Nigel Cole
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DVD
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Product Description

A down-to-earth Pope tries to balance bureaucratic duties of his position with the secular world. Frustrated with his lack of freedom he flees to the Italian countryside to get in touch with real people and get back to helping them out one-on-one.

Product details

Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.33:1
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches; 2.61 ounces
Item model number ‏ : ‎ 883904262022
Director ‏ : ‎ Robert M. Young
Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 52 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ March 21, 2012
Actors ‏ : ‎ Tom Conti, Fernando Rey, Edward James Olmos, Giancarlo Giannini, Erland Josephson
Producers ‏ : ‎ Newt Arnold, Herbert F. Solow
Studio ‏ : ‎ MGM
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B007HCI4H0
Writers ‏ : ‎ Celia Gittelson, Richard Kramer, David S. Ward
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #76,678 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #8,929 in Comedy (Movies & TV)

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4.7 out of 5

324 global ratings

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William B Helmer

Purpose and blessing

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2024

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Terrific movie of hope, faith and redemption. Highly recommend!

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2024

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I loved the thoughtfulness of Leo, his esteem for those he met and the way he disarmed them. I found this movie to be a delightful breath of fresh air.

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Raymond E. Gaudreau Jr.

Great family movie

Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2023

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Great family movie

One person found this helpful

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DrDb

DrDeP

Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2006

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This film is not just a must see, it is a must own. You will definitely want to bring out this film over and over to see again. From its creative, unique plot, funny lines, irony, beautiful scenery, marvelous acting, and wonderful, not just feel-good but make-you-think message, you will want to add this movie to your favorites list.

Saving Grace delights, inspires and gently admonishes the viewer to find and be faithful to the things in life that really matter, despite the naysayers and obstacles that mount up to try to obscure the simple good all around us. This film is the opposite of in-your-face religion; instead it is about all of us finding the love and goodness in the rough and simple places all about us, rather than in the high places.

When I stumbled onto this movie some years back in a video store, the film quickly became a favorite, that I regularly showed to family and friends, and to youth groups. All loved it, both the guys and the girls.

I would always bring it out Saving Grace to view when I became overwhelmed or beaten around by life. To my great remorse, my VHS copy was lost when I loaned it out and never got it back. That was several years ago.

Now I am on this site looking for a copy on DVD to buy, and grumbling because it doesn't seem to be available. Once I find the DVD version, I will purchase at least 5 copies,for myself and to give as gifts to family and friends. I hope the powers that be come to their senses and make this beautiful film available on DVD. It also would be great to see on TV; I can imagine it becoming a recurring favorite through the years.

8 people found this helpful

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policywonk

Excellent and warm-hearted. I wish it happened in real life.

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2006

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Tom Conti's "Saving Grace" is a largely unknown, underrated movie, perhaps because it was made abroad and most of the casts were unknown actors (save Tom and a young Edward James Olmos). However, the plot of the movie and the story line was excellent.

It tells the story of a future Pope Leo XIV (played by Conti), who was isolated from his flocks, living in Vatican and surrounded by Vatican bureaucrats he had to deal with everyday. He wished that he is able to travel outside to see how his people live their lives and deal with real-life problems. One day, somewhat unexpectedly, he got his wish. He accidentally got locked out from the Vatican and decided to travel to a rural and impoverished Italian village that suffered from all the disasters and misfortune one can imagine (epidemic, unemployment, chronic poverty, failing infrastructure, etc). He decided to attempt to rekindle the spirit of the local people by (at first) single-handedly rebuild an old malfunctioning village aquaduct. Soon, he started to win followers from the young hopeless residents of the village, but he also encounters many obstacles and learnt a great deal about himself and how his ministry supposed to be like during his time in the village. This experience transforms the way he conducts his Petrine ministry in many ways.

This is a must see movie for Catholics (or anyone for that matter) that often thought that the Pope, the bishops, and the clergymen were often out-of-touch with the concerns and problems of lay Catholics. I wish the experiences of Leo XIV could happen more often in real life and transform the way Popes and bishops govern the Church. But till then, you should watch this movie, enjoy it, and pray that the transformation told in it would occur in our Church today.

6 people found this helpful

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prairie woman

The Pope Is Missing!

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2013

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I really like to watch Tom Conti in movies, one of my favorites being Shirley Valentine when he played the Greek love interest opposite Pauline Collins. But never mind, in this movie he is the youngish Pope Leo XIV. The story is that the pope is feeling detached from the rest of the world and during an audience comes into contact with a young deaf girl from a small village that is without a priest. She asks the pope to send them one and he agrees.

By a sheer accident of fate, while Pope Leo is doing some gardening in old clothes he accidentally gets locked out of his home in Vatican City. He has no money but for once he feels free as he gets tossed in the Trevi Fountain after a successful football game. After all, these Italians love their game and know how to celebrate. After finding his way to the small village of the young girl, he discovers more than just a missing priest, and this is where the story really starts to take place.

While a lot of this plot seems unbelievable, there really is a message underneath all of this. During his stay in the village, Pope Leo strives to discover what it is that he is really meant to do. What it boils down to is instilling motivation and hope into a group of people who have lost their way. Not only has the village become dilapidated and run down, there is an old aquaduct that no longer functions and no one seems motivated to remedy that. Some of the reasons come in the guise of a group of ruffians who seize control of the villagers. How can the people stand up to such bullies? For one, you must believe in yourself and have faith. Everyone is tested, including the Pope.

There are a lot of funny moments in this film. I loved the one scene where a member of the curia says, "The Vatican Bank needs more investors," and describes ways to do this. The Pope replies "And what should we give to the most wealthy investors?" "Sainthood?"

9 people found this helpful

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Ronald M. Lieberman

Absolutely Charming

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2022

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The Pope has gone missing. The Inner Circle of the Vatican is spinning. Meanwhile the errand Pope has gone south, to a quarantined town in the hills. What he finds there and how he handles that are quite clever, charming and touching. Tom Conti's quiet grace, an excellent supporting cast and clever script make this a very worthy movie that unfortunately did not receive the acclaim it deserves.

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Stefano Delacosta

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on June 27, 2018

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WHAT AN AMAZING MOVIE FROM A LONG-LOST ACTOR...!

George A E Brand

Beautiful story.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 11, 2017

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A curious yet somewhat appealing movie, with a strong and gentle message of hope.

One person found this helpful

Reull

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on July 6, 2018

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Très bon film

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Sam

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2015

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fantastic film but you can only play it on a machine that can not record

fung0

Recommended: warm, funny film - decent DVD copy

Reviewed in Canada on April 13, 2015

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First, the movie: this is a wonderful, warm-hearted, funny and inspirational film that should not be missed. It's not a work of genius, by any means, but it fits perfectly into that mode of "they don't make 'em like that any more" Frank Capra-style entertainments that Hollywood has largely forgotten how to make. It's beautifully acted, a real landmark for Tom Conti, and handsomely filmed on location. It's not a film that deserved awards, perhaps, but it is one that you'll enjoy watching more than once, and which will leave you with a smile every time.

"Saving Grace" is particularly notable for the way it treats religion generally, and Catholicism specifically. The film breezes past all the dogma and politics of the Church, and excavates the core values of sacrifice and brotherly love. In a way, it presages the recent return to relevance brought by Pope Francis. In short, the film should appeal to to hard-core Catholics just as much as to rabid atheists - no small achievement.

One problem "Saving Grace" has run into is the popularity of the 2000 film of the same name. The latter has a huge reputation, based on its cast (Brenda Blethyn, 'Doc Martin' Clunes, et al), its writer (Craig Ferguson) and its topic (middle-aged widow saving her home by growing marijuana). In fact, when you search IMDb, you immediately get a hit for the later film, and no indication the earlier one exists at all. You have to go to the "See all results" link and pick it out of a long list of similar names. But the 1986 Tom Conti film is at least as good as the later one.

Second, the DVD: it's a pleasant surprise. Although it begins with a dire warning ("This film has been manufactured using the best source material available"), it's a passably good transfer. The image is quite sharp, and properly (anamorphic) widescreen. It's not the best digital transfer I've seen, but not at all bad. The one oddity is that the widescreen image has been padded top and bottom with black bars, to fit a 16:9 TV screen. The black bars are, of course, completely redundant, and only eat up valuable data space that could have been used to capture extra image detail. Presumably, that's how the film was mastered back in the dark days of the 20th Century, and that's now the "best material" that's digitally available. I'd love to see a remastered Blu-ray, but this version will do very nicely.

Bottom line: although rather overpriced at CAD$22 or so, this disc is nonetheless a must-buy. Considering the rarity of the film, and it's immense entertainment value, I'm very happy with the purchase, and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone.

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Genre	Comedy
Format	NTSC
Contributor	Fernando Rey, Edward James Olmos, Giancarlo Giannini, Richard Kramer, Tom Conti, Newt Arnold, Erland Josephson, Robert M. Young, David S. Ward, Herbert F. Solow, Celia Gittelson See more
Language	English
Runtime	1 hour and 52 minutes