by Caleb Kim ’26
Writing for a Jesuit institution, I feel even worse about what I saw. Immorality permeated throughout me in every sense. The injustice physically shocked me. The scene filled me with horror. To clarify, I did not see someone eating pineapple on pizza.
What I saw was Conclave. Carried by actor Ralph Fiennes’ Oscar-nominated performance, the movie fictionalizes a Catholic conclave, where cardinals vote for the election of the next Pope. Unlike a Marvel movie, it’s not filled with adrenaline-rushing combat scenes, gravity-defying stunts, or many “action” scenes at all. Rather, Conclave is a movie centralizing mystery and thrill. Think of it like a glorified investigative film, where the Dean of the College of Cardinals uncovers corruption and crime in the Roman Catholic Church. Yes, it may sound quite boring, and the film really is…
No, that’s just a poor joke. I truly would recommend anyone to watch this film, and words cannot accurately relay the immense thrill and drama of the movie, so you should just watch the movie for yourself.
What’s more important about this movie is its reflection on our Catholic school and environment. Obviously, Bellarmine students are not committing the same crimes as the fictitious cardinals in Conclave are. That’s why the immediate presumption is to distance ourselves from the movie. It’s to view our school environment and the conclave through entirely separate, discrete lenses. But the easy thing to do is not always the right thing.
Watching the movie, I found glaring connections. Just as each cardinal’s crime is a hypocritical indictment on Catholicism, so can be each of our decisions. Even tiny moments like cutting the lunch line are not world-ending, hypocritical disasters. However, a question we must ask then is if we cannot manage to act with dignity and fairness in the tiniest moments of life, how can we possibly conceive of doing so when life matters most.
I find it difficult to tell people to take a moral lesson away from every single moment of our lives as a normative principle. It seems tiring and jading, a near impossible task for us humans. As such, this movie review is not a call to action. It is not an opinionated, how-to-fix-the-world speech. It is an observational piece. So do what you will, but realize that observation is rooted in truth, and the truth is undeniable.