El crimen del Padre Amaro, or The Crime of Father Amaro, a character driven film directed by Carlos Carrera depicts a life of a priest who has been newly ordained. He was assigned at Los Reyes, Mexico, the place that changed his life. He was to assist the old priest, Father Benito. In the beginning of the movie, we see how kind the priest was. He lent some of his money to the man who sat beside him after being robbed at the bus. At the church, he showed integrity and compassion to keep the church in order. As days past, he sees what the church had kept from the eyes of the people. He found out that Fr. Benito had sexual relations with a local café proprietor Sanjuanera and accepts money from drug lords to be used at the building of the hospital. He also found out that another priest was helping the guerillas. A young girl who was madly in love with the church fell in love with Fr Amaro which her boyfriend noticed. Such conflict occurred which led to a breakup, and further led her boyfriend, Ruben, to write a story about the church regarding the money laundering. As problems rose, so did the lust of Fr. Amaro towards Amelia. He gave in to the temptations and had sexual relations with Amelia which impregnated her. Instead of being a father to his child, he pushes Amelia to abort the child. The abortion caused Amelia’s death which Fr. Amaro all passed the blame to Ruben.
After watching the film, I questioned if it were banned from the cinemas for almost all the citizens of Mexico were catholic which means that they respect their priest. If such movies were shown, it might cause the people to question the church and loose its trust. I found out that Roman Catholic indeed tried to ban such movie but they failed which made this film a huge hit.
The movie was set at Los Reyes, Mexico, where Fr. Amaro was assigned. Gael García Bernal, who played Fr. Amaro, was truly excellent. He had done his role well which kept the people guessing what he’d do next. Ana Claudia Talancón, as Amelia, also did her work gracefully. She showed how a young lady would do in such cases. The theme was about love and sin: Love between him and his priesthood, and love between him and Amelia; and Sins in forms of lust, betrayal, and greed shown by the priests themselves. The use of music in the film was appropriate including the sex scenes. If both were not in movie, it would have made really dull. Accroding to Malone, the style of the film is that of the telenovella so popular in recent years in Latin America. Critics from less emotional societies find the telenovella style particularly melodramatic, highly volatile and emotional with characters and situations often presented in broad and sweeping strokes. This is an accepted way of storytelling. As the critic for Variety shrewdly pointed out, the audiences for which El Crimen was geared would have no trouble in appreciating its style. There was one cinematic flaw that I noticed. It was when Fr. Amaro was beaten up by Ruben who gave him bruises but as he went to the church and saw Amelia, the bruises were suddenly gone.
People would directly question the church after the movie, generally speaking. But as for me, I came to a conclusion as to what the movie was really trying to tell the viewers. The movie is trying to show what could happen behind the walls of the church or it may simply depict the natures of any men and women. Basically, the movie itself was a symbolism how easily people could be tempted to commit any form of sin.
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