The Catholic School (2021) User Reviews

Initially intriguing, but ultimately unbalanced and disappointing.

[johannes2000-1 · 6/10 · 21 September 2022]

This movie is primarily meant as a rendition of a true murder and rape case, committed by some high school teens back in the seventies in Italy. But that story only pops up in the last 20 minutes of the movie. Before that we get to see a whole string of side-stories, all more or less around the various scholars of a chic catholic high school. I didn't quite grasp how all these stories should relate to the crime (apart from the fact that they mostly circle around the sexual curiosity of all those teens). A voice-over by one of the schoolboys constantly utters vague, unfathomable and pretentious profundities, of which it's equally unclear what the link with the crime is. The title of the movie seems to suggest that the fact that the school is catholic is essential to all the goings-on, but this is nowhere in the movie made concrete.

The sequence of the rapes and murder is pretty harsh and realistically done, with the two boys blood chillingly cold and almost clinical in their actions. This part of the movie is impressive, albeit hard to watch. But the motivation or reasons for the actions by the two are never revealed, these in fact came (at least to me) totally out of the blue. After more than an hour preliminary movie-time building-up to this climax, this is at least a bit disappointing.

To me this is at best an intriguing movie about a gruesome and senseless crime. And the settings to revive the 70's are flawlessly done. But there's too much that distracts from the pivotal story, which makes this an unbalanced and in the end disappointing movie.

Not an entertaining movie to be honest

[menichinialessio · 6/10 · 28 July 2022]

The film seems to be a little bit boring in some parts, decent acting from some, bad from others. The real story of the murder hasn't been explicated well, a lot of missing parts that the plot needed hasn't been added to the work. However the picture and the good aesthetic of the 70's save this film from a worst vote.

Well done and interesting if predictable

[lewianbra · 7/10 · 8 September 2022]

I think that this is a solid and largely well done film. The acting is fine and the exposition of the family, school, and social life of the students who ultimately committed the Massacro del Circeo gives some food for thought. Some historical facts are missing so that the story told by the film may give a slightly biased impression, but this is normal for films of this kind that are based on real events but do not attempt to be documentaries, still somewhat problematic. I wouldn't rate the film as outstanding; if you read even just the official announcements about the film in advance, you will know where things are going (although I hadn't studied the story enough to know everything in advance, there was the odd little surprise), and the "rigid catholic school and disfunctional families bring forth disturbed characters" theme wasn't exactly done for the first time, but anyway, I could get something out of this. 7/10.

Machist and fascist gender violence

[danybur · 6/10 · 4 October 2022]

Summary

The film tries to deploy, in a quite unconnected way, the family and educational framework in which the youth of the wealthy class criminals who perpetrated the macho crime known as Circeo Massacre, of enormous event in Italy.

It is a pity that the director Stefano Mordini escamotee almost completely the political dimension of the crime, since he does not mention the fascist sympathies of the criminals, at a time when neo -fascism rises victorious precisely in Italy for the first time since the 2nd World War and advances with its instigations and hate crimes in many parts of the world, including Argentina.

Review.

This film describes the crime known as "Circeo Massacre", which occurred from 1975, as well as some students of the Catholic School for Men Leone Magno, among whom were their young perpetrators.

The film begins with the trunk of a car from which a female voice asks for help. Then it continues in a series of flashbacks where director Stefano Mordini tries to describe the cultivation broth from which the criminals came. There are a series of unconnected vignettes about classes at school, some of their rites and the families of some of the students (the voice of one of them acts as the rapporteur in off), some of which seem to conduct narratively to anywhere . From all these scenes a macho, misogyn and homophobic class matrix is released. Finally, we are shown the criminal act itself (which should not reveal so as not to subtract dramatic impact) from which those who would be their executors and who their victims in the anterior part of the film were emerging. Anyway, I consider that a dramatic progression is missing or, in any case, surprising the violence deployed with a certain conjunction of coldness and cruelty that it vaguely remembers (and saving the distances) to Saló from Pasolini. Perhaps physical violence has something that always implies an abrupt jump on its precedents.

Crime is an act of all these dimensions of hatred: a ruthless act of gender violence with its strong macho and misogynistic elements and also classist here that marked a before and after in Italian legislation. Unfortunately, and unlike Edoardo Albinati's novel on which it is based, Mordini almost totally hides the political dimension of crime, since it does not mention the fascist sympathies of criminals, at a time when neo -fascism rises victorious precisely in Italy for the first time since World War 2nd and advances with their instigations and hate crimes in many parts of the world, including Argentina.

Finding a logic behind the randomly edited flashbacks is almost fascinating

[beatrice_gangi · 2/10 · 2 October 2022]

La scuola cattolica is a bad film that mistreats a story that should have been handled with more care, or rather, that exploits it to gain more visibility. The film has nothing to say and, in an attempt to hide it, it crumples over an empty and confusing structure accompanied by a narrator's voice blurting out what appear to be introspective profundities. As an Italian, I already knew this case, and hoped it would be treated with more justice, as an attempt to really understand why what happened happened, and to give a voice to the victims of the case. Instead, it is not clear what the director wants to do, other than displaying a gratuitous attempt to shock, some vague form of social polemic, and pointless observations on religion.

Poor little rich kids

[patherwill · 7/10 · 14 October 2022]

Groups of spoiled rich boys in their teens who appear to to flout the normal rules of the game, to push each other both physically and mentally until something snaps under the stress. The majority come from comfortable backgrouds where in most cases materialism replaces love, where it seems parents are quite happy providing they themselves can shirk most of their responsibilities towards their offspring. True, curfews are set, orders are given but generally there is NO check or follow-ups made to ensure rules aren't being broken. September 1975, 3 of the boys, Gianni Guido, Angelo Izzo and Andrea Ghira have made an agreement to kidnap and rape and/or murder two girls they vaguely know, Rosaria and Donatella. At the time, the Italian Penal Code only recognises RAPE as a MORAL crime NOT a Criminal one. They lay out their plans and begin to put them into action. The results are tragic for all concerned.

A confused narrative that's not clear about what it's trying to say

[Deathstryke · 3/10 · 17 September 2022]

I wasn't aware that this was a retelling of an actual rape murder in Italy and so I felt there was a lack of context for much of what happens, which sort of colors my review.

The first two thirds of the film follow a group of Catholic school boys -most of whom look to be in their mid twenties with receding hairlines- and their families, observing their caricaturized machismo behavior and sexual frustration through a bleak lens, portraying all of them as shady, violent deviants in the making. The director seems to be making the argument that all the boys are capable of the crime by showing us glimpses of their toxic bro culture and unsavory views on women, but it's done in such a broad way that we never really engage with any character in particular. One boy narrates the film, but there is no real protagonist and nobody to root for, bar the two female victims who appear in the final 30 mins.

Many of the plot points feel random and irrelevant to the over-arching narrative. For example, a lot of time is spent setting up one of the boys as being gay, but this never leads to anything. In another scene there is a traumatic accident involving the narrator's younger sister, but it just comes and goes without a sense of why this event is significant, or what imprint it has left on the characters.

The final third is a drawn out re-enactment of how three of the boys lure two young women to a house, imprison, rape and murder one of them. It's disturbing and believably acted, but my lack of context led me to feel like it came out of nowhere. The ending left me with a hollow feeling and while I appreciate it brought the victim's true story to my attention, the film didn't convince me of any of the sub textual points it was making about religion or masculinity. It was overall very scattered and confused.

Gruesome and traumatising

[bekiwij · 6/10 · 17 March 2023]

At first, there was nothing much to it. It was all about just boys experiencing sex for the first time. And then it became very sinister. I wish they had things explained a little bit more clearly because I could not really understand what was going on at the beginning. However towards the end, it became pretty clear. Acting was great and the cinematography was excellent. But I still feel like they could have made storyline more simpler, so it wouldn't confuse the audience. Specially going back and forth in time, was unnecessary because it did pretty much nothing to make the movie more interesting other than confusing. I guess that's why most people felt like they were watching some random Clips. This movie had potential to be excellent unfortunately it failed to deliver. 6 out of 10 for me!

Boring, Confusing, Exploitative

[lee-96696 · 2/10 · 24 September 2022]

When the Netflix algorithm recommended this film, I clicked on the "more info" button and wouldn't you know it, within 15 seconds the actual movie started to roll. Well, there at the start was the Warner Brothers logo so, yes, I assumed this would be a serious, well-made film. No more due diligence needed.

What a mistake. The movie is not really about a Catholic School, though a school in Rome in the summer of 1975 is the setting for many scenes. Nor are the first three quarters of the movie about the horrific crime hinted at in the trailer. It's more about six or seven spoiled and indulged upper middle class boys -- I needed a scorecard to keep track of them -- and the various mini-dramas they and their families get into. The narrator, a junior at the school, does not help matters with his ponderous, pretentious voice overs trying to explain the meaning of male-ness in that place and time. Also confusing: jumps in time from "40 days before" the opening scene to "three hours before" then to "10 hours before," etc.

Then there is the crime itself. The scenes are nauseatingly graphic. Sheer exploitation. It would be NC-17 if it had a rating.

It would have better to focus exclusively on the crime and lead up, and done so in a more sensitive way. You know, old fashioned stuff like motives, backgrounds of the perpetrators, extenuating factors. Maybe more about the victims. Forget the other 10 or 12 characters.

Or....

Turn the whole mess into a six- or seven-part series. It is based on a true story and a novel of +1200 pages, so one hour and 45 minutes does not do it justice.

This movie had such great potential. It is a shame the producers coughed up this mess. And blame too goes to Netflix or buying such dreck.

Italian Crime Drama based upon a semi-documentary novel by Edoardo ALBINATI

[ZeddaZogenau · 7/10 · 4 November 2023]

In 1975 there was a horrific crime among very young people in Rome that went down in Italian history as the "Circeo Massacre". The case caused a huge stir and was shortly afterwards taken up in the very successful crime film genre of Italian cinema. The films "I violenti di Roma bene (Violence for Kicks)" with GOLDEN GLOBE nominee Antonio SABATO and "I ragazzi della Roma violenta" in 1976 were loosely based on the terrible crimes of the Circeo massacre.

In 2016, the writer and screenwriter Edoardo ALBINATI, born in 1956 (Il racconto dei racconti by EUROPEAN FILM AWARD winner Matteo GARRONE) published the semi-documentary novel THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL, which immediately became a huge audience and critical success. ALBINATI went to the same school as the three perpetrators at the time of the crime and developed an impressive portrait of Italian society in the 1970s in his novel.

A film adaptation can only do so much justice to such a 1000-page epic. So it happens that the already pretty good film gets a bit bogged down with its cast of excellent young actors. The seasoned actors who embody the parents' generation are much more impressive: Valentina CERVI as a devout Catholic who has to cope with a severe blow of fate; Valeria GOLINO as a wife whose husband discovers his homosexuality; Riccardo SCAMARCIO as the neo-fascist father and finally Jasmine TRINCA as the fading Cinecitta diva who lets her son's school friends sleep with her uninhibitedly. The terrible crime comes somewhat suddenly at the end, but it has a dramatic impact that is certainly not for everyone.

Nevertheless: Despite all its weaknesses, an impressive film that should be seen as a companion material to the countless POLIZIOTTESCHI of Italian cinema in the 1970s. ALBINATI's book is of course even more strongly recommended!

Great Story = Teenage sex gone wrong.

[co6779 · 6/10 · 23 March 2024]

I grew up in a catholic school so i can relate to this however its a step above in all honesty. At no time during my time in Catholic school in NYC did I feel above the law or the feelings of human decency, in that aspect the few portrayed here obviously had major personality / mental issues with how they seen other human beings, especially young woman. My wife took offense to this movie, the arrogance & lack of human decency among the teenage boys was very over the top for her.

I do not feel on the whole, Catholicism is the subject here but a few bad eggs with no regard for others, the total lack of empathy made it clear it was more than a religious situation, but poor upbringing & moral quality.

The title is flawed as religion had nothing to do with the horrible criminal behavior.

I would of rated it better but the religion is not the issue and it should not be in the title.

Waaaay too slow

[ansirahka · 4/10 · 30 September 2022]

I dont get whats the point of introducing so many characters when eventually its just about those three, got so bored halfway through the movie i don't even understand where the story is going. Then the plot happens and it was just ok, its just seem pointless. Maybe if i understand the history of the plot it'll be more interesting. Review ends here, rest are just filler words.

In late September 1975, a renowned Catholic school in Rome for sheltered, upper-middle-class boys is attacked in what became known as the Circeo Massacre. The film examines what triggered the violence. In late September 1975, a renowned Catholic school in Rome for sheltered, upper-middle-class boys is attacked in what became known as the Circeo Massacre. The film examines what triggered the violence.

This film is rubbish

[pwalters-43899 · 22 September 2022]

If you are anti Catholic , anti Christian then you will love this film.

It is full of anti catholic cliches and is nonsense.

Truth mixed with fantasy. Watch Dahmer instead for your kicks.

Or find Christ authentically through the Catholic Church.

Americans and many now who are worshipping the Earth are blind, deaf or lost in the world to the message of Christ. Time to wake up and read proper words from the Lord and good interpreters to find joy. Scott Hahn is there for you.

There are many more people who have found the tie path. But don't give up you are Gods work of art you may be saved. Love!