Fascinating recounting of the Pope Juan Pablo II , Karol Wojtyla , his early life (1939-78 period) well played by Gary Elwes , and subsequent epoch magnificently acted by John Voight . The film concerns about the majestic figure , the Polish Pope Karol Wojtyla (John Voight , though Ian Holm was originally cast for the role but left for personal reasons) brought to the life at much expense and with sense and thought since his youth in Poland ,the early years , until his appointment as Pope of the Catholic church in Rome(1978). The movie starts on October 12,1939 when the evil men Nazis get taken the world , Nazis have invaded Poland , they've destroyed the Polish air force, 500 plane pulverised before they could take off , bombed cities , radio station , Churchs... Meanwhile Karol lives with his father but he wants to join the Army . He hides but the Nazis as well as the Russians have invaded the border . Hitler and Stalin made a pact ,the Red army has betrayed to Poland and now they don't take prisoners . Hitler appointed Hans Frank chief civilian officer for occupied Polish territory and then Governor-General of occupied Poland . Hans Frank described his policy in this post : ¨Poland shall be treated like a colony:the Poles will become the slaves of the Greater German Empire¨ . He destroyed Poland as a national entity and exploited its human and material resources for the German war effort . Frank ran Poland in imitation of the Nazi state.He ordered the killing of Polish Intelligence and Military officials in an attack of destruction and hatred against the Polish universities and the Catholic Church . He warned that Jews and Poles could be sentenced to death for any act of force against the German or for damage to a public installation , he confiscated Jewish and Polish property , he expropriated valuable paintings for his own house and he allowed huge quantities of food to be smuggled from Poland to Germany . By December 1942 more than 95 percent of the Jews in Poland had been transported to extermination camps . The future Pope must to confront these adversities and misfortunes,he suffers cruel experiences but the God's faith and the love is the cure for the badness . Then he assisted the holiness call and goes into the seminar and as priest he serves his first mass . After he's appointed bishop and Cardinal and continuing consoling the mankind . Later was elected Pope , the first no Italian from 1523. His second period dealt his fruitful pontiff (1978-2005) and the pastoral journeys he made to America , Mexico and many others countries, making an intense diplomatic labour and problems that were taking place in the Catholic church ,including the 1981 attack by Ali Agca . Thanks to his unshakable tenacity , Pope John Paul II helps to change the course of history : liberty in Poland helped by Lech Walesa and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 decrees the collapse of Communism . But the Pope does not stop being the voice of Christ, even among the injustices of the capitalistic Western world , even among the provocations and challenges of modern times , as developing the faith to inspire millions begins with the power of one .
The film captures splendidly the goodness and generosity of the immortal Pope . Cary Elwes as well as John Voight give fine acting portraying accurately the unforgettable Pope renovating the moral sense and thoughts , giving hope , fighting for human rights and winning the hearts of the people . Footage of the real Pope John Paul II , albeit with his face obscured , was used for a few scenes, most notably the televised meeting with foreign people and US President Ronald Reagan . The film was approved by the late Pope John Paul II. The project started before his death, and Pope John Paul II was very hands-on with the production and knew of the script ; also , Pope Benedict XVI praised the film after watching a screening on November 2005. The motion picture is magnificently played by an excellent plethora of support actors such as James Cromwell as Cardinal Adam Sapieha , Christopher Lee as Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski , Ben Gazzara as Cardinal Agostino Casaroli ,Vittoria Belvedere as Eva and the recently deceased Giuliano Gemma as Navarro Valls . Furthermore , Daniele Pecci as Roman , whose role is based on Jerzy Kluger, a Polish Jew and lifelong friend of Wojtyla . There also appears Pope Benedict XVI, he is briefly depicted in the film as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger played by Mikolaj Grabowski . Special mention to touching , evocative musical score by Marco Frisina , he is also a Roman Catholic priest and director of the Pastoral Worship Center at the Vatican . The picture was rightly directed by John Kent Harrison . This film's release smashed box office records in Pope John Paul II's native Poland.
Other films about this majestic figure are the followings : ¨Karol , the Pope , the Man¨ (2006) by Giacomo Battiato with Piotr Adamczyk as John Paul II , Michele Placido , Daniela Giordano and Leslie Hope ; ¨Have No Fear : The Life of Pope John Paul II¨ (2005) (TV) by Jeff Bleckner with Thomas Kretschmann as Pope John Paul II , Joaquim de Almeida as Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and Bruno Ganz as Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski "Karol: A Man Who Became Pope" (2005) with Piotr Adamczyk as Karol Wojtyla , Ken Duken as Adam Zielinski , Raoul Bova , Kenneth Welsh and Violante Placido , ¨Pope Juan Pablo II¨ by Herbert Wise with Albert Finney and Brian Cox , and ¨From a Far Country¨ (1981) by Zanussi with Sam Neill , Christopher Cazenove , Lisa Harrow and Daniel Olbrychski .
