How has the portrayal of the Pope in movies changed over time?
How Popes have gone from distant icons to complex characters on screen, revealing as much about filmmakers as about faith itself.
Popes are not your usual movie stars, yet they appear on screen more often than you might expect.
Sometimes the Pope is a symbol of tradition or authority. Other times he is portayed as a politician or a comic outsider.
I thought I would take a quick look at the data behind the on-screen portrayal of His Holiness.
Pope quiz, hotshot
If you’re feeling papal-bullish, then try on these trivia questions for size:
Which member of the Beatles played a Pope on screen?
Which Pope helped make a Hollywood movie, including being on set for filming?
Who has played the Pope in movies most often, despite never being a professional actor (or actually the Pope)?
Pope-ing up again and again
Popes have remained a consistent part of cinema across the decades. The 2010s stand out with a notable increase in films featuring Popes, but there have been rises and falls in previous decades as well. This trend stretches from classic religious epics to modern stories of personal struggle or political intrigue.
Movie Popes come in all shapes and sizes, including:
Real Popes - Jon Voight (Pope John Paul II), Anthony Hopkins (Pope Benedict XVI), Jonathan Pryce (Pope Francis), John Gielgud (Pope Pius XII, Pope Pius V, and Pope Pius XIII), Marcel Iureș (Pope Pius XII), Alec Guinness (Pope Innocent III), Rex Harrison (Pope Julius II)
Fictional Popes - Anthony Quinn (Pope Kiril Lakota), Liv Ullmann (Pope Joan), Michel Piccoli (Pope Melville)
Funny Popes - Robbie Coltrane (Pope David I), Ringo Starr (the Pope, Lisztomania), Jude Law (Pope Pius XIII)
The most frequent person to play a Pope on screen wasn’t even an actor. Gene Greytak was a real estate broker who had a sideline in impersonating Pope John Paul II, including in Hot Shots!, Sister Act and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.
Pope springs eternal
We’ve all spent many hours with friends discussing who our favourite Pope is, in part because there are 266 to choose from over the past 1992 years.
However, as most movies have a contemporary setting, it’s no surprise that the most common century for cinematic pontiffs was the 20th century, followed by the 21st century and 16th century (I like to think of that last one as the ‘Pope Classic’ era).
Some films have been actively recommended by real-life Popes.
Pope Francis has claimed both Babette's Feast (1987) and La Strada (1954) to be his favourite film.
Pope John Paul II said that Dances With Wolves (1990) had the best soundtrack.
Mervyn LeRoy managed to secure official blessing from Pope Pius XII for the 1951 epic Quo Vadis. I know what you’re thinking - ‘How do I get MY screenplay blessed?’. Apparently, the ceremony involved the Pope placing his hands on the script, praying in Latin, then saying "May your film be a successful one”.
At least one movie was partly funded by the Catholic Church - 1963’s The Cardinal. The liaison assigned by the Vatican to coordinate with the production was Joseph Ratzinger, although you are more likely to recognise him by his other name, Pope Benedict XVI.
But it hasn’t all been plain sailing between the pontiff and the pictures:
The shooting of Moonraker (1979) was delayed by a day due to the bell-ringing mourning the death of Pope John Paul I.
Hail Mary (1985) was denounced by Pope John Paul II and Ecstasy (1933) was denounced by Pope Pius XII.
Always the Pontiff, never the lead
It’s tricky to track all frames of all on-screen Popes, and not just because he’s often all in white against a white background. So the chart below shows when the Pope has been mentioned in the plot or synopsis of a movie.
In most cases, the Pope plays a significant but not a leading role. Movies with a leading Pope have been on the decline over the past half century.
A roamin’ Catholic
Some movie Popes lead with spiritual authority, such as in Francis of Assisi (1961). Others are political figures, reformers, or even comic characters. In The Pope Must Die (1991), Robbie Coltrane becomes Pope by accident. Popes have also featured in genres ranging from thrillers to supernatural horror, such as The Pope’s Exorcist (2023).
The role of Pope can serve many functions for a screenwriter. He can be a gift from God to signal the highest religious authority, or a gift from the Devil to represent political machinations.
POV (i.e. Pope Of View)
Let’s end on considering how movies with an on-screen Pope choose to portray the Catholic church.
Earlier films tended to treat the Pope with a certain distance and respect. More recently, the tone has shifted to allow for satire, self-doubt, and even vulnerability. Amen. (2002) is open in its criticism of Pope Pius XII during the Second World War. The Two Popes uses humour and warmth to draw out the personalities behind the papal robes. Jude Law’s Pope in The Young Pope (2016) is a surreal creation, challenging viewers to question what a modern Pope might really be like.
I found that most Pope-ular movies tend to have a clear-cut position on the church, as either a force for good (less often) or as a force for ill (the most common Pope-sition).
Notes
This was a study of feature films in which the Pope popped up in the plot. I used data from OMDb, Wikipedia and IMDb.