The Shoes of the Fisherman
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The Shoes of the Fisherman is a 1963 novel by Morris West, as well as a 1968 movie based upon it.
The book reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for adult fiction on June 30, 1963, and it was the #1 bestselling novel in the United States for that year, according to Publishers Weekly.
| The Shoes of the Fisherman | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Michael Anderson |
| Written by | Morris West |
| Starring | Laurence Olivier Anthony Quinn John Gielgud Oskar Werner |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | 1968 |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
[edit] Plot
Set during the Cold War, The Shoes of the Fisherman opens as protagonist Kiril Pablovich Lakota, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv, is unexpectedly set free after twenty years in a Siberian labor camp. He is sent to Rome, where the elder Pope makes him a Cardinal.
When the Pontiff dies, Lakota finds himself elected Pope when the Cardinals cannot decide between the leading candidates. But as the new Pope, Kiril I, he is plagued by self-doubt, by his years in prison, and by a Western world he knows little about.
The world is in a state of crisis: a famine in China is exacerbated by U.S. restrictions on Chinese trade and the ongoing Chinese-Soviet feud. Can he find a solution before it is too late?
Morris West's protagonist Lakota is inspired by the life of Josyf Cardinal Slipyj. Coincidently Slipyj was released by Nikita Khrushchev's administration from a Siberian Gulag in 1963, the year of the novel's publication, after political pressure from Pope John XXIII and United States President John F. Kennedy. He arrived in Rome in time to participate in the Second Vatican Council.
A major secondary plot in the novel and the film is the Pope's relationship with a theologian and scientist, Father Telemond (Jean Telemond in the book, David Telemond in the film), who is clearly based on the controversial French Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The Pope becomes a close personal friend of Telemond. To his deep regret, in his official capacity, he must allow the Holy Office to censure Telemond for his heterodox views. To the Pope's deep grief, the shock of the censure combined with his chronic medical problems kills Father Telemond.
Realizing however that if the troubles in China continue the cost would be a war that could unltimately rip the world apart. Knowing this he must seek to convince the Western World as well as the Catholic church to open up its resources to aid. He states in the movie he is willing to do this even if it means bankrupting the Catholic Church itself.
This work is a case where the movie story varies greatly from the novel—though followers of West may find both versions satisfying and intriguing.
[edit] Cast
- Anthony Quinn .... Kiril Lakota
- Laurence Olivier .... Piotr Ilyich Kamenev
- Oskar Werner .... Fr. David Telemond
- David Janssen .... George Faber
- Vittorio De Sica .... Cardinal Rinaldi
- Leo McKern .... Cardinal Leone
- John Gielgud .... The Old Pope
- Burt Kwouk .... Peng
- Arnoldo Foà .... Gelasio
The film was originally a project of the British director Anthony Asquith but he became ill and was replaced by Michael Anderson (Asquith died in 1968). Anderson's direction of the film is generally thought of by critics as dull and uninspiring, but under his direction, Anthony Quinn gives a fine, restrained performance as Pope Kiril Lakota. Laurence Olivier played the Russian premier (of some interest is the fact that had Asquith gone on to direct The Shoes of the Fisherman, he would have directed Olivier as a Russian for the third time in their careers: see Roger Lewis, The Real Life of Laurence Olivier [London: Century, 1996], pp. 196-97). Other notable performances were given by Leo McKern and John Gielgud.
The Shoes of the Fisherman was one of President Nixon's favorite films; and it is interesting to speculate whether the geopolitical theme of the film (the Sino-Soviet conflict, US policy towards China) even remotely influenced Nixon's decision at the time to reach out to China. Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit China in February 1972, and as a result, China came out of its isolation as other world leaders started to recognize the country.
In 1978, the conclave elected a cardinal from a Marxist country, John Paul II.
