{"id":5343,"date":"2019-05-26T12:55:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T16:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/?p=5343"},"modified":"2022-10-25T17:13:48","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T21:13:48","slug":"the-devils-1971-ken-russell-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-devils-1971-ken-russell-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"France burns with religious mania in Ken Russell’s The Devils"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ken Russell’s The Devils<\/em> (1971) is a fictionalized account of the 17th-century Roman Catholic priest Urbain Grandier, tried and executed in Loudon, France. Questioning the authority of the Catholic Church is a controversial provocation at any time, but consider: if today, a sober movie like Spotlight (2015) is viewed as brave, then the The Devils’ depiction of the historical Church as depraved, sex-obsessed, and corrupt must have really rankled in 1971. It’s virtually impossible to imagine a company like Warner Bros. producing anything remotely like The Devils<\/em> in our current climate of resurgent Christian intolerance and fundamentalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hard to find in any form, Filmstruck had what was apparently the abbreviated 109-minute US release version. I think it was part of the Warner Bros. \/ Turner library, and considering its still-controversial aspects, it’s probably unlikely it will reappear on Warner Bros.’ forthcoming streaming service. Perhaps it could find a home with a boutique outlet like The Criterion Collection, which has been unafraid to release other hot potatoes like The Last Temptation of Christ<\/em> and Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If possible to set its subject matter aside, it’s also a pity The Devils<\/em> has been suppressed, for it is a lavish production with truly massive outdoor sets and if not literally a cast of thousands, then at least a cast of several hundred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Oliver
It would seem that major Hollywood studios like Warner Bros. were less afraid to court controversy in 1971.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the late, lamented Filmstruck for filling another gap in my understanding of cinema history. A helpful reminder to young and old film fans approaching cinema history in non-chronological order: nothing comes out of nowhere. I had long assumed Terry Gilliam<\/a>‘s Jabberwocky<\/em>, Monty Python and the Holy Grail<\/em>, and The Life of Brian<\/em> to be landmark satires of de-romanticized European history as crazed, filthy, ignorant, superstitious, and chaotic. But belatedly seeing The Devils<\/em> now, Gilliam looks less a sudden deviation, and more part of a continuum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know I am not alone in Gilliam being one of the gateway drugs that sparked a love of movies — the usual suspects usually being 1970s American directors like Coppola<\/a>, Scorsese<\/a>, Lucas<\/a>, etc. I’ve since come to recognize the influences that led to so many other classics, but it’s great to know that even now, having caught up with thousands of other movies, I can still be surprised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971) is a fictionalized account of the 17th-century Roman Catholic priest Urbain Grandier, tried and executed in Loudon, France. Questioning the authority of the Catholic Church is a controversial provocation at any time, but consider: if today, a sober movie like Spotlight (2015) is viewed as brave, then the The Devils’ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1595,1837,1883,912,413,910,1882],"class_list":["post-5343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","tag-1595","tag-filmstruck","tag-ken-russell","tag-oliver-reed","tag-religion","tag-terry-gilliam","tag-vanessa-redgrave"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/devils-1971-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa9lhB-1ob","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1605,"url":"https:\/\/chadossman.com\/blog\/the-george-a-romero-zombie-cycle-part-2-dawn-of-the-dead\/","url_meta":{"origin":5343,"position":0},"title":"The George A. 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