Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

NNadir

(37,202 posts)
Wed Dec 24, 2025, 10:54 PM 13 hrs ago

A Movie About an Honorable Catholic Priest that Atheists Might Well Enjoy.

My son came home to visit us at Christmas; my wife was helping her sister recover from fairly major surgery; my other son was working and doing stuff with his girlfriend.

So I told my son that in our one on one Father/Son evening, I'd take him to dinner and a movie at the Princeton Garden Theater.

Our dinner was very pleasant over a beer and dinner, part scientific talks about metal properties and radiation physics, little tales of our family history, scientific history, his girlfriend, his Mom, his brother, his gone forbearers and relatives.

He's an impressive young man and I love him very much. It is a privilege to have such a son; I wish I could have made my father as proud of me as I am of him.

Anyway.

The movie we went to was the third in the "Knives Out Series."

This is it: Wake Up Dead Man, a good Priest/Bad Priest movie.

I don't mind religious people who are sincere about their faith's positive aspirations; Christianity in my view as some such aspirations, although I have no use to the metaphysical anthropomorphic superbeing ruling the world, or that matter Jesus, Yahweh, such and such and so on in permutation after permutation.

In this way the young Priest portrayed in the film was admirable, because his faith was directed not toward controlling people, but helping people, even when he was suspected by everyone of committing the murder.

For clarity, the movie actually portrays a resurrection, or so it seems...hence the title.

However, the hero of these detective series, Benoit Blanc, (played by an excellent Daniel Craig), is clearly depicted as an atheist, without explicitly saying so. His rants against mysticism are classic; his passionate call to reason and facts, worthy. When invited to participate in religious activities, he acts with a kind of horror mixed with humor, excusing himself with a bemused yet clear display having no interest in any of it.

The acting is superb, particularly a role played by Glenn Close.

You may enjoy the film, atheists.

In the end, everything has a rational explanation, so no, there's no miracles, only sleights of hand.

3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
A Movie About an Honorable Catholic Priest that Atheists Might Well Enjoy. (Original Post) NNadir 13 hrs ago OP
It's very good, better than the second Knives Out film LearnedHand 11 hrs ago #1
Thoroughly interesting and enjoyable. summer_in_TX 11 hrs ago #2
The actor Daniel Craig Sector 001 11 hrs ago #3

LearnedHand

(5,227 posts)
1. It's very good, better than the second Knives Out film
Thu Dec 25, 2025, 12:47 AM
11 hrs ago

I didn’t take it so much as an exposition about religion, rather that it was set among a group of Catholic churchgoers. Benoit Blanc’s soliloquies about belief and religion were worth the entire film. I agree the young priest was a very loving and honorable man. This is playing on Netflix too.

summer_in_TX

(4,017 posts)
2. Thoroughly interesting and enjoyable.
Thu Dec 25, 2025, 01:18 AM
11 hrs ago

The bad priest's an angry demagogue, which has its parallels to our current situation. Great discussions between the good priest and Detective Benoit Blanc.

Latest Discussions»Alliance Forums»Atheists & Agnostics»A Movie About an Honorabl...