Reviews

The famous Don Bosco, the mid-19th century Italian priest and founder of today's world-renowned Salesian movement, was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1934 and is honored widely as he should be for his endless missionary work with young children. There have been several attempts at making full-length films to commemorate his life and two of them stand out: an Italian film, called simply Don Bosco, starring the American actor Ben Gazzara filmed in 1988, and the second, also with the same name (but re-named Saint John Bosco: Mission to Love) starring the superb Italian actor, Flavio Insinna, that was shot in 2004. This review is of that second attempt at telling the saint's story.

This is simply an excellent film in every possible way. The writing is thoughtful. The acting, with especially Insinna, Lina Sastri (who plays Bosco's mother), and the British actor Charles Dance (the "villain" of the film, if there is such a person), exceptional and quite believable in every way. The directing is also crisp which helps this three-hour plus film fly by far more quickly than it actually does. In comparison to the Gazzara film, which is often overwrought and turgid, this Don Bosco is beautifully filmed and, perhaps most important of all, very accurate in its story-telling.

Perhaps the best thing going for this particular film as opposed to its earlier counterpart, both shot in Italy with, for the most part, Italian actors, is that it retains its native language and adds exceptionally easy-to-read subtitles whereas the earlier film is excruciatingly dubbed into English. If one cares about St. John Bosco, this is the film to watch. Even if one does not, one can learn a great deal by devoting the time it takes to see it through and will come away with a strong appreciation for a truly great man.

,

When this biographical film was made in 1988, it was clearly intended to be a praiseworthy study of the famed Italian saint, Don Bosco, founder of the Salesians, one of today's largest religious orders in the Catholic Church. It is that but sadly it is also rather poorly written, directed, and acted. The movie's star, Ben Gazzara, was 58 years old at the time of this film's creation, far too old to play most of the scenes, all of which, for some reason, appear until the very last few moments to have been set within a period of several months instead of the nearly forty years that they actually occurred historically. Certainly part of the problem that exists is that the film was made in Italy with, for the most part, Italian actors but then dubbed, very poorly, into English. The writers have also added, I suppose in the hope of attracting a wider audience, a minor romantic, but totally unnecessary, subplot which, though realistically filmed, does nothing to advance the story of the saint.

Is this movie worth watching? For the faithful, absolutely, but when compared to the newer Italian film of the same name starring the excellent Italian actor, Flavio Insinna in the role of the saint (called Saint John Bosco: Mission to Love in the United States), it comes in as a very weak second. If one can only watch one of the two films, this newer 2004 version is without question the one to see. If only the Ben Gazzara is available, however, no one will "go wrong" sitting through the almost two hours it takes to see it in its entirety.