Deliver Us from Evil
Promotional poster
Directed byAmy J. Berg
Written byAmy J. Berg
Produced byAmy J. Berg
Matthew Cooke
Frank Donner
Hermass Lassalle
StarringAnn, Maria & Bob Jyono
Nancy Sloan
Adam, Becky & Phil M.
Thomas Doyle
Patrick Wall
John Manly
Jeff Anderson
Dr. Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea
Case & Jane Degroot
Oliver O'Grady
CinematographyJacob Kusk
Jens Schlosser
Edited byMatthew Cooke
Music byJoseph Arthur
Mick Harvey
Production
company
Disarming Films
Distributed byLionsgate
Release date
  • October 13, 2006 (2006-10-13)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$327,205

Deliver Us from Evil is a 2006 American documentary film that explores the life of Irish Catholic priest Oliver O'Grady, who admitted to having molested and raped approximately 25 children in Northern California from the late 1970s through the early 1990s.[1] Written and directed by Amy J. Berg, it won the Best Documentary Award at the 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, though it lost to An Inconvenient Truth.[2] The title of the film refers to a line in the Lord's Prayer.

Synopsis

The film chronicles O'Grady's years as a priest in Northern California, where he committed his crimes. After being convicted of child molestation in 1993 and serving seven years in prison, he was deported to his native Ireland, where Berg interviewed him in 2005. Additionally, the film presents trial documents, videotaped depositions with O'Grady and other members of the Los Angeles Archdiocese (including Monsignor Cain and Roger Mahony), and interviews with survivors of O'Grady's abuse, activists, theologians, psychologists, and lawyers. Taken together, the material suggests that Church officials were aware of O'Grady's crimes many years before his conviction, but took steps to conceal them to protect him and the Church.[3][4]

Reception

The film was well received by critics. It earned a 100 percent "Fresh" critics rating from Rotten Tomatoes based on 72 reviews, with a weighted average of 8.36/10, and is currently ranked 31st among the site's highest rated documentaries of all time.[5] The site's consensus reads: "Deliver Us from Evil is a superb documentary and a searing look at an institution protecting its leaders at the expense of its followers. A profoundly disturbing chronicle of a wolf in sheep's clothing, the film builds a clear-eyed case against pedophile priest Oliver O'Grady, and the Catholic bureaucracy that protected him. The recollections of O'Grady's victims are nothing short of shocking and heartbreaking."[6] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 86 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[7]

The Irish Independent criticized Berg for having filmed children in Ireland without their knowledge or that of their families.[8]

Aftermath

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.[9]

Inspiration

Amy J. Berg in an interview with the International Documentary Association cites the cinema verité as well as the works of Stanley Kubrick, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Tomas Vinterberg, Alejandro Innaritu, Gus Van Sant, Lars Von Trier as inspirations.[10] In another interview Berg cited documentarian Michael Moore and the Dogma 95 film movement.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Guccione, Jean (May 11, 2005). "A Glimpse at the Mind of a Pedophile". Los Angeles Times.
  2. ↑ "The New York Times: Deliver Us from Evil". The New York Times. 2008. Archived from the original on September 5, 2008. Retrieved November 23, 2008.
  3. ↑ Thomson, Desson (November 10, 2006). "An Unassuming Face of 'Evil'". The Washington Post.
  4. ↑ Stein, Ruthe (October 27, 2006). "The bitter wake of a pedophile protected by the church". San Francisco Chronicle.
  5. ↑ "Rotten Tomatoes' Best Documentary Movies". Rotten Tomatoes.
  6. ↑ "Deliver Us From Evil". Rotten Tomatoes.
  7. ↑ "Deliver Us from Evil". Metacritic.
  8. ↑ Hickey, Walshe. "Uproar as school footage used in film on pedophile". Archived from the original on November 5, 2015. Retrieved October 13, 2006.
  9. ↑ "Convicted Irish priest active in the Netherlands". NRC Handelsblad. 27 April 2010. Archived from the original on April 30, 2010. Retrieved 27 April 2010.
  10. ↑ "Meet the DocuWeek Filmmakers: Amy Berg--'Deliver Us From Evil'". International Documentary Association. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  11. ↑ Indiewire (2006-10-13). "indieWIRE INTERVIEW: Amy Berg, director of "Deliver Us From Evil"". IndieWire. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  12. ↑ Lombardi, Kristen (October 31 – November 6, 2003). "Phil Saviano Founder of the local Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests". Boston Phoenix. Archived from the original on October 10, 2015. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
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