The Shoes of the Fisherman

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The Shoes of the Fisherman
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

The Shoes of the Fisherman is a 1963 novel by the Australian author Morris West, as well as a 1968 film based on the novel.

The book reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for adult fiction on June 30, 1963, and became the #1 bestselling novel in the United States for that year, according to Publishers Weekly.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Background 3 Cast 4 Production 5 Awards 6 Real world events 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Plot

Set approximately twenty years in the future at the height of the Cold War, The Shoes of the Fisherman opens as protagonist Kiril Pavlovich Lakota (Anthony Quinn), the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv, is unexpectedly set free after twenty years in a Siberian labor camp by his former jailer, Piotr Ilyich Kamenev (Laurence Olivier), now the premier of the Soviet Union.

He is sent to Rome, where the elderly fictional Pope Pius XIII (John Gielgud) raises him to the cardinalate in the title of St. Athanasius. Lakota intially declines, but reluctantly accepts the promotion.

When the Pontiff dies, the process of a papal conclave begins, and Cardinal Lakota participates as one of the electors. During the sede vacante, two cardinals in particualar, Cardinal Leone (Leo McKern) and Cardinal Rinaldi (Vittorio De Sica) are shown to be papabile. After seven ballots of deadlock, Lakota finds himself elected Pope as a compromise candidate (suggested by Cardinal Rinaldi) by acclamation after the Cardinals, unable to decide between the leading candidates, interview him and are impressed by his ideas and his humility. Lakota takes the name of Pope Kiril (using his baptismal name). Meanwhile, the world is on the brink of nuclear war due to a Chinese-Soviet feud made worse by a famine caused by trade restrictions brought against China by the United States.

The evening after his election, Pope Kiril, with the help of his personal aide Gelasio (Arnoldo Foà), sneaks out of the Vatican and explores the city of Rome without being recognized. Later, the Pope returns to the Soviet Union to meet privately with Kamenev and Chairman Peng (Burt Kwouk) of China to discuss the ongoing crisis.

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). The Pope becomes a close personal friend of Telemond (Oskar Werner). 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, eventually kills Father Telemond, who has been slowly dying all this time from a cerebral aneurysm.

Pope Kiril realizes, however, that if the troubles in China continue, the cost would be a war that could ultimately 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. At his papal coronation, Kiril removes his tiara (in a gesture of humility) and states this intent, much to the delight of the crowds in St. Peter's Square below.

[edit] Background

Morris West's protagonist Lakota is inspired by the life of Ukrainian Catholic Cardinal Josyf Slipyj. Coincidentally, 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. In another coincidence, John XXIII died on 3 June 1963, the day the novel was published.^[1]

[edit] Cast

• Anthony Quinn as Kiril Lakota
• Laurence Olivier as Piotr Ilyich Kamenev
• Oskar Werner as Fr. David Telemond
• David Janssen as George Faber
• Barbara Jefford as Dr Ruth Faber
• Vittorio De Sica as Cardinal Rinaldi
• Leo McKern as Cardinal Leone
• John Gielgud as The Elder Pope
• Burt Kwouk as Peng
• Arnoldo Foà as Gelasio
• Leopoldo Trieste as Dying Man's Friend
• Frank Finlay as Igor Bounin

[edit] Production

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).

[edit] Awards

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Score and Best Art Direction (George Davis, Edward Carfagno). ^[2]

[edit] Real world events

Much of the characteristics of Father Telemond were based on the controversial French Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Pope John XXIII died on the day the novel was published, June 3, 1963.^[1] Pope Paul VI was serving as Pope when the film version was released.

Ten years after the release of the film, on October 16, 1978, a Slavic cardinal from a Marxist-dominated country, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła from Poland, was elected as Pope John Paul II.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Shoes of the Fisherman at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Michael Anderson 1940s Private Angelo 1950s Waterfront • Hell Is Sold Out • Night Was Our Friend • Will Any Gentleman...? • The House of the Arrow • The Dam Busters • 1984 • Around the World in Eighty Days • Yangtse Incident • Chase a Crooked Shadow • Shake Hands with the Devil • The Wreck of the Mary Deare 1960s All the Fine Young Cannibals • The Naked Edge • Flight from Ashiya • Wild and Wonderful • Operation Crossbow • The Quiller Memorandum • The Shoes of the Fisherman 1970s Pope Joan • Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze • Conduct Unbecoming • Logan's Run • Orca • Dominique 1980s Murder by Phone • Second Time Lucky • Separate Vacations • The Jeweler's Shop • Millennium 1990s Summer of the Monkeys • The Adventures of Pinocchio Television The Martian Chronicles (1980) • Sword of Gideon (1986) • Young Catherine (1991) • Scales of Justice (1990) • The Sea Wolf (1993) • Rugged Gold (1994) • Captains Courageous (1996) • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997)