Article: Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ
By Sophie Minello
~ This review contains spoilers ~
The glorious path from a godless life to one of divine light is a well told tale. In Polish director Jan Komasa’s Corpus Christi starring Bartosz Bielenia, the story is very similar. Ex-convict Daniel has just been released on parole to spend his hours as a labor worker at a sawmill. Instead, he finds himself impersonating a priest in a town that is trying to mend itself after a tragedy.
During his time incarcerated, Daniel has found God. The movie begins with two parallels. You see Daniel as the watchman as a brutal beating happens behind him, then you’re show the group of boys gathered together for mass. Father Tomasz is somewhat of an inspiration to Daniel. The young man wishes to follow in the man’s footsteps, but is held back by his record. He pleads to the detention center’s Priest, but is denied. “There are other ways to do good,” he is told.
A small town neighbors to the sawmill. After tragedy, they are in need of someone who will speak to them, who can understand their experiences. A tiny lie sets Daniel on the altar where he talks directly to the hearts of people. He’s not some delinquent serving a sentence, he’s just a 20 year old man letting God’s teachings wash over him. But something in him helps him understand this mourning. “Don’t pretend that you are not angry, that something wasn’t taken away from you. Don’t pretend that you understand it,” he wails in front of the memorial. Much like his life, where one event sent his life on a tangent. He welcomes feeling, and for the first time he seems to be feeling in a true form. The dead, baggy, dark eyes that belong to him in juvie are now only sharp and attentive. The town gives him a chance.
From the eyes of a boy who has been punished as a sinner, he realizes that everyone is held down by sin. The mayor is -- for lack of a better term -- a dick. The priest is a drunk. Daniel isn’t jealous though, he understands. He’s honest with them, something that many priests fail to be. Daniel especially connects with the common folk. He is not above them and he knows that. He is just inspired to help them.
In the town, six teens were killed by a perceived drunk driver. Half the members of the town band together in the tragedy, but they also band together in shunning the wife of the man who was in the other car. They send her hate mail and blame her for the murders. As an outsider, Daniel has a different perspective on the event. He is more forgiving than these people who claim to devote themselves to God. He brings a much needed perspective in the town, and with the help of Eliza, a teenager whose brother was killed in the crash.
Eliza knew that the kids were far from sober when they got in the car that night. She trusts Daniel with the information, and the widow eventually trusts him with the information that the couple had gotten in a fight the night of the crash and her husband had threatened to kill himself. What muddied water. Was the crash the work of the drunk teens or the angry adult? The movie doesn’t clarify, because that’s not what the problem is about. The problem is that this man has been denied a burial, denied respect, denied a proper resting place because of an event that was so muddied. The people in town call him a murderer, call his wife a whore. In their time of turmoil, they wanted to blame someone.
In religion, it isn’t good to be angry at your God. In trying to follow the best example of their Christianity, they also turn their back on a crucial part of the religion. To forgive. To love. Instead they are filled with hate that is pushed down until Daniel appears and tells them to reach out with their anger and grief in a way that they can feel it as a group. He inspires unity and goes against those in power. He’s a hero for this town.
The whole movie, you almost forget he was in juvie, supposed to be working 24/7 at a sawmill. He fits in with this town. He is inspiring. This life belongs to him now. But he’s a runaway. Is he only clinging to being a priest because he’s looking for an escape, or does he really feel and devote himself to these beliefs?
Deep inside, Daniel believes. He refuses to turn his back on God and the community that welcomed him. When he’s found out by his fellow juvie resident (Pinczer), he doesn’t give in to his blackmail. No, the money that was fundraised at the town event was for the so called murderer’s funeral, not for Pinczer to take.
This life is his second chance. “Do you think this is a game?” Priest Tomasz threatens as he gets ready to take Daniel back to juvenile detention. That was far from what Daniel thought of it. The only lie was the one where he claimed to be a priest. Otherwise, the person who he was in this small town was everything he was ready to be if society was able to accept him as a normal citizen.
Daniel’s last mass only takes a few minutes. He stands in front of the full church after the funeral and turns his head to look at the crucifix behind him. Jesus, nailed to the cross, in nothing but a cloth, stares back at him. In no subtle way, Daniel strips himself of his priestly robes and reaches his arms up to mimic the Son of God. What could this mean? He knows that his chances of staying alive in juvie are slim, yet he’s already packed to go back. He connects with Jesus at that moment. Society doesn’t believe that he can ever change. After robbery charges and aggravated assault that lead to death, they want him to rot in a facility for the rest of his life. It’s as if Jesus gives him that strength to be able to return. He knows his fate and he accepts it.
The true tragedy in the movie is that Daniel never sees his true impact on the town. Instead, he is taken back to juvie to face possible death against a rival named Bonus. As we see Daniel in a heated fight, covered in blood, suffering possible fatal injuries, we realize that the end of this story doesn’t lie within Daniel but instead in the cascading effects that he set in motion through his teachings in the town.
There is redemption, if not in this life then in another. The saving grace is Pinczer, who originally ratted Daniel out, grabs him from Bonus’s grasp and throws him out the doors. Moments later, smoke rises from the building they were in. Was Pinczer, who was originally a betrayer, the savior for a moment? Could he be like Judas? Even then, Jesus must die on the cross. But for what reason? How does it make sense that one person can absolve us of our sins?
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