DOUBT

US, 2008, 104 minutes, Colour.
Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis.
Directed by John Patrick Shanley.

Doubt is a film of strong Catholic interest.

It can be viewed in the light of the current Church experience of sexual abuse by clergy. However, this is not the central issue of the film. Doubt is a film about Church structures, hierarchy, the exercise of power and the primacy of discipline and order.

Set in the autumn of 1964 in the Bronx, New York, the film focuses on the suspicions of the primary school principal, Sister Aloysius, that the local priest and chaplain to the school, Fr Flynn, is taking an unhealthy interest in one of the students, aged twelve. There are some suggestions, several ambiguous clues, about what might have happened but the actual events remain unclear as the priest defends himself against the nun' strong intuition against him and the nun discusses the problem with the boy's mother. As the title of the film indicates, the drama leaves the truth unclear because it is the stances of the two characters in conflict, especially the determined nun and the truth struggle, the power struggle, the conscience struggle, that is the point of the film.

John Patrick Shanley (Oscar for the screenplay for Moonstruck and a prolific playwright) has adapted and opened out his Pulitzer-prize winning play for the screen and directed it himself. Shanley has indicated that he is not so much concerned with the issue of clerical abuse of children as of pitting two characters against each other to highlight the uncertainties of certainty and the nature of doubt. The drama is all the more powerful because of its naturalistic atmosphere, recreating the period and the life of the school, the convent and the rectory, and because of the powerful performances by Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Fr Flynn. Amy Adams gives contrasting support as the gentle and somewhat naïve Sister James who teaches the children. Viola Davis is the mother of the boy.

It can be noted that the nun on whom the film's Sister James was based and who taught Shanley at school in the Bronx has acted as a technical adviser. The film, by contrast with so many others, represents the details of Church and liturgical life accurately – although there is a breviary in English, which was not the case in 1964, the children sing the Taize Ubi Caritas at Mass although it was composed later and Sister James is allowed to go to visit her sick brother which most nuns were not permitted to do at that time. However, the film has a Catholic atmosphere which, while it might baffle audiences who were not there at the time, will ring true and bring back many memories to Catholics who lived through this strict period.

As with most organisations by the beginning of the 1960s, secular or religious, the Catholic Church was hierarchically structured. Everyone knew their place, whether they liked it or not. A pervading Gospel spirit of charity and service pervaded the Church but it was often exercised in a way that seemed harsh and demanding, especially by those who saw their authority being backed by a 'grace of state'. Many of those who left the Church in this era give anecdotes of the treatment they received from priests and nuns as reasons for their departure, even of their loss of faith. When John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council in January 1959 and it opened on October 11th 1962, in his phrase, windows were opened, and change began to sweep through the Church. This coincided with the changes, especially in Western society during the 1960s and the widespread protests symbolised by the Vietnam War and the hippy movement. In fact, this was also the decade of enormous changes in Africa and the moves for independence. Independence was a key word of the 1960s.

This is the theme that Doubt takes up.

Sister Aloysius

Sister Aloysius, who, we learn, is a widow, is a strong-minded superior of the strict, intervening school of religious life. She sees herself as an authority figure and what she says goes. This was the spirituality of God's will spoken through the Superior – though, in retrospect, this often seems more the whim of the superior. She believes in discipline and she does not expect to be liked. She trusts her intuitions and assumes that they are correct. She does show some consideration to the health and mental states of the older sisters and has moments of kindness to Sister James but, the kind of Church and religious life she has inherited mean that she is constantly on the alert, wants proper order everywhere and sees herself in the chain of hierarchical authority that goes up via parish priest, bishop, to Rome and to the Holy Father.

Shanley is giving us an image of this kind of nun and her ethos and religious motivations. At its best and worst this can be seen in Fred Zinneman's The Nun's Story (filmed in 1958 while Pius XII was still alive and the assumption was that this is how religious life would be forever) but released in 1959 after John XXIII had called the Council which asked for renewal in all religious orders. Sister Aloysius is experiencing the first signs of a more transparent church, a church where a more adult obedience and discernment would replace any blind obedience and any childish exercise of power. A year after the story of Doubt, the Council would issue its Constitution on the Church which would respect hierarchy but interpret the life of the Church as that of the People of God, with the principles of subsidiarity and shared responsibility.

Fr Flynn

This kind of Church is what Fr Flynn is foreshadowing in the film. It is not as if there were not friendly priests – Fr Bing Crosby received frowns from Fr Barry Fitzgerald in the 1944 Oscar-winner, Going My Way, for being too open and relaxed – and got into some trouble with the school principal, Ingrid Bergman, in The Bells of St Mary's, both films being interesting companion pieces to Doubt.

At the opening of the film, Fr Flynn gives a sermon on experiencing doubts. This cuts no ice with Sister Aloysius. Fr Flynn is already on her hit list because of his friendliness towards the children in the school. He coaches basketball. He talks with the children and affirms them. This kind of pastoral outreach was about to be encouraged by the Council's document on priesthood.

The film also offers a contrast between the silent, rather ascetical meals in the convent with the jovial conversation and joking at the priests' parish table.

Certainties and doubts

The confrontations between Sister Aloysius and Fr Flynn become quite desperate for Fr Flynn when he realises that the nun is so certain and dominating and has taken investigations into her own hands rather than respecting him as a person let alone a priest. We see the conflict between the old authoritarian style and the new, more personable style of interactions. While Shanley himself states that he has some sympathy for the old ways, rituals, silence and devotion, his drama clearly shows the inadequacy of the authoritarian hierarchical model of Church in dealing with human relationships. Something had to change. And it did.

The sisters in the film are the Sisters of Charity founded in the 19th century by Elizabeth Bayley Seton,canonised a saint in 1975, and they are still wearing her dress/habit and bonnet. Within the decade, that would change, sisters wearing a less formal habit or ordinary clothes with an emblem indicating their religious order. Community life would be less rigid as would the relationships between the sisters. There would be different relationships between the parish clergy and the sisters would worked in the parish.

Doubt offers an opportunity to look at the two models of Church and to assess their strengths and weaknesses, especially in the light of subsequent events and the nature and life of the Church at the present day.

The film wants to create doubts in the minds and emotions of the audience by contrasting the two styles of pastoral outreach, Sister Aloysius as stern, Fr Flynn as amiable. As regards the doubts about Fr Flynn's behaviour, contrasting clues are offered: Fr Flynn's manner and friendliness with the boys, his singling out Donald for attention, Donald's drinking the altar wine in the sacristy and Sister Aloysius' conclusion that Fr Flynn had given it to him, Fr Flynn's calling Donald out of class to the rectory and Sister James' wariness about this. On the other hand, Fr Flynn has explanations of Donald being the only African American boy in the school and the antipathy and bullying he received and wanting him to remain as an altar boy despite the offence which required his being dismissed as a server, his drinking the wine because of his father's beating him because he suspected his homosexual orientation. This is complicated by the conversation between Sister Aloysius and Donald's mother whose sole concern, irrespective of what Fr Flynn might have done or not done and her husband's violent treatment of Donald, is that Donald remain in the school for the next sixth months so that he will graduate and have the opportunity to go to a good high school.

Shanley's images of Sister Aloysius at the end indicates that he believes we should all have doubts and not take the moral high ground of untested certainties.

There are several films that take up this transition in the Church in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. At the time, there were some films about nuns handling the changes: The Trouble With Angels, Where Angels Go... Trouble Follows and Change of Habit. The small-budget film, Impure Thoughts (1981) has some very funny scenes of reminiscences about sisters and prriests in a parish school of 1961; Heaven Help us (1985)is set in a Franciscan boy's high school in 1965. This was the year Paul VI went to New York and addressed the United Nations – an event which is part of the background of Polanski's film of Rosemary's Baby. For a stronger focus on the changes for nuns at the time, the Australian mini-series, Brides of Christ, is probably the best. A telemovie, starring Kate Mulgrew as Mother Seton, about the founding of the Sisters of Charity is A Time for Miracles (1980).

1.The impact of the film? For a church audience? For non-church people? Seeing it as a drama about wills, hierarchy and power?

2.The original play, sets, confined areas? The play opened up? The reliance on language, set speeches?

3.The fall of 1964, the Bronx, St Nicholas school, the rectory, classrooms and gym, offices? The church and the sacristy? The streets, the weather, the buildings? Bleak, rain and snow? The bleaker visuals, colour? Costumes and décor? The sombre score? The use of a range of Catholic hymns and their appropriateness?

4.The title, theme? Issues of certainty, certainty ending conversation? Conviction – in terms of belief and judging others? Battle of wills? Moral dilemmas? Entrenched opinions? Father Flynn and his opening sermon, the issue, as it concerned himself? Sister Aloysius and her certainty? The issue of uncertainty, on the part of the audience? The role of suspicions, evidence, intuitions, rational approaches? The consequences of absolute certainty? On lives, reputations? The ending and Sister Aloysius doubting and weeping?

5.The Catholic church in 1964, in the Bronx, the strong tradition, the pupils, the first black student? Strong faith, full churches, attentiveness to sermons, prayers, the choir, singing of hymns? The church and Mass, the altar servers? Authority and hierarchy? The role of power? The church as tough, demanding, Sister Aloysius happy that the children were terrified of her? Right and righteousness? God’s will, order and control? Issues of freedom, discipline? The changes of the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council, different approaches in ministry? The role of compassion? The role of being right and correcting others? Changes in lifestyle, religious habits? Father Flynn and his more relaxed approach, sport, the rectory and the jokes at table? The sisters and their austerity, the scenes of their getting up in the morning, washing, helping the older sisters, the small community, the meals, silence, Sister Aloysius and superior, her curt remarks to people, the interrupting the meal, interrogating Sister James? The reality of the changes soon to come by 1970?

6.Father Flynn and his age, experience, with the other priests, with Monsignor? Celebrating Mass, reverence, his sermons? With the altar boys in the sacristy? The issue of David and the wine, the rules and David having to be dismissed? David as the only black student, his being teased, Father Flynn helping him against the bullying? Father Flynn and the sport, the coaching? The sermon on doubt? Calling David to the rectory, putting the clothing back in his locker? Sister Aloysius and the summons, the cross-examination about David, the drinking of the wine? Sister James and her reporting him? His reassuring her and explanations? Sister Aloysius and the phone calls about his past, the build-up to the showdown, the discussion about the Christmas pageant? The head-on confrontation, justice, his reputation, his past? His final sermon, the well-wishing of the congregation for him at that Mass?

7.The issue of sex abuse, the issues of impropriety? The 21st century context of abuse? The director’s using it as a framework for his exploration of certainty and doubt? What evidence for Father Flynn, Sister Aloysius’s suspicions? The two styles, the exercise of power? Insight into abuse?

8.Sister Aloysius’s background, as a widow, late vocation, from the atmosphere of World War Two and the confrontation between good and evil? Tough, her accent, barking orders? Not worried if she terrified people? Church order, discipline, the school, her behaviour towards the children in class and church, hitting them on the head, their going to her office? The boy with the transistor and his automatic lies? David and his bullying? Sister James and her class, her being considered naïve? The issue of ballpoint pens?

9.Sister James, her personality, suspicions, the discussion, Sister Aloysius not wanting proof, her intuitions, watching to trap Father Flynn, satisfied that she had a cause? The old method of confrontation? With Sister James as witness, the Christmas pageant, secular songs, ‘Frosty the Snowman’? Her wanting to ban it from the airwaves – but later listening to the transistor? The tea, the politeness, the build-up to the confrontation?

10.Sister James as young, nice, with the older sisters, at meals, her classes and trying to teach history, kind to the children, noticing David being called, praying about the issue, telling Sister Aloysius a week later, with Father Flynn and his reassurance? Her disillusionment, her harshness towards the children afterwards? Using the reflection so that she could catch children – Sister Aloysius’s method? Going to see her brother, her return? The effect of the episode on her? Sitting in the garden with Sister Aloysius at the end, hearing Sister Aloysius’s doubt?

11.The portrait of the kids, in class, sports, interactions amongst themselves, the history classes, the interactions with David, the altar servers, the bullying and opening up his case in the corridor, Father Flynn giving him the gift of the dancer, helping him up? The hard attitude of the children? Their parents? 1964?

12.Sister Aloysius and the phone call, talking with David’s mother, Father Flynn glimpsing her in the room? Sister Aloysius acting on summons? Mrs Miller, her job, wanting to be on time? The revelation about David’s father, beating him, the homosexual orientation and the father’s antagonism? Yet the boy only twelve years old? His drinking the wine, the reasons? Mrs Miller’s attitude, wanting her son to graduate, to get a chance? Sister Aloysius and her threats, Mrs Miller’s comebacks? Walking in the snow, listening to Sister Aloysius, her surprise? Sister Aloysius and her being shocked at Mrs Miller’s reaction?

13.The confrontation, crisis, both sides? Sister Aloysius at advantage? Father Flynn accused, presumed guilty, the effect?

14.The farewell Mass, Father Flynn greeting the crowds?

15.Sister Aloysius, her weeping, her uncertainties?

16.Audiences identifying with Sister Aloysius and why? With Father Flynn and why? The issues of challenge to power, the challenges to certainty? Living with doubt?