![Liberating a Continent: John Paul II and the Fall of Communism [DVD]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61kFi-2+ikL._AC_UL165_SR165,165_.jpg)
The 2002 documentary film "Witness to Hope," presented on this bare-bones DVD with only "play" and chapter stop features, is a remarkable accomplishment. Like George Weigel's source biography of the same name, it manages to be remarkably insightful about Karol Wojtyla's papacy, neither pulling its punches about acknowledging controversy nor simplistically idolizing him. Although produced by Catholics about a man who Pope Francis has now canonized as St. John Paul II, it interviews a wide variety of people from Polish political figures to Jimmy Carter's Polish-born national security advisor.
Most surprising of all, the interviews are uniformly in English, with even the Polish interviewees speaking it flawlessly! The historical dramatizations are also tastefully done, visualizing key moments without overwhelming the film, and balancing the interview footage remarkably well. The film avoids the extremes of being overly talky in its interviews and overly hokey/melodramatic in its dramatizations. Weigel's incisive analysis lurks behind every frame, even though he appears himself in the interview footage only rarely, which is another sign of the video's quality in that it focuses squarely on JPII and not on his official American biographer.
The film does a particularly nice job of tracing the early life of Karol Wojtyla including the death of his mom when he was 9, the death of his older brother when he was 12, the Nazi occupation of Poland, the Nazi deportation of his university professors, his efforts in the Polish underground, his choice to enter an underground seminary, and his father's death when he was 19. As the film traces his career, it emphasizes his intellect (professor of social ethics) and political saavy in dealing with the post-war communist government, making him ideally suited to become the pope who launched Solidarity and brought down Communism in Europe without firing a shot. It then alludes to his criticism of unbridled capitalism and secularism, which became the theme of his later years as pope. Despite billing Pope John Paul II as a "mystic" and intellectual artist, the film overwhelmingly views him in the light of secular admiration for his political genius, and is all the more effective for it.
The only downside to the film, and it's really minor, is that it feels slightly dated today. Filmed three years before JPII's death, it fails to provide any sort of retrospective or overall perspective of his papacy, and it does not include anything from his moving death and funeral. But in terms of professional artistry and coverage of the late pope's childhood, it's head and shoulders above every other documentary on the market.
I also like the DVD called "Credo," a musical tribute by Andrea Bocelli that features his voice singing arias over footage of JPII's life, death and funeral. It's very moving in an emotional way. The more recent film "Testimony" hosted by Michael York is my favorite video on JPII from his life to death, but limits itself to the perspective of the late pope's personal secretary, being based on his memoirs. Most of the network TV documentaries are disposable. Even today, "Witness to Hope" remains among the best video documentaries of John Paul II, despite not covering his later years and death.
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2014
- Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2013
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- Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2011
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Top reviews from other countries
- LeilaReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2016
WITNESS TO HOPE : THE LIFE OF JOHN PAUL 11 DVD
- Denise WattsReviewed in Canada on July 25, 2016
but I enjoyed "Karol, A man who became Pope" a lot ...
