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Stigmata (1999)
Rate:
3
Viewed:
9/18
9/18:
Here's an oxymoron: Catholic scientist.
Replace the first word with any religion denomination, and the difference will still be the same. Over 90% of self-respecting
scientists don't believe in religion. Even Albert Einstein never cared for it. The job of a Catholic scientist is to
travel all over the world to prove or disprove miracles or fantastic phenomenons that have occurred in the name of religion. I
admit this job title has made me laugh hard because all religions are nothing but man-made, power-grabbing, and
money-making enterprises.
Enter Stigmata. Many viewers accused it of being a rip-off of The Exorcist. However, I've found both having
little in common save for a couple of ripped-off trademark moments that are owned by The Exorcist.
Instead, what I saw is a boring movie that drags a lot on the story side. Patricia Arquette projects an unappealing look which
says "see, I'm just a stupid idiot." Gabriel Byrne's eyes will be like "yes, my dear, I know all about it, but I desperately
need you prove to me that God isn't a fraud."
Some scientist Gabriel Byrne's character is since he said Earth was six billion years old when in fact it's approximately
1.5 billion years less. The filmmakers claim to spend over a year researching the subject for the film, but they fail
to recognize that Catholic cardinals, as played by Jonathan Pryce, are forbidden to wear beards.
By the way, there's no such thing as a stigmata; if it did occur, it's usually an act of self-mutilation in desperate search for
attention like how Bernadette of Lourdes did. In fact, nobody can prove Jesus Christ ever existed. Not a single historian during the
first century wrote anything about him. There are no Roman records, which were extensively kept, of his existence, either.
At best, he was an amalgam of many people who lived at that time and, at worst, a figment of somebody's imagination.
Instead of wasting time on such fantastic rubbish bullshit about stigmata and exorcism, why not make a prescient film
about child sex abuse at the hand of the Catholic Church? There have been enough films about religious miracles. But science wasn't
properly developed back then to verify anything which explains why, when it finally was, the number of them had been
dramatically reduced to almost none.
All in all, unlike The Exorcist, Stigmata can never be interesting enough to draw my attention.