Calvary
All team (108)
Short description
Father James Lavelle is a good-hearted priest serving a small Irish town, where he is often met with contempt and hostility from the people around him. During a confession, an unknown parishioner tells him he was abused as a child by another priest and now intends to kill James in one week as revenge against the Church. Bound by the seal of confession to keep the man's identity secret, James continues to care for his daughter and attend to his parishioners while searching on his own for the person who means to kill him.
John Michael McDonagh wrote and directed the film, his second feature as director after The Guard, followed later by War on Everyone and The Forgiven. Brendan Gleeson leads the cast as Father James, alongside Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen, Dylan Moran and Isaach De Bankolé, among a credited cast of twenty-one. The British and Irish production ran 101 minutes and took about four million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.1/10 from 1,107 votes, while a critics' rating of 7.7/10 from 172 reviews is higher than the audience score.
What's left behind the scenes
- While talking to his daughter in one of the scenes, Father James mentions a guy he refers to with the word Cicsathoin. From Irish, Cic sa thoin translates as "to give a thrashing" or "to beat up".
- Father James says the phrase, "The Lord is great, and there is no limit to His mercy." This is a quote from the book by Austrian writer and essayist Jean Améry (1912-1978) called "Suicide" (1976).
- Dylan Moran's character urinates on a copy of the painting «The Ambassadors» (1533) by the German painter Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543). This work is exhibited at the National Gallery in London. A skull is depicted in the lower center of the painting, which can only be recognized when viewed not directly, but from the side.
- In one episode of the film, the priest sleeps leaning against a stone, while his daughter reads a book. He wakes up, asks how long he slept, and hears in reply: "Centuries... whole epochs." The book his daughter is holding is by Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937). He was an American writer, poet, and journalist who used the word "epoch" so often in his works that it practically became his calling card.
- Owen Sharpe's character says the phrase "Whadda hear, whadda say." This phrase was spoken by James Cagney's character (1899-1986) in the famous gangster drama "Angels with Dirty Faces" (Michael Curtiz, 1938).
- In the opening scenes of the film, the future murderer of Father James is not played by Chris O'Dowd, but by a stunt double whose name was not even listed in the credits, but whose voice sounded like O'Dowd's.
- The screenwriter and director of the film, John Michael McDonagh, drew inspiration from the work of French director and screenwriter Robert Bresson, Ingmar Bergman’s "Through a Glass Darkly" (1962), and Robert De Niro's performance in Ulu Grosbard’s crime drama "True Confessions" (1981).
- The second part of the so-called «Suicide Trilogy».
- In the finale of the film, Brendan Gleeson's character regrets never finishing «Moby Dick». This refers to the 1851 novel written by Herman Melville (1819-1891). In Ron Howard's adventure drama «In the Heart of the Sea» (2015), Gleeson played Thomas Nickerson, who once survived the sinking of the whaling ship «Essex». It was the sinking of the «Essex» on November 20, 1820, in the Pacific Ocean that inspired Melville to write the novel.
- The role of Freddie Joyce was played by Donal Gleeson – the son of Brendan Gleeson, who played the lead role. Father and son appear on screen together in only one episode.
- The little boy who helps Father James, played by Brendan Gleeson, is the same one who came to the aid of Gleeson's character in the film "The Guard" (John Michael McDonagh, 2011).
- At the end of the film, a priest (not Father James) reads the book by atheist and science popularizer Richard Dawkins, «The God Delusion» (2006).
- Some episodes of the film were shot in the village of Rush in Ireland, at a railway station, in a portside pub, and in a pub.
- The image of Father James was created by actor Brendan Gleeson and director John Michael McDonagh towards the end of work on the black comedy "The Guard" (2011). The role was written specifically for Gleeson.
- The film features 12 supporting actors – the same number as Jesus had disciples.
- This is never mentioned in the film, but the elderly American writer is named Ryan in the plot.
- The film takes place in the village of Easkey in County Sligo in northwest Ireland. The filming also took place there.
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