Possessed (2000 film)

Infobox Film
name =Possessed


director =Steven E. de Souza
producer =Jane Bartelme
Barbara Title
writer =Thomas B. Allen (book)
Michael Lazarou (screenplay)
Steven E. de Souza (screenplay)
starring =Timothy Dalton
Henry Czerny
Christopher Plummer
Piper Laurie
Jonathan Malen
Michael McLachlan
distributor =Showtime Entertainment
released =2000
runtime =111 minutes
language =English
music = John Frizzell
amg_id =1:216946
imdb_id =0195165

"Possessed" is the name of a 2000 Showtime original movie starring Timothy Dalton, based on actual events which inspired the novel "The Exorcist" by William Peter Blatty. In the movie, Dalton plays Father William S. Bowdern, a Catholic priest who conducted an exorcism involving an adolescent boy.

The film was released on DVD in the USA on October 2, 2001.

Plot Summary

Father Bowdern (Timothy Dalton) is a WWII veteran who is severely affected by a bad experience in one of the combats where he got physically hurt. In the first scene of the movie, we flash-back to one of Father Bowdern's dreams where he was hurt by a Nazi trooper while trying to help a wounded soldier (this combat takes place in France on All Saints’ Day in 1944). This incident contributes to his later alcoholism. Father Bowdern is teaching his students at SLU when, at the end of the lecture, as the students are leaving, the windows of the classroom are smashed by angry people in the outside. When father Bowdern gets out, he discovers that there is a strike. Black people are facing white people, and the white people are throwing stones towards the University building and especially at Father Bowdern’s class. He gets angry at them and when the police officers come, he asks them to arrest those people. The policemen go directly to arrest the black people and Father Bowdern attacks the cops. He is arrested. Father Raymond McBride (Henry Czerny) pays the bail to get Father Bowdern out of prison.

Robbie Mannheim (Jonathan Malen) is sitting with his aunt, Hanna (Piper Laurie), who is teaching him how to contact the ‘other world’. Robbie’s mother (Shannon Lawson) suddenly discovers the two at the Ouiji board. She scolds at Aunt Hanna for disregarding her request that she not expose Robbie to such ideas. Robbie disobeys his mother's demands that he stay away from the Supernatural as he enjoys the contacts. When Aunt Hanna dies, Robbie continues trying to reach the other world. One day one of Robbie's classmates during school is severely wounded in the hand when a desk falls on top of him. Robbie is blamed. Ultimately, he is expelled from school. His father (Michael Rhoades) demands why Robbie hurt his classmate. When Robbie explains to his father that he did not deliberately do that and the desk moved itself, his father does not believe him. During their conversation, the chair on which Robbie is sitting moves out from under him, making Robbie crash to the floor. Robbie’s parents feel someone or something is trying to harm their child. They feel he may really be ‘possessed’. They take him to the Lutheran Pastor Reverend Eckhardt (Richard Waugh), who understands what is happening to Robbie and takes him to his house to put him under exact monitoring (by putting him in a special room and attaching a light in front of his bed to help him record daily reactions by his camera). During Robbie’s stay, several things occur that convince Pastor Eckhardt that Robbie is being afflicted by demons: strange noise are made in the house, the wall clock is smashed, and Robbie falls into fits of rage and hysteria. When Pastor Eckhardt informs his wife that Robbie should be treated by the Catholics, Robbie severely attacks him. Father Raymond McBride visits the family in their house to check Robbie after his parents go to the university requesting help. In an earlier scene and during one of Robbie’s hysterias, the parents find the letters SLU scrawled on his belly. When he enters his room, he is attacked and becomes convinced that the child is endowed with some sort of supernatural power. He convinces Father Bowdern to visit the family. They go with each other. Father Bowdern goes to Robbie’s room. Robbie becomes somehow comfortable in talking to Father Bowdern. When Father Bowdern tries to convince the parents that Robbie is all right, Robbie suddenly becomes hysterical. Father Bowdern becomes convinced that Robbie must undergo medical treatment. Father Bowdern and Father McBride go to Archbishop Hume (Christopher Plummer) to persuade him to practice Exorcism and treat the child. The Archbishop responds unenthusiastically. (He indicates that he is trying to strengthen the position of the Catholic Church and show the American society that the Catholics are modern). He requests to speak to Father McBride alone, and as a surprise, he nominates Father Bowdern to handle the issue.

Father Bowdern, with Father McBride and Father Halloran (Michael McLachlan) begin Robbie's treatment. They conduct several visits to him during which Robbie starts throwing temper tantrums. He scratches at them, vomits and urinates on them, and swears uncontrollably. During the treatment trials, Father Bowdern has flashbacks to his war experiences and dreads that this may be another failure. Robbie is transferred twice to two different churches. Finally, Father Bowdern manages to cure him. The room in the church where the exorcism took place is locked on Archbishop Hume’s orders.

Cast

*Timothy Dalton – Fr. Willam Bowdern
*Henry Czerny – Fr. Raymond McBride
*Jonathan Malen – Robbie Mannheim
*Michael Rhoades – Karl Mannheim
*Shannon Lawson – Phyllis Mannheim
*Christopher Plummer – Archbishop Hume
*Piper Laurie – Aunt Hanna
*Richard Waugh – Reverend Eckhardt
*Michael McLachlan – Father Walter Halloran

External links

*imdb title|id=0195165|title=Possessed
* [http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/iannone200504070804.asp Real Men of God] at "National Review"
* [http://www.geocities.com/nagna_gella/Possessed/Possessed.htm Interviews with Timothy Dalton on Possessed]