The Pope Must Die

The Pope Must Die
Canadian Video Poster for "The Pope Must Die", renamed "The Pope Must Diet!"
Directed by	Peter Richardson
Produced by	Stephen Woolley Bob Weinstein Harvey Weinstein Michael White Channel 4 Films
Written by	Peter Richardson Pete Richens
Starring	Robbie Coltrane Alex Rocco Peter Richardson
Music by	Jeff Beck Anne Dudley
Cinematography	Frank Gell
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	August 31, 1991
Running time	97 min.
Country	UK
Language	English
Budget	£2.5 million

The Pope Must Die (U.S. alternate title: The Pope Must Die(t)) is a 1991 comedy film directed by Peter Richardson and released by Palace Pictures with the backing of Channel 4 Films. The script was written by Richardson with Pete Richens, derived from elements of an earlier screenplay for a three part mini-series satirising the Catholic Church, which was rejected by Channel 4. The Pope Must Die stars Robbie Coltrane as a low ranking priest who is mistakenly elected Pope, then has to avoid being assassinated by the Mafia. The film co-stars Adrian Edmondson, Annette Crosbie, Herbert Lom, Alex Rocco and Richardson. The production was filmed in 1990 in what was then Yugoslavia on a budget of £2.5 million. The film's subject was controversial and the distributors experienced serious difficulties with its promotion, London Transport refusing to carry advertising for it until the film's posters were censored. In the USA the Big Three television networks refused to show commercials for the film, which they said was sacrilegious and offensive. Many newspapers in the US also censored or refused to carry advertising for the film. The film was released to mixed reviews, and struggled at the box office, failing to make back its budget at the cinema.

Plot

The plot is predicated on the Vatican being controlled by the Mafia. The movie opens with the death of the previous Pope and the Mob's tame Cardinal (Alex Rocco) successfully persuading the College of Cardinals to elect the Mafia's favoured candidate to the papacy, Albini.

Unfortunately, the secretary of the College of Cardinals (Adrian Edmondson) is hard of hearing, and announces the similar name of an honest parish priest, Albinizi, (Robbie Coltrane) who thus becomes Pope. As the plot develops, the Pope demands to see the Vatican accounts and discovers the gun-smuggling and stolen merchandise operations, and confronts the Mob, who decide that the Pope must die.

Cast

• Robbie Coltrane as The Pope
• Alex Rocco as Cardinal Rocco
• Adrian Edmondson as Father Rookie
• Paul Bartel as Monsignor Fitchie
• Peter Richardson as Bish
• Annette Crosbie as Mother Superior
• Herbert Lom as Vittorio Corelli
• Balthazar Getty as Joe Don Dante

Production

Development

In 1988 Richardson pitched a proposal for a three-part mini-series to Channel 4's Commissioning Editor for Entertainment, Seamus Cassidy. The script, co-written with Pete Richens was based around the conspiracy theories surrounding the deaths of Pope John Paul I and "God's Banker" Roberto Calvi. At the planning stages Alexei Sayle was proposed to star as 'Pope Dave the First' and Robbie Coltrane, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French were also said to be involved. the Observer reported "The programmes would have been in the form of a parody of an American mini-series, which portrayed a modern-day Pope and his rule across two continents." The budget was said to be tabled at £1.5 million. Plans for the series were discovered by the press, and on 28th August 1988 The Sunday Times ran a short article entitled "Row over papal satire". The story was taken up by Catholic Herald, The Universe, The Observer and the Sun, linking the project to the furore over Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. which at the time had been boycotted by the Catholic Church. Cassidy took soundings from senior colleagues including Chief Executive Michael Grade, and Director of Programmes, Liz Forgan. Spokespeople from Channel 4 at first defended the production, denying it would be blasphemous, but when they came under increasing scrutiny they cancelled the project after advice from their lawyers. Instead they decided to commission one of Richardson's pet projects, a sequel to the "Five Go Mad..." Comic Strip films, entitled, "Five Go To Hell". This project had originally been shelved due to the poor box office takings of Richardson's previous film Eat The Rich. However Five Go To Hell to date has never been filmed. After the controversy Richardson took the Comic Strip Presents to the BBC, reportedly because Alan Yentob was more accommodating to his ideas. He began work on another series of Comic Strip films for the channel. Two parts of the mini series were heavily re-written and appeared as episodes of the 1990 Comic Strip series, as Oxford and Spaghetti Hoops (which featured the story of Roberto Calvi). The remainder of the material was also rewritten and submitted to Palace Pictures, who produced the film with the backing of Channel 4. A production budget of £2.5 million was approved.

Filming

Filming began in late 1990. and took place on location in Yugoslavia, where John Ebden, the production designer, constructed studio sets of the Sistine Chapel and other Vatican landmarks. The title of the film was deemed too sensitive to be disclosed to the Yugoslavians; its working title was "Sleeping With the Fishes."

Release

The film opened on 21 June 1991 in 170 screens across the UK. It took £534,614 in its opening week and went on to earn over £1.1 million ($1,737,740) on its UK release. It was released in the U.S. on the 2nd September 1991 on a limited release across 169 screens, taking $264,147 on opening week and grossing $582,510. The film also had limited distribution in Germany where it grossed DEM 367,603 ($224,520). The film struggled to make back its £2.5 million budget, grossing $2,544,770 overall (approximately £1.7 million).

Marketing

Daniel Battsek (then managing director of Palace Pictures, which produced the film) experienced trouble over the films promotion, when London Transport banned the movie's posters from the London Underground. 'At first they said the theme of the film was liable to cause offense," said Battsek. "When I explained the story, they admitted it was the title. We compromised with a poster saying "Robbie Coltrane in The Pope."' The film also caused controversy when it opened in the Republic of Ireland that August. The film encountered more serious problems with promotion on its US release, with many newspapers refusing to include adverts, and CBS, NBC and ABC refusing to air television adverts for the film. Reasons cited for this were the sacrilegious tone of the film and advertising and the possible offence this would cause to readers and audiences. A CBS spokesperson said "The decision was made because the title and content would be offensive to a significant portion of our audience." whilst NBC responded "We feel (our viewers) would be seriously offended due to the ads' sacrilegious nature" 12 other cities newspapers accepted advertising only after the content had been heavily censored. The Washington Post accepted an advert that read "The Pope Must. . . ." The Los Angeles Times requested changes in certain captions under photos in the ad. The Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times and the New York Times were among the few newspapers which accepted advertising without alterations. "There is a separation of church and state in this country. My question is, on what grounds have they banned these ads? It seems curious that all three (networks) are taking the same tack," said Russell Schwartz, Miramax executive vice president. "Obviously they can do what they want, they are private institutions. It just raises some interesting issues as to why, when it comes to religion, the response is so unilateral."

Critical reception

On its limited release in the USA the film received mixed reviews. Roger Ebert wrote "The movie's basic comic approach is disrespect for the church, which almost by definition cannot be funny. To deflate a comic character, it has to first be inflated, and The Pope Must Die makes the crucial error of denying its characters dignity - so that there's no reason for us to laugh when it's taken away from them." Although he conceded "Robbie Coltrane is a British comic actor of genuine talent, but he seems under a compulsion to make bad comedies about the Catholic church" Vincent Canby in the New York Times was more enthusiastic, writing "The film is irreverent, boisterous and enjoyable even when the gags hang fire." He also praised Coltrane's performance, saying he "is very good, but the performance is somewhat restrained by the screenplay's demand that the character ulimately be heroic. In this kind of comedy, rascality gets most of the laughs." The Time Out film guide article says "There are many good laughs, albeit of a rather simple-minded nature, but even by its own ludicrous standards the plot unravels helplessly towards the end" and called the film "A pontiff's egg." (a play on the phrase a curate's egg). The film has a 33% (rotten) rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 6 reviews and a 4.6 on Internet Movie Database from 859 user ratings.

Context

The movie is based on Pope John Paul I conspiracy theories. Discrepancies in the Vatican's account of the events surrounding Luciani's death—its inaccurate statements about who found the body, what he had been reading, when he had been found and whether an autopsy could be carried out produced a number of conspiracy theories, many associated with the Vatican Bank, which owned many shares in Banco Ambrosiano. The movie Godfather, Part III was also based on these conspiracy theories.

Controversy

After much outcry from Roman Catholics, the film's US title was changed by the addition of a single letter. The new title, "The Pope Must Diet", was marked on some promotional material with the final letter "T" in the form of a crucifix. The plot synopsis on the back of the VHS case was also worded in such a way so as to lead the reader to think the plot revolved around the Pope's diet.

External links

• The Pope Must Die at the Internet Movie Database
• The Pope Must Die at Box Office Mojo