Before I even saw Amen my review was mentally half-written. I was going to argue that it's ahistorical anti-Catholic propaganda from a ultra-radical director with an axe to grind. But while I disagree with the it's conclusion, this is not an unreasonable film.
The film is based on the Rolf Hochhulth's super contraversial play The Deputy: A Christian Tragedity. Both Hochhulth and Costa-Gavras examine the same question (why were so many religious leaders silent during the Holocaust?) and give special attention to the role of Pope Pius XXII.
A brief but neccessary historical sidenote: Pius, born Eugiono Pacelli, was Pope from 1939 until his death in 1958. His actions during the Second World War have been contraversial ever since the publication of Hochhuth's play in 1963 (before that, he had been widley popular, even with non Catholics and non Christians, and was considered to be one of the greatests Popes ever). Pius's detractors critized him for his "silence" during the Holocaust, and often speculate that a public and forceful rebuke of the Axis powers might have saved the lives of thousands, perhaps millions, of Jews. His defenders argue that is record of opposing the Nazi's the well documented, and that Pius did not issue a more forceful denial of the Holocaust because he felt that his comments would not help and might even make the situation worse, especially for German Catholics. Many also argue that he saved thousands of Jewish lives by pressuring some nations to issue them visas so they could escape and by hiding them inside the Vatican and churches in Rome. The battle still rages among historians, with unlikey soldiers on both sides (one of Pius's biggest attackers is a Catholic, and one of his biggest defenders is a Rabbi).
Personally, I have read three books on the subject and am still not totally sure, but I tended to toward the argument that Pius was correct in his analsis. Both Benedict XVI and his predeccessor have condemned the Iraq war, and with zero effect. Everyone knew that the Pope opposed Hitler. A public condemening of the Holocaust probably would have resulted in nothing at best, and even more mass slaughter in retalation at worst. I don't buy the evidence that Pius was a rabid anti-Semite, which John Cornwall in his book Hitler's Pope extrapolates from one misinterpreted letter and the fact that Pacelli grew up in an prejudiced section of Italy. Of course, it's impossible to know what was going through his mind, but on the whole, I think he has been unfairly slandered.
To his credit, Costa-Gavra's film is follows mostly factual history. The plot revolves around Kurt Gerstien (Ulrike Tukur) a Protestant SS officer who witness the beginning of the Final Solution. Sickend, he tries to sabotage the deliveries of gas he brings to the concentration camps, and to document the atrocities in the hopes that world figures will condemn it. Although papal nucio to Germany refuses to listen, his assistant, Father Riccardo Fontana (Mathieu Kassovitch) promises to plead his case with the Cardinals and with the Pope (played here by Marcel Iures) if neccessary. But no one seems is willing to help. Neither Protestant nor Catholic leaders will speak out, for various reasons, and the Americans refuse to negotioate with the Nazis, even if might mean (as Fontana and probably Costa-Gavras think it could) that it might stop the Holocaust.
I think that the greatest testament to the film is that I have written this long an essay/review about it, it does not talk down to audience and does inspire thought. But the movie's weakness is in its characters as neither Gertstien (who was real) or Fontana (who was not) is developed very well. I havn't studied Gertstien at all, but Costa-Gavras misses a major oppurtunity with all of the possibilites of the character (a guilt ridden Nazi?) After awhile, the movie is the same scene over and over again- one of the two leads tries to get somebody to speak out, and they refuse.
Although the movie is critical of the Vatican's policies, little here is outside the realm of history, and he presents Pius as a man who is doing what he thinks is the right thing, but has no grasp on reality. So, while I disagree with the film's conclusion, I do acknowlege that it is reasonably arrived at and is not sensation. Costa-Gavras has never been able to top his first big sucess, Z, and this is not a film in that leauge, but it's about an important subject and is a good introduction to a very contraversial subject.
Amen (2002)