Deliver Us From Evil (2006)

“I made up my mind. There is no God. I do not believe in a God, all right? All these rules, everything… they’re made up by man, you know? ” – Bob Jyono

Number of Times Seen – 1 (25 Feb 2016)

Brief Synopsis – Documentary that tries to examine how the Church allowed a known pedophile continue to serve and defile children for years.

My Take on it – After rewatching Spotlight (2015), my good friend Jane suggested that I check out this documentary which is actually a great companion piece since they have similar subject matter.

This is quite a powerful documentary because it gives us access to so much information that people really should know and be aware of.

The candor of Father O’Grady is both refreshing and disturbing at the same time.  Refreshing because it’s rare for this kind of information to be confirmed by the perpetrator himself and disturbing because he goes into lots of detail and doesn’t seem to be phased by it all.

I was thoroughly impressed with the number of members of the church who were interviewed or shown sworn depositions from because usually this information is kept secret and the public is not privy to know what really happened.

It is still appalling how the Church seemed to turn a blind eye to this (and all other) case(s) over the years, but I’m glad that we are finally allowed to see the truth coming out.  It’s unfortunate that it took so long tho…..

Too many lives have been destroyed by it…

As powerful as this is, it still feels as if something really integral seems to be missing and therefore it gives the impression of being incomplete.

Despite this, it still is a very good documentary worth watching, just not an excellent one.

Bottom Line – What a powerful documentary. The fact that they were able to get interviews with so many people related to the story from the side of the church was quite impressive. The candor of O’Grady is both refreshing and disturbing at the same time.  Great companion piece to Spotlight (2015) due to their subject matter. Feels a bit incomplete as if something integral is still missing from it tho. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – After the documentary was shown on Dutch national TV in April 2010, members of a parish in Schiedam recognized O’Grady as having been an active volunteer in the parish until January 2010. They had known nothing about his background. He had also been active in the Netherlands as an organizer of children’s parties (From Wikipedia)

Rating – Globe Worthy

_______________________________________

Check out my *updated* movie stats here

To see my reviews of Oscar Winning Performances check out this link

To see my reviews of all Oscar Best Picture Winners click here (now complete)

Here is a link to my movie index A-Z