The Magdalene Sisters (2002)

Shocking and Truthful

This movie is a realistic look at the abuse of girls and women by Roman Catholic priest and nuns in "homes for wayward girls" in Ireland. These "homes" were basically white slavery, revenue producers and baby mills for the Roman Catholic church (RCC). No one after seeing this movie could deny that the abuse in the RCC is localized to a few bad apples in the RCC. With over 50,000 girls going through this horrible experience it is no wonder that people are leaving RCC is losing members.
The movie is well made "docudrama" with good production quality. Although it is shocking to see, it is nonetheless very truthful. If you do not have a strong stomach, this is not the movie for you.
While the characters are composites of the thousands of girls that passed through theses homes. The interviews on the "extra section" with the women who experienced these horrors is especially moving.
I would recommend this movie as an expose of the abuse that happens when a nation lets the RCC have its way. After these abuses were made known, it caused the collapse of the government resulting in elections and reforms.

October 24, 2008

Good

Brutally psychopathic lesbian nuns and lascivious pedophile priests. What else is new? No, seriously, watching the DVD of The Magdalene Sisters was like a time machine for me. Not that I was ever an unwed mother in an Irish hellhole run by religious extremists, but I did grow up in a poor neighborhood that was patrolled by reprobate and psychotic cops that made the bad cops in Serpico look virginal, by comparison. Those cops, as the nuns in the film, ruled by terror and brutality. People were assaulted and humiliated and denigrated for the least of reasons.
This film could have easily veered off track into a running anti-Catholic joke or screed, but its artistic `reality' is too levelheaded to allow that. Basically, last century in Ireland was a misogynist's utopia. Young women were horded off to laundries to do slave labor for the Roman Catholic church, under the guidance of nuns from the Magdalene sisterhood, whose hope was to redeem prostitutes, unwed mothers, and other `fallen girls'. The title is a play off this fact and three young women who are the stars of the film. Based upon real women, although for dramatic purposes their tales are condensed into the 1960s (the DVD's documentary Sex In A Cold Climate shows the women the lead characters were based on, and their age range varies over a quarter of a century). Why the 1960s and not the 1940s seems only to be for the belief among many artists that this was the last period of social justice in the world. The three girls represent different archetypes of `fallen women': the orphan and would be prostitute and sexual temptress Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff), whose crime is flirting with boys at Catholic school; the unwed mother Rose- called Patricia by the nuns (Dorothy Duffy), whose child is taken away from her by her parents, and rape/incest victim Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone), whose brutalizing by her cousin, is followed by her parents shipping away, until her younger brother- who cried out for her as she was taken away, comes to rescue her four years later.... The Catholic Church in Ireland condemned this 2003 film, which is no surprise, but given its problems with pedophile priests, does anyone watching this really believe the claims of sadistic lesbian nuns is NOT credible! That these Magdalene laundry camps were run until 1996 is amazing (in the worst sense), but all too emblemic of the evils of all religion- from the Crusades and Inquisitions, Martin Luther to Torquemada, the Conquistadores and the Taliban. Writer/director Peter Mullan never veers into caricature, which says alot, given the subject matter, and the acting is utterly superb. McEwan, as Sister Bridget, reeks wickedry like few characters in film history. Even Nurse Ratched, from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, seems kind-hearted by comparison. And this film is worlds better than a similarly-themed film from a few years ago, Girl, Interrupted, which seemed more like a chicks behind bars film. None of the actresses in The Magdalene Sisters are likely to become sex symbols, like the collagen lipped and breast enhanced Angelina Jolie. They are attractive, but real looking.
September 19, 2008

This film made me mad

I felt disgusted watching this film, yet was unable to turn it off. I was utterly amazed that these atrocities actually occured and very recently at that. This is a very serious movie about a serious subject matter. The actresses do an amazing job of portraying the victimized and imprisoned girls who get tortured in practically every way you can think of. The woman who plays the main nun is shockingly good and really makes you believe that there are true terrors in this world. Everyone should see this film, if only to learn something that I was only recently made aware of. June 10, 2008

Shameful Chapter in Irish CHurch History

Three girls are sent separately to an institution run by nuns in 1960s Ireland to be reformed for sexual misbehavior.The opening sequences show each girl's individual circumstances and the incredibly unfair judgement in all three cases.

Once there they are subjected to a life of servitude and discipline that is rendered in the film as unbearably horrible. The girls adapt to their surroundings to a degree and the film becomes the story of how they struggle to retain some sense of independence and dignity in the repressive surroundings ruled over by a group of insensitive and sadistic nuns.

The Magdalene laundry's that were run as a sort of a reformatory system for wayward girls was an aspect of Irish Catholic history that was not well known to me and it is revealed in this story as a seriously abusive and embarrassing chapter in the history of the Church in Ireland.

The film is tightly put together with barely a wasted scene and the acting is superb. From the opening wedding sequence you have the sense that this will be different and the film does not disappoint. Nora Jane Noone's performance stands out but the entire cast is very good. May 27, 2008

An extremely serious look at a very serious problem

Women have always been treated unfairly. If you don't know that then you must have a labotomy or have blinders on. "The Magdalene Sisters" raises my ire again as we are forced to take a look at how the Irish (NOT ALL IRISH...RELAX) dealt with "problem" girls.This film is so gripping that if you don't walk away incensed and PO'd then somethings wrong.After watching Indian films such as "Water" and "Earth" I, as a man, am again reminded that women have had a raw deal and thank God that films like this are made to expose these awful doings.
RATING: A+++
Price rating: Reasonable,you may want to rent it. October 23, 2007

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