am all yours."

"[now the new Pope, speaking in Italian] Praised be Jesus Christ. ["Always be praised"] Dear Brothers and Sisters, the eminent Cardinals have called a new bishop of Rome. They have called him from a far country... Also I don't know if... if I can make myself clear in your, in our Italian language. If I make a mistake, I know you will correct me."

"I am not a pope who will stay cloistered. I must get out. I must have contact, or I cannot be a pasture."

"I want to be your voice, the voice of those who cannot speak. The voice of those who are silenced. The voice of the worker who can no longer wait for the full recognition of his dignity as a man and the Son of God."

"[after his last public appearance] We will try again tomorrow..."

"We have been called to an impossible task. We can only trust in God and let him lead us."

"Tara Fitzgerald as Miriam – The sister of Moses and Aaron, only daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and a descendant of Levi"

"Kevork Malikyan as Jethro – Zipporah's father, and Moses' father-in-law and Gershom's grandfather"

"Anton Alexander as Dathan – The son of Eliab, and a descendant of Reuben (a son of Jacob and Leah)"

"Ghassan Massoud as Paser, Ramesses II's Grand Vizier"

"Ewen Bremner as Expert"

"Dar Salim as Khyan"

"Golshifteh Farahani as Nefertari – The wife of Ramesses II"

"Hiam Abbass as Bithiah – The adoptive mother of Moses, Seti I's sister, Ramesses II's aunt, daughter of Ramesses I (Paramessu)"

"Indira Varma as High Priestess"

"Isaac Andrews as Malak – The mysterious little boy who serves as a manifestation of the God of Abraham."

"Maria Valderde as Zipporah – The wife of Moses and the mother of Gershom, and a daughter of Jethro"

"The Washington Posts Stephanie Merry zeroes in on Scott's decision to portray God as "a bratty and terrifying pre-teen," played by 11-year-old Isaac Andrews. It's "but one absurd choice in this biblical action drama that feels excessive in every way imaginable, from running time (nearly 2 1/2 hours) to melodramatic acting to the conspicuous amount of computer generation." Merry also writes, "Among the movie's myriad problems is its lack of character development. There are passing attempts at humanizing larger-than-life characters …. But there's a much greater emphasis on battles and apocalyptic images than on personal stories." All told, the movie "has much more in common with 'The Day After Tomorrow' and other examples of disaster porn than 'The Ten Commandments' or 'The Passion of the Christ' or even 'Noah' from earlier this year.""

"In a slightly more favorable review, the Chicago Tribunes Michael Phillips calls the movie "Not great; not bad. Those anticipating a camp hoot will be disappointed. For all his reliance on digital effects, director Scott's sensibilities lean old-school, and he has sense enough to keep everybody on screen in the same movie, working hard and earnestly and with a seriousness of purpose. And now and then, some wit." Phillips adds, "Momentous conversations periodically grind any retelling of the Moses story to a halt, but Scott keeps his head down, plows through and then gets out of the way while visual effects supervisor Peter Chiang and his slave army take it on home.""

"While Ridley Scott is rightly hailed as a master cinematic world-builder, Exodus' ancient Egypt sometimes feels small and CG-heavy despite the use of practical sets, locations and swooping camera moves meant to convey an “epic” feel. The grandeur and scale of Rome that Scott's Gladiator conveyed is missing in his depiction of Egypt. More impressive, though, is his execution of the Ten Plagues, which are realized here as frightening elements worthy of a horror movie. As effective as the frogs and locusts sequences are it’s Scott’s depiction of the death of the first born that is especially frightening. But what should be the film’s most impressive and memorable set-piece, the parting of the Red Sea, feels rather underwhelming after the Ten Plagues. Perhaps you can't out-DeMille Cecil B. DeMille."

"Christian Bale as Moses – The adoptive son of Bithiah, the son of Amram and Jochebed, brother of Aaron and Miriam, the husband of Zipporah and father of Gershom, and the descendant of Levi (son of Jacob and Leah)"

"Making extensive use of computer-generated imagery as well as 3-D (which, frankly, takes some getting used to), "Exodus" is heavily into pharaonic color and pageantry, giving us charging chariots, seething crowds, warring armies, the whole nine yards, often viewed from a god's eye overhead perspective. Despite the best efforts of all those writers, however, the dramatic side of "Exodus" alternates between being completely solemn and unintentionally silly, with lines of dialogue like a snarky Aaron telling his son, "This is your famous uncle Moses" being more the rule than the exception. In this it is not as far as it thinks from the gold calf standard of biblical epics, "The Ten Commandments," a story that Cecil B. DeMille liked so much he filmed it twice. As with the DeMille ventures, enjoyment here involves managing expectations and not taking things too seriously."

"Joel Edgerton as Ramses II – The son of Seti I and Queen Tuya, and the husband of Nefertari"

"That’s not to say faith leaders are going to urge congregations to flock to the theatres, however. Scott offers a secular out for every instance of the legendarily miraculous. Thus, the burning bush and everything that follows can be attributed to Moses (Bale, well-cast with his glower dialed up to 11) getting conked on the head by a falling rock after he’s cast out of Egypt by Pharaoh Ramses (Edgerton, resplendent in gold and kohl). There’s a wonderfully droll scene in Ramses’ court as his physician (Bremner, Trainspotting’s Spud) attempts to explain the finer points of how one plague logically leads to the next, via what we now call “bacteria.” Scott and his quartet of writers squeeze the Book of Exodus down to its most basic tenets, rendering it both a story of God-crossed pseudo-siblings and a thunderous series of generally awesome (as in “awe-inspiring”), CGI-assisted, action set-pieces. The parting of the Red Sea is preceded by a shot of Moses sleepily catching a glimpse of what appears to be a meteor crashing far out into the waves, which raises the question: Yahweh or tsunami? Or both? It doesn’t matter; the watery result is everything “epic” should be."

"Banish all memories of a hambone, harrumphing Old Testament Charlton Heston as Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, the 1956 campfest that TV shoves at us during religious holidays. DeMille’s once-thrilling parting of the Red Sea plays today like CG primitivism. Director Ridley Scott (Gladiator) is determined not to make his Exodus: Gods and Kings old-hat. But he’s after way more than FX pow – although wait until you see that Red Sea heave in 3D and the damage done by those 10 deadly plagues, from crocodiles, frogs and locusts to the death of every first-born in Egypt."

""Exodus: Gods and Kings" is one film where spoiler alerts aren't necessary. Both the Bible and the big screen have so prominently featured the story of fearless prophet Moses and hard-hearted Pharaoh's refusal to let his people go that the events depicted in this latest reenactment will not be news to anyone. But that familiarity doesn't mean there aren't surprises to be had, and not always welcome ones. Gone, gone, gone is the traditional depiction of the Almighty as an unseen voice in the clouds: A snarky, querulous 11-year-old boy gets the call instead. Even more unsettling, the Red Sea doesn't dramatically part the way we've gotten used to; it just kind of fades away, only to come roaring back when no one is expecting it. Some nerve."

"John Turturro as Seti I – The father of Ramesses II, the son of Ramesses I (Paramessu) and Queen Tuya's husband"

"Exodus: Gods and Kings comes to us courtesy of 20th Century Fox, which is distributing Ridley Scott’s $140 million would-be epic. The producers this time around are Chernin Entertainment, Scott Free Productions, Babieka, and Volcano Films. The film opens wide in America on December 12th, 2014, and it has already opened in some overseas markets as of December 3rd. Over the next few months, it will of course attempt to play a two-sided game. On on hand, the film will be targeting the overtly religious moviegoers that have made quite a bit of noise this year. On the other hand, 20th Century Fox wants the general moviegoers worldwide who just want a major spectacle-filled blockbuster regardless of the film’s would-be religious dogma."

"While the visuals can only be described using superlatives, some bits involving interpersonal relationships could have been more developed. However, scenes involving Moses and Ramses are often electrifying. So is the 'burning bush' sequence. The battles will take your breath away – crashing chariots, splintering spears, flaming arrows, metal against metal and more gore than you'd expect to see. Ramses's cold-blooded disregard for human life is shocking. But then the Ten Plagues unleashed on the Egyptians by God as punishment are unrelenting in their devastation. The Nile runs blood red, overflowing with dead fish. Masses of flies spread dread and disease. Clouds of locusts ravage crops and a sinister shadow of death creeps across the accursed land like a cold hand. Exodus: Gods and Kings is 'spectacle' with a capital 'S' and in more ways than one, definitely epic."

"Ben Mendelsohn as Viceroy Hegep"