Movies/Scenes
Representing Confession
- Vertical
Limit (2000)
- In "Vertical Limit", the hero is guilty about the fact that he cut his father from the rope that was holding himself and his sister to a rock face, at his fathers instructions - "If you don't cut the rope you will be killing your sister too."(see also sacrifice, below) We see the hero's guilt in his interaction with his sister and with Wick, the surrogate father who shows him that sacrifice is what life is about. (Timothy Leuers)
- Galaxy
Quest (1999)
- Jason tells Mathesar that he is not what he seems/claims to be.
- The Confession (1999)
- Fertig's confession (ch 6)
- Sarah's confession (ch 9)
- Bleakie's confession (ch 19)
- Angela's Ashes (1999)
- Frankie's confession of his life and sins to Saint Francis. Priest: "God forgives you, and you must forgive yourself. God loves you, and you must love yourself. For only when you love God and yourself can you love all of God's creatures." (DVD ch 27)
- Frankie "confessing" that he threw up his first communion. (DVD ch 11)
- The Messenger: The Story of Joan of
Arc (1999)
- Joan has to confess her pride before she can die in peace. Also, there is an opening scene where the young Joan confesses her every sin to the priest who blesses her and tells her to take care of herself and others. (Dennis L. Zimmerman)
- Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
- Bill's and Alice's respective confessions of their fantasies, dreams, and deeds.
- The Game (1997)
- Nicholas apologizes to Elizabeth. She says, "there's nothing to forgive." Powerful reconciliation scene.
- Red Corner (1997)
- Jack Moore is an American attorney having talks in Bejing about founding the first satellite TV joint venture. Suddenly he is arrested, accused of murder and has to prove it was a frame-up together with his court-appointed attorney Shen Yuelin. Her advice, as his attorney, is to plead guilty to a crime he knows--and she believes--he didn't commit. An interesting take on the denial of guilt we have in our own lives, but the inescapable truth that we are all guilty of sin. The positive side is that the attorney's advice is correct: we're better off if we plead guilty, even if we believe we're innocent. Jesus' grace will cover us; but in the words of the movie's tag line, there is "Severity for those who resist." (Brian Rafferty, MI)
- The Postman (1997)
- "I took the uniform off a skeleton to stay warm. I made up the rest to stay fed." (DVD Chapter 35)
- Dead Man Walking (1995)
- Poncelet confesses his responsibility in the murders, and finds freedom through admitting the truth and accepting the reconciliation offered.
- Natural Born Killers
(1994)
- Mickey's understanding of his life through the shaman's ritual.
- Priest
(1994)
- A father who is sexually abusing his daughter is in the confessional with the young priest, talking about the way he (the father) uses her. His face, to me, is a chilling confrontation with evil. (Meg Queior, Richmond ME)
- Quiz Show (1994)
- Charlie confesses his lack of integrity to his father, knowing that his father values what Charlie has pretended to be. "I was one of those frauds." (DVD chapter 26)
- Charlie's public confession of his lack of integrity. (DVD chapter 27)
- Amadeus (1984)
- Salieri does not in the end feel guilt, but the whole film is a confession, and an indictment against god, of his murder or god's favourite, Amadeus. I suppose that Salieri feels guilt but he does not repent. (Timothy Leuers)
