Thinking About ‘Conclave’ And ‘News’ About The Conclave

(ANALYSIS) Be honest: How many of you have watched or rewatched the movie “Conclave” during the past month or two — roughly starting with the health crisis that eventually ended the Pope Francis papacy?

I watched it in March, during a long, long, long flight home from New Zealand, which is a good time to read and watch several movies — especially if you lack the ability to sleep on airplanes (tmatt raises his hand).

The movie was exactly what I expected, rather like reading a Washington Post report about American politics or listening to National Public Radio.

The good guys were all complex, brilliant, progressives and “reformers” (since ancient Catholic doctrines should be reformed) and the bad guys were corrupt, simplistic conservatives or damaged men from the Global South (hint, hint).

It was easy to play “pin the real name” on the cardinals (For a rather different look at a conclave, check out this movie about the life of St. John Paul II. At one strategic moment you may be tempted to say, “As you wish.”)

Here are my questions about the 2024 “Conclave” movie: Who was this movie crafted (a) to please, (b) to inform, (c) to influence and maybe even (d) to anger? In other words, who do you think will be tempted to see the current conclave through the lens of the recent Hollywood passion play?

If you want to see a conservative Catholic media take on that flick, see this feature — “‘Conclave’ fact vs. fiction: What does the hit movie get right and wrong?” — from the Catholic News Agency. I have also embedded YouTube reviews from priests in this post. Feel free to leave links to more reviews in the comments pages!

To read the rest of Terry Mattingly’s post, visit his Substack channel at Rational Sheep.

---

Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.