Hesburgh

Name: Hesburgh
Genre: Documentary
Released: April 26, 2019
Duration: 106 min
Rating: 83
Cast: Bill Clinton, Coretta Scott King, Dwight D. Eisenhower, H.R. Haldeman, Jimmy Carter

2019

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Universal acclaim based on 5 Critic Reviews

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Hesburgh

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Movie Details & Credits

O'Malley Creadon Productions | Release Date: April 26, 2019 | Not Rated

Starring: Bill Clinton, Coretta Scott King, Dwight D. Eisenhower, H.R. Haldeman, Jimmy Carter, John Ehrlichman, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Robert Sam Anson, Theodore Hesburgh

Summary: Amidst some of the most tumultuous times in our nation’s history, one unlikely figure finds himself in the eye of the storm as he works to advance the causes of peace and equal rights for all people. He is Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C, long-time president of the University of Notre Dame.

Director: Patrick Creadon

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 106 min

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Critic Reviews

Glenn Kenny

May 2, 2019

Hesburgh is consistently smart about its subject. It makes a convincing case that the priest was one of a handful of whites in the civil rights movement who understood the systemic nature of racism in the United States. Read full review

John DeFore

May 2, 2019

Some would say the jury's out on that issue; but near-unanimous love and admiration suggests Hesburgh's stance was a great way to win friends and influence people. Read full review

Michael Rechtshaffen

May 2, 2019

As informational as it is inspirational, Patrick Creadon’s Hesburgh is a thoroughly engaging documentary chronicle of the life and turbulent times of longtime Notre Dame president Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, whose tenure coincided with a particularly pivotal stretch of American history. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Apr 30, 2019

Creadon presents all this in a brisk, lively film, with lots of topical music underscoring the archival footage, and interviews with everyone from former students who became journalists or members of Congress to Ted Koppel and former Senator Alan Simpson. Read full review

Ann Hornaday

May 1, 2019

This moving, illuminating slice of American life and social history serves as a stirring example that we should all do much better. And we can start right now. Read full review

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paninimaker

May 28, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I rate this movie four shiba inus out of five. The music and overall production quality was top notch. However, i cannot give this movie a ten because the ending was sadly spoiled for me. The information that Ted Hesburgh had died was supposed to be the great twist of the movie, but because i was spoiled, this moment lost a lot of gravitas for me.… Expand

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HollywoodGlee

Nov 27, 2019

Hesburgh is a biographical account of Father Theodore Martin Hesburgh, an ordained priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Hesburgh is widely known for his tenure, from 1952-1987, as President of the University of Notre Dame, located in South Bend, Indiana. Others knew Fr. Hesburgh as aHesburgh is a biographical account of Father Theodore Martin Hesburgh, an ordained priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Hesburgh is widely known for his tenure, from 1952-1987, as President of the University of Notre Dame, located in South Bend, Indiana. Others knew Fr. Hesburgh as a confidante and as an advisor to American Presidents including, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard "Dick" Nixon. But, Director Patrick Creadon and Producer Christine O'Malley get behind the public persona and weave a story of mythic proportions.

Beginning with his ambitious plan to transform Notre Dame from an average academic institution with a great football team into a leading university for personal examination, exploration, and learning, Hesburgh began wooing captains of industry for financial support and invited Fr. John Courtney Murray to lecture on the highly controversial tome The Catholic Church in World Affairs, at the University of Notre Dame. The voice-over narration and black and white still photos add a sense of historical significance and deification of what Hesburgh was engaging in. The Roman Catholic Church responded with an order to cease from teaching such books ending with a formal "Roma locuta; causa finita est" (Rome has spoken; the cause is finished). Hesburgh defied the order arguing that it was the institution saying no and not him personally (as he had taken a vow of obedience to the Pope). According to Creadon, this sets a precedent for how Hesburgh navigated the world of power politics.

Beginning with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Father Hesburgh emerged in Vienna, Austria, as a free-thinking clergyman who was respected by both sides of the Cold War without stirring up controversy. Hesburgh had a penchant for schmoozing with bourbon and cigars resulting in a detente allowing both sides to sit in a room at the same table.

Afterward, Hesburgh was named to President Eisenhower's federal Commission on Civil Rights. As the University of Notre Dame was struggling to find a commencement speaker, Hesburgh called in a mark - President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered the 1960 Commencement Address with Cardinal Giovanni Montini (later to be named Pope Paul VI and leader of Vatican II) in tow! Cardinal Batista and Hesburgh would become close friends in the ensuing years sharing a love for space travel during the Apollo era of the United States Government's accelerated Space Program in the 1960s.

Sensing formidable opposing positions on the Civil Rights Commission, consisting of three Democrats, two republicans, and Hesburgh, an independent priest. Hesburgh utilized his human touch, and the resources of a well-heeled Notre Dame philanthropist, to smooth out differences and gain a consensus resulting in a twelve-point report recommendation to Congress. Hesburgh continued to serve on the Civil Rights Commission and was appointed chairman by his old friend, Richard "Dick" Nixon.

Uncharacteristically, however, Hesburgh dealt a stunning blow to Notre Dame student body curtailing student protests during the Vietnam and Cambodian Wars as he felt the protesting interfered with student learning. Later, Hesburgh would lament his decision to limit protesting feeling he had made an unfortunate decision that inhibited a student's experience but at the time felt it was necessary and proper to institute it to curtail violence and also to guarantee the rights of other students who wanted to partake in their education. Meanwhile, Dick Nixon praised the move and used it as propaganda.

Nixon would later pressure Hesburgh to resign from the Civil Rights Commission as part of Nixon's Southern Strategy. So, Hesburgh turned his focus full force into the campus life of Notre Dame declaring it a co-educational institution in 1972 with overwhelming approval from the male students. On May 17th, 1987, Father Theodore M. Hesburgh received the University of Notre Dame's highest honor, the Laetare Medal, an annual award given to honor and recognize an individual who has given outstanding service to the Catholic Church and society.

While I did find the historical moments of the film enlightening, what caught me by surprise were the human elements; the relationships cultivated, the emotional warmth expressed, and the joy and love expressed by those who knew Hesburgh. What I was left with was a powerful human interest story that served as both a testimonial to a life well-lived for the noble causes of justice and freedom and a welcome addition to the national historical archives.

Employing present-day narratives from family members, fellow clergy members and a highly effective first-person voice-over narration, interspersed with an up-tempo musical score and flashing images, and coupled with historical black and white photos, archival film footage, and newsreels, Creadon sets the tone, mood and pacing for nothing-short of a miraculous life with Hesburgh. Highly recommended.… Expand

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