Папа өлсін керек: даулы фильмнің тарихы

1991 British film by Peter Richardson

After the controversy, Richardson took the Comic Strip Presents to the BBC, reportedly because Alan Yentob was more accommodating to his ideas. He began work on another series of Comic Strip films for the channel. Two parts of the mini series were heavily re written and appeared as episodes of the 1990 Comic Strip series, as Oxford and Spaghetti Hoops (which featured the story of Roberto Calvi). The remainder of the material was also rewritten and submitted to Palace Pictures, who produced the film with the backing of Channel 4. A production budget of £2.5 million was approved.

Filming began in late 1990. and took place on location in Yugoslavia, where John Ebden, the production designer, constructed studio sets of the Sistine Chapel and other Vatican landmarks. The title of the film was deemed too sensitive to be disclosed to the Yugoslavians; its working title was "Sleeping With the Fishes." The film struggled to make back its £2.5 million budget, grossing $2,544,770 overall (approximately £1.7 million).

Daniel Battsek (then managing director of Palace Pictures, which produced the film) experienced trouble over the film's promotion, when London Transport banned the movie's posters from the London Underground. 'At first they said the theme of the film was liable to cause offense," said Battsek. "When I explained the story, they admitted it was the title. We compromised with a poster saying "Robbie Coltrane in The Pope."' The film also caused controversy when it opened in the Republic of Ireland that August. 12 other cities newspapers accepted advertising only after the content had been heavily censored. The Washington Post accepted an advert that read "The Pope Must. . ." The Los Angeles Times requested changes in certain captions under photos in the ad. The Chicago Tribune and Sun Times and The New York Times were among the few newspapers which accepted advertising without alterations. "There is a separation of church and state in this country. My question is, on what grounds have they banned these ads? It seems curious that all three (networks) are taking the same tack," said Russell Schwartz, Miramax executive vice president. "Obviously they can do what they want, they are private institutions. It just raises some interesting issues as to why, when it comes to religion, the response is so unilateral." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times wrote "The movie's basic comic approach is disrespect for the church, which almost by definition cannot be funny. To deflate a comic character, it has to first be inflated, and The Pope Must Die makes the crucial error of denying its characters dignity so that there's no reason for us to laugh when it's taken away from them." Although he conceded "Robbie Coltrane is a British comic actor of genuine talent, but he seems under a compulsion to make bad comedies about the Catholic church" Vincent Canby of The New York Times was more enthusiastic, writing "The film is irreverent, boisterous and enjoyable even when the gags hang fire." He also praised Coltrane's performance, saying he "is very good, but the performance is somewhat restrained by the screenplay's demand that the character ultimately be heroic. In this kind of comedy, rascality gets most of the laughs." The film has a 33% (rotten) rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on six reviews.