The Shoes of the Fisherman
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It has been suggested that this article be split into articles entitled The Shoes of the Fisherman (film), accessible from a disambiguation page. (Discuss) |
| The Shoes of the Fisherman | |
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| Directed by | Michael Anderson |
| Written by | Morris West |
| Starring | Laurence Olivier Anthony Quinn John Gielgud Oskar Werner |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | 1968 |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Shoes of the Fisherman is a 1963 novel by Morris West, as well as a 1968 film based upon it.
The book reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for adult fiction on June 30, 1963, and it was the #1 bestselling novel in the United States for that year, according to Publishers Weekly.
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[edit] Plot
Set during the Cold War, The Shoes of the Fisherman opens as protagonist Kiril Pavlovich Lakota, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv, is unexpectedly set free after twenty years in a Siberian labor camp. He is sent to Rome, where the elderly Pope Pius XII raises him to the cardinalate in the title of St. Athanasius. (The novel has him as a bearded Ukrainian, but the movie has him as Russian.)
When the Pontiff dies, Lakota finds himself elected Pope when the Cardinals cannot decide between the leading candidates. But as Pope Kiril I (using his baptismal name), he is plagued by self-doubt, by his years in prison, and by a Western world he knows little about.
The world is in a state of crisis: a famine in China is exacerbated by U.S. restrictions on Chinese trade and the ongoing Chinese-Soviet feud. Can he find a solution before it is too late?
Morris West's protagonist Lakota is inspired by the life of Ukrainian Catholic Cardinal Josyf Slipyj. Coincidently Slipyj was released by Nikita Khrushchev's administration from a Siberian Gulag in 1963, the year of the novel's publication, after political pressure from Pope John XXIII and United States President John F. Kennedy. He arrived in Rome in time to participate in the Second Vatican Council.
A major secondary plot in the novel and the film is the Pope's relationship with a theologian and scientist, Father Telemond (Jean Telemond in the book, David Telemond in the film), who is clearly based on the controversial French Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The Pope becomes a close personal friend of Telemond. To his deep regret, in his official capacity, he must allow the Holy Office to censure Telemond for his heterodox views. To the Pope's deep grief, the shock of the censure combined with his chronic medical problems kills Father Telemond.
He realizes, however, that if the troubles in China continue, the cost would be a war that could ultimately rip the world apart. Knowing this he must seek to convince the Western World as well as the Catholic Church to open up its resources to aid. He states in the movie he is willing to do this even if it means bankrupting the Catholic Church itself.
[edit] Cast
- Anthony Quinn .... Kiril Lakota
- Laurence Olivier .... Piotr Ilyich Kamenev
- Oskar Werner .... Fr. David Telemond
- David Janssen .... George Faber
- Vittorio De Sica .... Cardinal Rinaldi
- Leo McKern .... Cardinal Leone
- John Gielgud .... The Elder Pope
- Burt Kwouk .... Peng
- Arnoldo Foà .... Gelasio
- Leopoldo Trieste .... Dying Man's Friend
[edit] Production
The film was originally a project of the British director Anthony Asquith but he became ill and was replaced by Michael Anderson (Asquith died in 1968).
[edit] Real world events
In October 1978, the conclave elected a Slavic cardinal from a Marxist dominated country, John Paul II.
[edit] External links
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