Concetta Seminara

I would say that the movie was very uneven. The political drama was in need of better plot development and editing. However, overall the film makes a good effort to teach about the era in which Saint Pio lived. And I disagree with much of the feedback on this thread because the political issues plaguing Italy in 1920 are/were important to the story of Christian salvation. There’s even a line in the film uttered by the fascist general character (?) in which he notes that a Communist upheaval will end in closed churches and murdered priests. That backdrop of fear is crucial to understanding the simple people who St. Pio served and his ministry to them. Shia LaBoeuf’s performance was very solid and impressive. It’s clear why he chose to convert to Catholicism after making the film. My slight disappointment, however, was language related. Since LaBoeuf obviously only performs in English, the rest of the cast had to perform English with Italian accents, some not as clear/ smooth as others. This language choice was somewhat irritating, and I would’ve preferred the movie be in Italian. I do have some responses to the various criticisms read in previous reviews: For those who thought the movie focused too much on the contemporary politics of 1920 Italy, I think they missed a major point of the movie. Padre Pio didn’t become a saint in Disney Land. As he struggled and battled Satan in a war to save souls from Hell through the Confessional, the world outside was falling apart with strife, corruption, violence, etc. The director showed the world as it was. With all due respect to my fellow Catholics who panned the film in this thread, I must ask, do you think saints become saints in a bubble and that’s it’s a process without any discomfort, pain, or ugliness? Would you have preferred an unrealistic, sanitized (pardon me, EWTN-style) depiction of what it’s like to fight the Devil himself? Are you yourselves only Catholic when you’re safely at Mass and it “feel safe”? Because truly following our Faith IS difficult, and the journey of faith can be fraught with various temptations, disappointments, and abject fear. The brief and disgusting nudity by the demon desecrating a sacred image of the Virgin Mary was jarring. But I don’t believe that it was entirely gratuitous in that it showed how the Devil torments the holiest among us and is constantly seeking to destroy souls. For those who thought the film didn’t include any references to St. Pio’s gifts of discernment of souls’ true penitence or of his bilocation abilities. There are scenes that show /allude to both of his holy gifts. My only question of the script writers was St. Pio’s use of the F- word during the very dramatic and appropriately disturbing confession scene; that crude language just seemed off. And for those who thought the director was “trying to make the Catholic Church look bad.” No, the film shows the awful truth. Bad Catholics have always made the Church look bad. And good Catholics, thank God, uphold the Church and some even become saints. There’s a reason the director shows us the stark difference between the cowardly and corrupt priest who takes the wealthy family’s money and “looks the other way” at their gross immorality, while St. Pio is literally fighting Satan and passionately suffering for his love of Jesus. And our Lord rewards him by giving him the Stigmata. I believe that was why that he is only shown with the Stigmata at the very end of the movie.