Spoiler Alert To speak of what I think or feel, after seeing this movie, is complicated. I confess I read first all the comments of the other people who saw the movie, and very few of them really got the point of what this story is really about. I have not read the book, so I've no prejudiced ideas about how the characters should be like. So to me, they appeared perfect. But to come back to my main idea, the movie is about us, about our lives and the right or wrong choices we make. About how we must seek our destiny, inspite the pain and suffering it might cause us. That is the thorn bird.
The movie ends with father Ralph saying that we have to follow our destiny, even if it leads us to certain death, for while we know the terrible price we'll have to pay for our choice "we still do it". It is about how people give into what they believe. Father Ralph confesses in the end "I told myself it was meant to be", thus showing how his believes have shaped his life. He certainly loved having a purpose, being content with himself and who he was, and couldn't bare being stripped of that magical halo that priesthood had bestowed upon him. He certainly had too much of what it took to be a prince of the Church, to give up this privilege, even for Maggie, whom he loved so dearly. He knew that was his destiny, inflicted upon him through birth, breading and choice long before he knew Maggie.So he could not have been anything else than what he was. Not being able to be with Maggie, because he was a priest, was a tragedy, but I think an even bigger tragedy for him would have been to live a simple life, married to his beloved Maggie. Maggie is not to be condemned either for loving him, because it was her destiny, decided from the moment she had laid eyes on him. And maybe that is the central theme of the story, that nobody seems to notice. About how people are imprisoned in their beliefs about what they want, and what they think is good for them. And the same story repeats itself everyday, with most of us, without even knowing it.
I think what this movie is trying to say is that many things in life are perhaps destined to us, "long before we are born", as Fee says at one point, but there are enough choices that we can make. But if choices exist, even when it comes to the things that represent our destiny, and are set somewhat above our will, we cannot make the choices that would decide our destiny, simply because the destiny is stronger than our power to choose. In the case of Ralph and Maggie, that is the point. Ralph cannot choose not to love Maggie, no more than he can choose to stop being a priest. And in her turn, Maggie cannot choose not to love Ralph, no more than she can choose to love Luke or any other man. The whole movie is about choices. Remember the scene in Athens, with comedians playing a scene from Hippolytus? And how the cardinal Contini - Verchese ( a brilliant Christopher Plummer) says that this is the tragedy of Christianity, that it allows people to choose, and have free will, while in the Greek pagan religion everything was destined to man by the Gods, and man had no choice to make about his life?
I think that almost all the characters in the movie have choices, that could turn upside down their destiny, decided for them "by the gods", but they cannot make those choices, simply because they would loose their meaning through them. That's why Ralph can't choose not be a priest, why Maggie cannot choose not to love him. They define themselves through what they believe was meant for them, and can't have this thorn taken out of their breast. So it happened at first with Fiona, loving Frank a lot more than the other children, just because he was the image of the man she first loved, and how it happened to Dane, who was drawn to God, in spite of the great love he had for his mother. And the examples do not stop here. And it's wrong to say there's no moral in the whole story.
In the end, we realize that, because they were not able to rise above their condition and make the choices that would break their destiny and change it, the characters suffer and are punished. The only thing that's still alive in the end is love. Father Ralph is one of the greatest roles that Chamberlain has ever played, if not the greatest. Barbara Stanwick is absolutely breathtaking, especially in that scene where she confesses to Ralph: "I have always loved you. So much that I would have killed you for not wanting me". Like the other characters above mentioned, Mary Carson is doomed not to be able to choose not to punish Ralph for not giving into her. Rachel Ward was a divine Maggie, even in the moments when she was bitter and cruel to Ralph. In those moments in the end, when she announces him, after Dane's death, that Dane was his son too, she seems like the voice of God, punishing him for his ambition, which made him love halfway both God and Maggie.In the end, he finds out he has betrayed his own self, not being able to be true neither to God, who wanted him either married or a priest, nor to Maggie, who wanted him to listen to what the love for her commanded him to do.
I also loved Jean Simmons, who was a perfect Fiona, and so convincing when she cried after her Paddy, and said about Maggie, in that prophetic way: "What's a daughter? A younger version of oneself, who will cry the same tears and make the same mistakes". Richard Kiley was great as Paddy as well. And so was in fact the whole cast. I also loved Philip Anglim in the part of Dane "a truly holy man". He was perfect, for his soul was with God, and thus he had outdone Father Ralph.
I recommend this movie to whomever should want to see it. It's a beautiful experience, and it ends beautifully, with Justine (played brilliantly by Mare Whiningham - hope I got it right - inspite of what some of the movie's viewers might believe) leaving Drogheda and breaking the curse of being trapped in the unfortunate destiny of the Cleary women, who wanted all men they could never have. She has indeed her work and the love of a man who will never break her heart, as Maggie tells her in the end.
This is by far the longest review I've written until now. Hope the little details I gave about the characters are not considered spoilers. Thanks IMDb for this chance of saying plainly what I think.
