- Network: ABC
- Series Premiere Date: Dec 1, 2005
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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This heart-tugger suffers from efficiency. [2 Dec 2005, p.74]
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In the end, both [CBS' and ABC's Pope] movies stick to what viewers can agree on (commies and Nazis, bad; love, good), while skipping much of the Pope's sometimes polarizing tenure as a leader.
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Granted, the smaller time frame makes it more difficult to chronicle an 80-some-odd-year life, but what emerges is a CliffsNotes version that fastidiously avoids crowd shots (presumably to keep costs down) and struggles to create drama with its worshipful tone.
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Any way you portray Karol Wojtyla, he comes out looking extraordinary.
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I think I could have written a better script during the two hours it took me to watch "Have No Fear." I think you could, too, and I don't even know you.
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Kretschmann... delivers one of the finest performances seen on TV this year.
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All this feels dutiful and rote - the CliffsNotes version.
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Turns the pope into a pious stick figure.
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The movie is more a series of biographical announcements than penetrating drama.
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This depiction of John Paul II as half human, half saint -- though hardly unexpected and possibly even warranted -- leaves us with a character that is less dimensional and less relatable and, consequently, less interesting.
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Stiflingly reverential, sadly superficial.
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Partially because of its more cursory treatment of the Pope's life, the show seems less preachy and more emotional than the CBS effort, and more appropriate.
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Because the movie tries to cover too much ground, it will be incoherent for those who don't already know the story, and disappointing for those who do. Worse, it is off-key in its presentation of both minor and major passages of his life.
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Anything remotely resembling complexity and nuance has been sacrificed to cramming six decades of history into two hours of airtime, minus commercials.
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Largely worthless.
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The movie races so quickly through the milestones of his career... that some of the most powerful moments in his papacy are underplayed.
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Fear plays like an illustrated Life of the Saints on fast-forward. Blink and you can miss decades.
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Even though the life of the Polish pope... obviously is loaded with dramatic potential, the film seems listlessly uninterested in exploring it.
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The accelerating pace of the movie runs roughshod over the drama.
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It zips through 60-plus years of Wojtyla's life at a pace that manages to be both breakneck and boring.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 8 out of 13
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Mixed: 1 out of 13
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Negative: 4 out of 13
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JohnFeb 7, 2006This was as great as the cbs mini series if not better
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PaulWDec 8, 2005
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[Anonymous]Dec 4, 2005