“Moving from one parish to another in Northern California during the 1970s, Father Oliver O’Grady quickly won each congregation’s trust and respect. Unbeknownst to them, O’Grady was a dangerously active pedophile that Church hierarchy, aware of his predilection, had harbored for over 30 years, allowing him to abuse countless children.”
Deliver Us from Evil opened yesterday in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles (visit the website to view the trailer and read more about the documentary). The film will be shown in more cities nationwide beginning in late October. However, the movie may not reach as wide an audience as originally intended due Motion Picture Association of America, which issued the theatrical trailer a “redband” rating due what it deemed “adult content” and “overt comments about child molestation.” The redband rating will likely prevent the trailer from screening in the majority of theaters. Lionsgate Entertainment subsequently opted to release the film (and trailer) as unrated. The Hollywood Reporter notes:
Under MPAA policy, redband trailers are allowed to be screened only before movies rated R or NC-17, but most national exhibitors enforce much stronger policies in their theaters, refusing to screen redband trailers at all. One fear exhibitors have is that a redband trailer might accidentally screen before a less restricted movie, alienating some patrons.
Producer-Director Amy Berg was understandably incensed over the MPAA decision. She tackled the issues earlier this month in her column at The Huffington Post, where she makes a good case for both censorship and hypocrisy:
This film and its trailer deals frankly with an important and very real ongoing social ill- and one that is routinely discussed on primetime and network news at that. In fact, the red banded trailer opens with a Paula Zahn news segment which covers a portion of the very same story as does the film. That it would be disapproved for mainstream exhibition is especially infuriating given that I have repeatedly seen horror film trailers that depict women being tortured or mutilated in connection with sexual activity, murder, gunfire and other extremely disturbing adult content playing before PG13 movies.
But I fear there is more at play here than the longstanding hypocrisy exhibited by the MPAA and other cultural institutions when it comes to censoring sex vs. violence. Through this year’s brilliant documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, made by my colleague Kirby Dick, I have discovered that two clergy members are present (and possibly involved) during the film rating process. I do not know whether there were clergy involved in the MPAA’s decision to disapprove the trailer, but given the atmosphere in which these decisions are made, I can’t help but fear that perhaps it was as much the idea of high ranking Church officials as fallible and possibly even criminal that the MPAA found unacceptable as it was the idea of sexual abuse.
Despite the ratings setbacks, Deliver Us from Evil is receiving a great deal of attention in the press, drawing both praise and vitriolic responses from critics. The New York Times review states: “Neither sensationalistic nor sentimental, Ms. Berg’s film is clear-sighted, tough-minded and devastating, a portrait of individual criminality and institutional indifference, a study in the betrayal of trust and the irresponsibility of authority.”
Though many viewers may be squeamish about the subject matter, these stories of abuse and corruption in organized religion must be heard. Children must be safeguarded from these sick sexual predators, and the Roman Catholic Church must be held accountable for consistently turning a blind eye to the criminal acts of its clergy.
Further reading:
Critical Thoughts 