Pope John Paul II (2005) (TV)

Director:

John Kent Harrison

Writers (WGA):

John Kent Harrison (teleplay)
Francesco Contaldo (earlier teleplay)

Release Date:

4 December 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

Following the premature death of his mother, Karol Wojtyla is brought up by his father in the Polish...

Plot Keywords:

Pope | Poland | Cardinal | Bishop | Church

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Jon Voight	...	Pope John Paul II / Karol Wojtyla
Cary Elwes	...	Young Karol Wojtyla
James Cromwell	...	Cardinal Adam Sapieha
Christopher Lee	...	Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski
Ben Gazzara	...	Cardinal Agostino Casaroli
Daniele Pecci	...	Roman
Vittoria Belvedere	...	Eva
Giuliano Gemma	...	Navarro Valls
Ettore Bassi	...	Gapa
Wenanty Nosul	...	Stanislaw Dziwisz
Stefano Molinari	...	SS Officer
Valeria Cavalli	...	Teresa
Bartosz Glogowski	...	SS Officer
Chiara Conti	...	Anna
Bianca Nappi	...	Vittoria

Also Known As:

Giovanni Paolo II (Italy)
Jan Pawel II (Poland)

Runtime:

USA:186 min (including commercials) | Poland:127 min (theatrical version) | Italy:201 min (2 parts) | Poland:171 min (4 episodes)

Country:

Italy | USA | Poland

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Augustus)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Australia:M | Finland:K-11

Filming Locations:

Italy

Company:

Baltmedia

Trivia:

CBS trimmed the first installment of the miniseries for the Vatican screening, bringing the four-hour film down to 90 minutes.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: After Wojtyla accepts the papal election, the cardinals rise and applaud. The camera then pans in towards the new Pope. However, if you look closely, it is actually the mirror image shot from the previous conclave, with John Paul I clearly in the middle of it all instead of John Paul II.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Catherine Zeta-Jones/Franz Ferdinand (#31.3)" (2005)

Only watched the first half so far...

Just the first half of this movie is inspiring and movie and the performance of Elwes and Voight (Thus Far with his small part in the first half) are beautiful and worthy of an Emmy. I was a little concerned when I first saw Elwes as the young Cardnial he has always been the Dred Pirate Roberts/Dear Wesley to me (Sorry Cary didn't mean to type cast you) but after watching his performance it really legitimizes his acting for me. As far as Voight goes from the moment I saw him dressed in the papal robes I knew his performance would be spectacular. I should have waited until I saw the entire mini-series before posting a review but I couldn't help it because the first part was SO good I needed to share it in case someone is looking at the reviews to decide if they should watch the second half or not. I really think the two parts can be stand alone as they stopped the first part in the middle of the 2nd conclave so if you haven't watched the first part you can still pick up on the 2nd although the 1st really shows why JPII had the resolve he had. I can't wait to watch the conclusion.