The Two Popes (2019) is quite an interestingly intimate and human take on Christianity that we rarely see in films that are about Christianity or have themes of Christianity in them.

In most Christian films that I am familiar with, they often glorify or romanticise the religion, sometimes even to the extreme by dehumanising or even demonising those who are not Christian or are sceptical of the religion while also angelise the followers or the believers of the religion.

I think that this is not appealing and does not give room for discussion or exploration of the religion and how it evolved over the years and it is mostly propaganda, especially when some parts of the world such as the U.S. heavily integrate religion with politics (sometimes even indoctrinate it) that some people actually use this for profit or for personal gain.

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But in the Two Popes, it is actually quite different and I felt this too when I saw the series, the Young Pope.

In this film, there is a human feel in the story. The religion is not as heavily romanticised as I often felt whenever I encountered a film that promotes this religion.

It delves more in the human and sometimes even the political and philosophical element of the religion as well. In the film, not every Christian (or Roman Catholic for that matter because the Pope is the head of the Roman Catholic church) thinks the same. Heck, not even the Pope and there were plenty of arguments and discourse between Pope Benedict XVI and the later Pope Francis.

The popes are not depicted as this purely holy figure that can do no wrong and is always connected to God. Heck, even the Pope is shown to express doubts or thinks that he is not as connected to God as he once was. We are shown elements of the two popes sharing their own experiences about their development and growth with the religion but at the same time, it shows that not everyone is 100% sure that they are as devoted as they think they are meant to be since even the religion itself is open to different interpretations.

On top of that, we get to see the two popes being quite human. We see Pope Benedict playing the piano or simply drinking Fanta instead of the usual red wine during mass.

We see the two popes eating pizza in the Vatican and we later see the two popes watching football with beer on their side.

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It was honestly a really interesting and funny and compelling take on the portrayal of the religion as a whole and the people who are involved in the religion especially the fact that the film focused a lot on two popes who are often deemed as holy in many aspects but in truth, they are as human as everyone else.

Submitted April 17, 2021 at 11:07PM by sammyjamez https://ift.tt/3e3VP24