echosheng90731 Great movie about a great man. Thomas Kretschmann is first rate as in all of his other movies.I would never have envisioned him as Pope John Paul. It speaks volumes for the casting director. Why do they keep casting him as German officer in the movies? And he only came to universal attention after "the pianist"? Of course he looks so hot in the uniforms. I know a lot of girls drool over his handsome face. But this guy is a great actor and has such great potentials. If you don't believe me, go watch "Stalingrad". I hope he will get a lot of excellent roles in the future with more diversity. Otherwise, what a heartbreaking waste of great talent.

vchimpanzee I have now seen both the CBS and ABC versions of the story of Karol Wojtyla. After seeing the ABC version, and not even aware yet that CBS had a biography planned, I was ready to say this movie would get Emmy nominations. Now I'm not so sure, but it was still good, even if only a limited number of scenes from the Pope's life are shown.This movie does a much better job than the CBS miniseries in showing us the life of young Karol, or Lolek, as they called him. The boy was effectively portrayed by Jasper Harris and then Ignas Survila. We see his loving parents who were obviously a great influence, and Lolek's special relationship with his brother Edmund. Several events, some tragic, apparently played important roles in shaping the man who became Pope. Paulius Ignatavius did a fine job as Edmund Wojtyla. Inga Sakalauskaité impressed as Emilia (Karol's mother), and Petar Goranov was wonderful as Karol's father.Karol is shown doing theater as an adult, and he has a girlfriend, but he feels God's call and has to make a choice. Menawhile, the Nazis are invading his homeland. Karol has numerous challenges to face and he handles them well. Once he becomes a priest, his superiors see his abilities and take advantage of them, giving him more and more responsibilities. At each stage of advancement, Karol is achieving more than most would at his age. Karol cannot believe what he is being asked to do, yet he accepts all challenges given him. Both movies show what can be described as a Christmas miracle, though there are differences which make me unsure if it was actually the same event. One day, when a new Pope is needed ... well, we all know what's going to happen. Amazingly, though, the death of Paul VI and the election of John Paul I is left out of this movie. John Paul II is shown as a very caring and very moral man who needs to be with the people, a man who stands up to challenges as difficult as the Soviet Union. He is also shown as flawed, believing he has sinned, in an incident not shown in the CBS miniseries. Hard to believe this man sinned, right?This movie also goes into more detail than the CBS version with the Pope's visit with Mehmet Ali Acga. Despite the limited number of scenes from the Pope's life, the ones we do see include outstanding writing and performances. Well, perhaps "outstanding" isn't quite the word to one who has seen the CBS production, but this movie certainly was impressive. We see enough to inspire us to live better and to know what it really means to serve.

dankohner-1 I saw that this movie was coming out and could not wait to see it. I have to say I was very disappointed with it. This would have been better as a mini-series. The whole show seemed very rushed. They did not explain things very clearly. At the end they showed John Paul II, alive and well and the next scene he was dead. Never any explanation as to what happened. (We all know what happened in real life) I think ABC dropped the ball big time on something that could have been great. In all I think this movie was a blur. It seemed like a drunken monkey jumping around from one point in John Paul's life to another point never explaining how or why things happened. Such as when his older brother leaves, it was never explained that his brother was a doctor and that is why he left home. Also when his father dies, all we see is his father lying on the floor and that was that. I was very disappointed with the over all movie.

fadingxstarlite_90 When I first heard that this movie was going to be made, I was very excited to see it. The ideas to make a movie of this caliber, as good as it was, must have been very difficult. I wasn't really sure if anyone could encompass all of the Pope's many amazing qualities in a movie, but the movie did his memory justice. In my opinion the most important task was to reveal to the people who the Pope started out as. To his days in Poland, all the way to his last days in the Vatican, this movie followed every aspect of his life. Thomas Kretschmann, the man who played the Pope in his adult life and on, did a very good job at getting the emotion across. Overall this movie was educational, but also very entertaining.