Deliver Us From Evil Review
by Mark Bennett
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Be warned: Deliver Us from Evil
is like a nightmare from which you cannot wake up. But it's a nightmare
every upstanding citizen should have, because it tackles the taboo
subject of child molestation - specifically within the Catholic clergy
- with a heretofore unseen, open honesty that is both confrontational
and disturbing.
Between the mid 1970s and 1986, Father Oliver
O'Grady sexually assaulted more than one hundred Californian children,
the youngest - if you're squeamish you might want to skip to the next
sentence - being nine months old. It's like the storyline of the most
depraved horror film imaginable, except in this film the stars don't
just peel off their cars after the camera stops rolling. That's
right, Deliver Us from Evil is a documentary.
Filmmaker
Amy Berg interviews three families whose lives were touched by this
appalling creature, the very definition of a wolf in sheep's clothing.
But this is not your five-minute segment on A Current Affair or even an in-depth piece on 60 Minutes
or PBS. This is an unflinching account of what happened to these
unfortunate children and their unassuming parents (some of whom trusted
O'Grady enough to let him stay the night in their homes). The camera
lingers to capture every word and every emotion as they relate their
shocking ordeals.
Berg also conducts extensive interviews with
O'Grady himself, who is now living in Ireland after serving 14 years
for his heinous acts. Listening to this man will make your skin crawl
and your blood boil. His lips speak remorse, but it never once touches
his eyes. Can I be candid here? If I saw him in the street, I would
need to exercise every ounce of willpower I have not to take to his
head with a baseball bat. Perhaps the only thing that would stop me is
the knowledge that O'Grady himself was a victim of a paedophile priest.
Underpinning
these human elements is an expose on the collusion and cover-ups
infecting every echelon of the clerical hierarchy - a conspiracy so
extensive it's almost beyond belief. The Catholic church has spent $1
billion in settlements relating to paedophilia charges, and since 1950
it is estimated there have been 100,000 victims in the US alone.
More words seem pointless. Deliver Us From Evil is, quite simply, the most important documentary ever made. 5 out
of 5 Deliver Us From Evil
Australian
release: 17th May,
2007
Cast: Monsignor Cain, Oliver O'Grady, Cardinal Roger Mahoney, Nancy Sloan, Marie Jyono
Director: Amy Berg
Website: Click
here.
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