I’ve been away in D.C. and then having a New York (post) Christmas, but the blog and my thoughts on leadership are never far from my mind. How can they be with angry impeachment tweets replacing holiday greetings? Plus, I saw two works that put the current political divide in perspective — Netflix’s “The Two Popes” and Broadway’s “Hamilton.”
“The Two Popes” is Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles and New Zealand writer Andrew McCarten’s thoughtful, surprising consideration of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (Anthony Hopkins) and the man who succeeded him, Pope Francis (Jonathan Pryce). I had the pleasure of a luncheon interview with the brilliant Meirelles when he made “The Constant Gardener” in 2005. Given that film’s scathing look at Big Pharma and the general tenor of politics in Hollywood, you would think that Francis, a liberal Argentine, would be the good guy and Benedict, a conservative German, the bad in this film.
But the only assumption you can make in life is never to assume. (When you do, parents used to tell children, you make an “ass” ‘u” “me.”) So true. We talk a lot abut the male gaze and the female gaze in cinema. (More about that when I write about Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women.”) But what about the viewer’s gaze and prejudice about what a director and writer might do?
The film gives us Francis’ perspective and backstory. (Here Juan Minujin brings a compelling stillness to the young Francis.) But if it gives us more of Francis, it is also a reminder that even heroic leaders negotiate with the past and present. The film dwells on the relationship between change and compromise, concluding that one man’s compromise is another’s progress. Francis is portrayed as trying to protect his priests during Argentina’s military dictatorship of the 1970s. But you can’t compromise with tyrants and, in the end, all he succeeded in doing was sacrificing the priests he was trying to save.
Benedict could’ve taught him a thing or two about that. He was a member of the Hitler Youth as a child and then deserted after briefly serving as a soldier in the German Army. There are some things that can’t be compromised.
The film only alludes to Benedict’s “Nazi” past, making more of the child abuse scandal and financial management that plagued his reign before he resigned the papacy in 2013, paving the way for Francis. The sparks fly as Hopkins’ Benedict and Pryce’s Francis debate what they could and should have done amid the lush splendor of the Castel Gandolfo, the pope’s summer residence. Under the expert rallying of these old pros — they’re the theatrical equivalent of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal — it becomes clear that Benedict and Francis are not only politically different but culturally and temperamentally opposite as well.
The Germanic Benedict, a pianist, is all classical music and luxe living. The Argentine Francis likes to tango, grab a pizza, watch soccer, book his own plane tickets and schmooze the papal gardener. But there’s something to be said for being a traditionalist. One of the most moving moments occurs when tourists and the faithful crowd Benedict in the Sistine Chapel (recreated for the film) out of affection as much for the office as for the man. And that’s when you’re reminded that the job matters, the office matters, leadership matters — and that goes for whoever fills it.
Why do the leaders of the United States, China and Russia come to see you?, Francis asks Benedict, trying to convince him to stay on as pontiff. It’s because they know you’re the only one who will suffer and die in the job, Francis concludes. Yet sometimes a leader has to let go.
George Washington understood this. Two terms were enough for him, and he took his eloquent leave of the nation in a Farewell Address, written by his right-hand man, Alexander Hamilton himself, that gets the show-stopping number it deserves in “Hamilton.” Washington, too, had his baggage — he had slaves and he didn’t help the French with their revolution when they had helped us with ours. But he also balanced the opposing views of states rights versus federal rights, South versus North that reflected Washington’s secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, and Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton, respectively.
What “Hamilton” and “The Two Popes” demonstrate is that it’s possible for a leader to bridge opposing viewpoints and even to have a relationship with someone who thinks differently.
Why a conservative pope and his liberal successor might even enjoy a World Cup final together, team colors and all.