The Shoes of the Fisherman (film)

2025-09-23T08:15:22Z

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{{Short description|1968 film by Michael Anderson}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2014}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Shoes of the Fisherman
| image = The Shoes of the Fisherman.jpg
| caption = Theatrical release poster by [[Howard Terpning]]
| director = [[Michael Anderson (director)|Michael Anderson]]
| screenplay = [[John Patrick (dramatist)|John Patrick]] [[James Kennaway]]
| based_on = {{Based on|''[[The Shoes of the Fisherman (novel)|The Shoes of the Fisherman]]''|[[Morris West]]}}
| starring = [[Anthony Quinn]] [[Oskar Werner]] [[David Janssen]] [[Vittorio De Sica]] [[Leo McKern]] [[John Gielgud]] [[Laurence Olivier]]
| music = [[Alex North]]
| cinematography = [[Erwin Hillier]]
| producer = [[George Englund]]
| distributor = [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]
| released = {{Film date|1968|11|14}}
| runtime = 162 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget = $6.7 million<ref>{{cite news |title=Metro-Goldwyn Omits Dividend; O' Brien Resigns: Board Cites Possible Loss Of Up to $19 Million in The Current Fiscal Year Bronfman Named Chairman |newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |date=27 May 1969 |page=2}}</ref>
}}
'''''The Shoes of the Fisherman''''' is a 1968 American [[Epic film|epic]] [[political drama]] film directed by [[Michael Anderson (director)|Michael Anderson]], based on [[Morris West]]’s [[The Shoes of the Fisherman (novel)|1963 novel]] about [[Vatican City|Vatican]] and [[Cold War]] politics. The film stars [[Anthony Quinn]], [[Oskar Werner]], [[David Janssen]], [[Vittorio De Sica]], [[Leo McKern]], [[John Gielgud]] and [[Laurence Olivier]].

The film was released by [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] on November 14, 1968. It received mixed reviews, but received [[Academy Award|Oscar]] nominations for [[Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score]] and [[Academy Award for Best Production Design|Best Production Design]]. Composer [[Alex North]] won a [[Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score|Golden Globe]] for his score, and the film was nominated for [[Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama|Best Motion Picture Drama]].

==Plot==
During the height of the [[Cold War]], Kiril Pavlovich Lakota, the [[Major Archbishop of Kiev and Halych|Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv]], Soviet Union, is unexpectedly set free after 20 years in a [[Siberia]]n labour camp by his former [[gaol]]er Piotr Ilyich Kamenev, now the [[Premier of the Soviet Union]].

He is sent to Rome, where the [[pope]] makes him a [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|cardinal]], assigned [[Titulus (Roman Catholic)|titulus]] of the [[Sant'Atanasio|Church of St. Athanasius]]. Lakota is reluctant, begging to be given "a simple mission with simple men", but the pope insists that he kneel and receive the scarlet ''[[zucchetto]]'' that designates the rank of cardinal.

When the [[pontiff]] suddenly collapses and dies, the process of a [[papal conclave]] begins, and Cardinal Lakota participates as one of the electors. During the ''[[sede vacante]]'', two cardinals in particular, Cardinal Leone and Cardinal Rinaldi, are shown to be the leading ''[[papabili]]'' (candidates). After seven deadlocked ballots, Lakota is unexpectedly elected Pope as a compromise candidate (suggested by Cardinal Rinaldi) by [[Acclamation (Papal elections)|spontaneous acclamation]] in the [[Sistine Chapel]] by the [[College of Cardinals]], many of whom have spoken with him and been impressed by his ideas and his humility. Lakota reluctantly accepts election and takes the name of Pope Kiril. Meanwhile, the world is on the brink of nuclear war due to a Chinese–[[Soviet]] feud made worse by a famine caused by widespread crop failures in China.

The evening after his election, Pope Kiril, with the help of his valet Gelasio, sneaks out of the Vatican and explores the city of Rome dressed as a simple priest. By chance, he encounters Dr. Ruth Faber, who is in a troubled marriage with Rome-based television journalist George Faber. Kiril helps get her medicine from a pharmacist to help a dying Jewish patient of hers. He says a Catholic prayer over the dying man, upon which the man's friends say he is Jewish; Kiril then says a Jewish prayer, along with the man's friends, and says he learned it from a rabbi in the labor camp.

A major secondary plot in the film is the Pope's relationship with controversial theologian, philosopher and scientist Father Telemond (who resembles real-life priest [[Teilhard de Chardin]]). The Pope becomes Telemond's close personal friend, but to his deep regret, in his official capacity, he must allow the [[Holy Office]] to censure Telemond for his [[heterodox]] views. Nevertheless, the two remain friends and Telemond becomes the Pope's most trusted advisor. To the Pope's deep grief, Father Telemond dies from a neurological malady, shortly after giving the former some much needed support.

Later, the Pope returns to the Soviet Union, dressed in civilian clothing, to meet privately with Kamenev and [[Chairman of the Communist Party of China|Chinese Chairman]] Peng to discuss the ongoing crisis. Pope Kiril realises that if the troubles in China continue, the cost could be a war that could rip the world apart. At his [[papal coronation]], Kiril removes his [[papal tiara]] and pledges to sell the church's property to help the Chinese, much to the delight of the crowds in [[St. Peter's Square]] below. This revolutionary action brings the world a new chance at peace and Kiril's decision is internationally acclaimed.

==Cast==
{{Cast listing|
* [[Anthony Quinn]] as [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]] Kiril Pavlovich Lakota, later Pope [[Cyril and Methodius|Kiril]]
* [[Laurence Olivier]] as Piotr Ilyich Kamenev
* [[Oskar Werner]] as Fr. David Telemond
* [[David Janssen]] as George Faber
* [[Vittorio De Sica]] as Cardinal Rinaldi
* [[Leo McKern]] as Cardinal Leone
* [[John Gielgud]] as The Elder [[Pope]]
* [[Barbara Jefford]] as Dr. Ruth Faber
* [[Rosemary Dexter]] as Chiara
* [[Frank Finlay]] as Igor Bounin
* [[Burt Kwouk]] as [[Chinese Communist Party|Chairman]] Peng
* [[Arnoldo Foà]] as Gelasio
* [[Paul Rogers (actor)|Paul Rogers]] as [[Augustinians|Augustinian]] Prelate
* [[George Pravda]] as Gorshenin
* [[Clive Revill]] as Vucovich
* [[Niall MacGinnis]] as [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin]] Monk
* [[Marne Maitland]] as Cardinal Rahamani
* [[Isa Miranda]] as the ''[[Marchesa]]''
* [[Gerald Harper]] as Brian
* [[Leopoldo Trieste]] as Dying Man's Friend
* [[Peter Copley]] as English Cardinal
* [[Arthur Howard]] as English Cardinal
* [[:fr:Jean Rougeul|Jean Rougeul]] as Dominican
}}

==Production==
[[File:1968 Shoes Fisherman New York.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Advertisement in Duffy Square, New York City]]
[[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] purchased the film rights in 1964 and the production was assigned to [[George Englund]] who was to write the screenplay with Morris West.<ref>{{cite news |date=16 June 1964 |title=M-G-M Buys Novel by West |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/16/archives/mgm-buys-novel-by-west.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |id={{ProQuest|115588224}} }}</ref> (Englund was also making ''[[Dark of the Sun]]'' for the studio.)<ref>{{cite news |last=Scheuer |first=P. K. |title=Broadway's mania: Set films to music.|date=18 September 1964 |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |id={{ProQuest|155007657}} }}</ref>

[[Anthony Quinn]] was announced as the star of the film relatively early. The original director was to be British director [[Anthony Asquith]], but he became ill in November 1967 (and eventually died a few months later) and was replaced by [[Michael Anderson (director)|Michael Anderson]].<ref>{{cite news |date=22 February 1968 |title=Anthony Asquith, Filmmaker, Dies |newspaper=The New York Times |id={{ProQuest|118209742}}}}</ref>

Englund asked for technical advice from the Vatican but received no permission to film there, so places like the [[Sistine Chapel]] had to be recreated.<ref name="west">{{cite news |author=Dugas, D. L. |date=19 February 1968|title=Tradition guarded in film on pope |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |id={{ProQuest|155824077}}}}</ref>

The papal tiara used for the coronation scene in the film is modeled after [[Pope Paul VI]]'s papal tiara.

The ending of the film was changed from the book. Morris West said:
<blockquote>Structurally speaking I've always thought ''The Shoes of the Fisherman'' was one of my weaker books. It wanders too much. The script for the film is tighter, more direct and I think it says in a stronger way part of what I wanted to say in the novel. We've come to a point in history where men – black or white, Marxist or capitalist, Christian or non Christian – are going to have to make a choice. They're either going to have to commit themselves to an act of love for each other or an act of hate for each other. Men on each side have to say: "Look we're all brothers. Why do we kill each other in the streets? Don't let's drop the atomic bomb. Let's talk for one hour more." Today this is the real triumph of good over evil. It's what I've tried to put into the last speech for the film.<ref name="los">{{cite news |title=Pilgrimage to the Set of 'Shoes of a Fisherman': 'Shoes of a Fisherman' |first=Don |last=La Badie |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=5 May 1968 |page=q1}}</ref></blockquote>
Morris West said he spent months working on a scene where Telemond was questioned by the Inquisition. He says eventually the scene worked "but only because I raised hell after finding that it had been altered by the actors with the consent of the director. I argued that it destroyed the theological validity of the plot in violation of contractual obligations between the studio and me." West says that "By the end of the film the accumulation of the variations was such that I took my name off the script." This made him reluctant to sell "anything other than a thriller or a very simple story to the movies again" because of the way Hollywood "tends to distort the underlying philosophy and theology of anything that can't easily be shaped for the screen."<ref>{{cite news |date=1 July 1981 |last1=McDowell |first1=Edwin |title=PUBLISHING NOTEBOOK; Joseph Heller In Dispute With Simon & Schuster |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/01/books/publishing-notebook-joseph-heller-in-dispute-with-simon-schuster.html |newspaper=The New York Times |page=C24}}</ref>

==Reception==
The film was the sixth most popular movie at the Australian box office in 1969.<ref>"The World's Top Twenty Films". ''Sunday Times''. London. 27 September 1970: 27. Accessed 5 April 2014.</ref> It was still a notable box-office disappointment.<ref>{{cite news |title=MGM Had Loss Of $2.5 Million In First Period: Substantial Write-Offs' Are Taken on Certain Films; Revenue and Rentals Drop Firm Had Year-Earlier Profit |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=13 January 1969 |page=10}}</ref> The escalating production costs of this film, along with ''[[Ice Station Zebra ]]'' at the same time, led to the transfer of MGM President [[Robert O'Brien (executive)|Robert O'Brien]] to chairman of the board, but he resigned this position in early 1969 after both films were released and failed to recoup their costs.<ref name="bob">{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|date=1 July 2025|access-date=1 July 2025|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-film-moguls-bob-weitman-and-bob-obrien/|title=Forgotten Film Moguls: Bob Weitman and Bob O’Brien}}</ref>

[[Alex North]] was nominated for an [[Academy Award for Best Score]] and [[George Davis (art director)|George Davis]] and [[Edward Carfagno]] were nominated for [[Best Art Direction]].<ref name="NY Times">{{cite web |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/44428/The-Shoes-of-the-Fisherman/awards |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608204126/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/44428/The-Shoes-of-the-Fisherman/awards |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 8, 2011 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |newspaper=The New York Times |date=8 June 2011 |title=The Shoes of the Fisherman |access-date=December 27, 2008}}</ref>

''The Shoes of the Fisherman'' holds a 43% rating on [[Rotten Tomatoes]] based on seven reviews.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shoes_of_the_fisherman |title=The Shoes of the Fisherman |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0063599}}
* {{TCMDb title|1054}}
* {{AFI film|23663}}
* {{youTube|ngN2y6i_SOc|''The Shoes of the Fisherman'' movie trailer}}

{{Morris West}}
{{Michael Anderson}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shoes Of The Fisherman, The}}
[[Category:1968 films]]
[[Category:1968 drama films]]
[[Category:American drama films]]
[[Category:Cold War films]]
[[Category:Films scored by Alex North]]
[[Category:Films about Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Films about fictional popes]]
[[Category:Films based on works by Morris West]]
[[Category:Films directed by Michael Anderson]]
[[Category:Films set in Italy]]
[[Category:Films set in Vatican City]]
[[Category:Films shot in Rome]]
[[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films]]
[[Category:Films about Catholicism]]
[[Category:Films shot at MGM-British Studios]]
[[Category:1960s English-language films]]
[[Category:1960s American films]]
[[Category:Films shot in Finland]]

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The Shoes of the Fisherman (film)