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Russell Crowe Becomes the Vatican’s Exorcising ‘James Bond’ – A Closer Look at the Oscar-Winning Actor’s New Role

by Michael Nguyen
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Six years ago, the Reverend Edward Siebert went on an exciting journey to Milan to make a movie called “The Pope’s Exorcist”. It is about somebody who is well-known in the Catholic Church for doing exorcisms.

At a restaurant, the Jesuit priest was sipping wine, thinking about the expensive airplane ticket he bought earlier and stressing about the agreement that he made with the Society of St. Paul to obtain the life story of Father Gabriele Amorth – an exorcist who was known as “the James Bond of exorcists.”

Mr. Siebert, a college professor who runs a movie production company, wasn’t sure if it was the right decision when he decided to make a film about Father Amorth’s life. But now, with Russell Crowe playing the main part in the movie called ‘The Pope’s Exorcist,’ which comes out this Friday, Mr. Siebert is feeling relieved and glad that he did make this movie.

Father Amorth became the leader of an exorcist group in Rome in 1986 and stayed there until 2016, when he passed away at the age of 91. During that time, it is said that he had done over 60,000 exorcism cases. A book called “An Exorcist Tells His Story” was published in 1990 and did really well; even being translated into 30 different languages! That same year, Father Amorth made a club about exorcising called The International Association of Exorcists and his favourite movie was “The Exorcist”.

Siebert, an executive producer of the film, is not the most suitable person for this project. Nevertheless, Michael Patrick Kaczmarek from New Mexico encouraged him to take up this project as he believes Amorth’s stories are worth telling.

Kaczmarek, one of the movie’s makers, contacted Amorth in 2015 through his religious order’s publishing company. The executives there said that several people had tried to get permission to use the exorcist’s books in movies and TV shows, but they were all denied. However, Kaczmarek didn’t give up and eventually got the rights he needed.

I used a translator to write Father Amorth and told him I was devoted to religion and wanted to respect his work with exorcisms. Working together with Siebert made Father Amorth trust my wish to keep the story faithful to religion.

Siebert was scared by what Amorth said at first, but then he was inspired by how much faith and effort that the priest put in to helping people. Amorth revealed that out of all the individuals who sought his help, 98% were actually in need for a psychiatrist instead of an exorcist; and this same point is featured in the movie starring Crowe’s Amorth. A cardinal asked him about the remaining 2%, and he answered: “This something has been confusing everyone from all the sciences and medicines for a very long time – I call it evil.”

Actor Russell Crowe is not a fan of horror movies, as he believes in sleeping deeply at night. However, the character of Father Amorth intrigued him, so he read the priest’s first two books and asked people who had seen him doing exorcisms. What made him interested in Father Amorth was his unwavering faith and amusing sense of humour.

In the 2017 documentary movie “The Devil and Father Amorth,” there’s a priest that starts off each exorcism by sticking out his tongue in the direction of the person possessed by a demon. This is done to show the demons that he was not scared and it’s something he did every time before performing an exorcism.

In 1987, The Pope’s Exorcist, Father Amorth and a younger priest he is mentoring go to Spain to solve the mystery behind why a little boy has been possessed. They soon find out that there is an old secret that the Vatican is attempting to hide from everyone, very similar to what happened in The Da Vinci Code, Indiana Jones and lots of buddy-cop movies.

The movie creators changed how Crowe looks in comparison to the real priest, Amorth. Onscreen, Crowe wears a cassock and rides his scooter with Faith No More’s music playing in the background. The scooter is decorated with a sticker from Ferrari, which is Amorth’s hometown company.

Father Gabriele Amorth took a long time to become a priest – he fought in WWII, studied law and was a journalist. He didn’t become an exorcist until he was 61 years old. Father Amorth wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, even if it meant saying controversial things about Hitler and Stalin being possessed, or claiming that the Vatican had secret pedophile cults inside of it, and yoga and Harry Potter were paths to demons.

The work of an exorcist named Amorth has inspired many Catholic Church members. A man named Monsignor Stephen J. Rossetti is one of these people who have been affected by Amorth’s work. He’s a psychologist and an exorcist in the Washington Archdiocese with over 76,000 followers on his Instagram account created six months ago. People are becoming more interested in demonic possession and exorcism – a trend that Rossetti noticed!

Rossetti said that we should all be very thankful to Father Amorth because he pushed this ministry, even though the church and everyone else did not pay much attention to it.

Jesus Christ used to do a lot of exorcisms when he was alive, but now Catholic pastors and priests aren’t trained to do it. The movie “The Exorcist” made people more aware about possessions by demons. Father Rossetti agrees with Father Amorth that these days, less people believe in faith, more people are sinning, and more occult activities are happening; making demonic influences stronger than before.

Exorcism can be a form of healing if done properly, said Rossetti who has witnessed the dark side in his 15 years as an exorcist. He mentioned that strange things can happen and it’s like something out of a horror movie. Demons, he explained, sometimes act like 12-year-olds trying to scare people. Despite all of this, Rossetti claims that performing an exorcism is still a joyful experience because he has faith and God on his side.

The International Association of Exorcists put out a statement about “The Pope’s Exorcist” that wasn’t great. In the statement, they said the way it was made was too scary and would make people anxious, restless, and afraid. They didn’t think it was a good idea to make something so scary.

Joseph laycock, a professor at Texas state university who studies religion, said that even when exorcists are portrayed in a dramatic fashion in movies or TV shows, they still benefit from the media.

Laycock has written a book called “The Exorcist Effect” which looks at the influence of the 1973 film “The Exorcist.” According to him, it had an impact on how the Catholic Church thought about exorcism and this change was largely led by Amorth, who is now known as an important priest in the ritual of exorcism. Laycock also believes that people will continue to be interested in this topic.

“In the mid-20th century, America had a different style of Christianity than usual; it focused on being ethical instead of relying on miracles and magic. However, most Christian history has been about doing magical things and fighting against evil spirits. So now Christianity is going back to what it’s been known for in the past.”

It took Siebert almost 8 years to make a movie about Amorth’s story. Even though he was scared of horror films and exorcism, he was proud to see a priest portrayed positively in the movie, since usually priests are made fun of or painted in an evil light in TV shows and movies.

“It’s nice to see a priest talking about things like prayer, forgiving people, and how much God loves us. Even better, they are acting like heroes by taking on demons!”, he said. He was happy that priests weren’t just regular old people anymore but had become brave heroes!

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