Why is ‘Ordinary People’ on Pope Leo’s list? A review and a guess

Pope Leo XIV released a list of his four favorite movies, and for the most part, it was about what you would expect from a pope. Life Is Beautiful (1997) tops the list, a film that, despite its bittersweet ending, is a celebration of hope in the face of evil. Then there’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), the enduring holiday classic that beautifully illustrates the worth of a single human life. And, of course, there’s The Sound of Music (1965), a motion picture so beloved in most Catholic circles that it’s a wonder liking it isn’t a requirement to join the Church. But rounding out the Pontiff’s favorites is a film whose appearance on the list at first brings to mind the lyrics of that old Sesame Street song, the one that goes, “One of these things is not like the others, one of these things doesn’t belong.” That would be 1980’s Ordinary People. Why would Pope Leo adore this movie so much?

[Aleteia's survey shows that you are also surprised, as only 7% of you have selected Ordinary People as your favorite, although the 17% who say they haven't seen all four might be mainly referring to this one.]

The film commences in absolute silence before transitioning into a school choir practicing a choral version of Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major. As the tranquil melody plays, the choir chimes in with the lyrics: “In the silence of our souls, O Lord, we contemplate Thy peace. Free from all the world’s desires. Free from fear and all anxiety.” This certainly sounds like the beginning to a film a pope might enjoy. However, the camera quickly focuses on one singer in particular, troubled teenager Conrad Jarrett (Timothy Hutton). What we will come quickly to learn is that although Conrad may be able to stand up in public and sing such beautiful lyrics, on the inside he feels nothing remotely similar to them. Quite the opposite, in fact.

In the quietest way possible, this opening sets up the central conflict in the movie. For all outward appearances, Conrad, along with his parents Calvin (Donald Sutherland) and Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), are picture-perfect upper-middle-class suburbanites (WASPs, we called them in the '80s). Beneath the seemingly peaceful surface, though, the Jarretts are barely holding things together, completely unable to reestablish a normal life following the accidental drowning of Conrad’s older brother Buck.

Conrad, who survived the boating accident that claimed his brother, became so overcome with grief and guilt that he tried to take his own life. This resulted in a four-month stay at a mental health facility from which he has only recently returned. Unfortunately, his time in the hospital did little to help Conrad deal with his PTSD, and he sinks further into despair. This behavior is untenable to Conrad’s mother, not only because she openly favored her older child over the one that lived, but also due to her own upbringing, which instilled in her a psychological compulsion for normalcy above everything else. As for Conrad’s father, his passiveness leaves him helpless to do anything but beg everyone to please be nice to one another.

With the family’s dysfunction at a breaking point, Calvin suggests his son speak with a therapist (Judd Hirsch). This horrifies Beth, as this would be further evidence to the outside world that the family isn’t perfect, but she goes along with it in hopes it will return things to the way they should be. However, as the sessions go on, the results aren’t what anyone was expecting.

Ordinary People cleaned up at the Academy Awards, taking home statues for screenwriter Alvin Sargent, supporting actor Timothy Hutton, director Robert Redford, and — most surprisingly — for Best Picture, beating out such luminaries as The Elephant Man and Raging Bull (for which Martin Scorsese cultists still haven’t forgiven it).

The movie is all-around excellent, and the accolades are well deserved. Yet that doesn’t change the fact that for most of the movie’s running time, it is steeped in the misery of raw human emotions such as guilt, anger, blame, and suppression. It doesn’t even have what could traditionally be considered a happy ending. So, the question remains: Why does Pope Leo XIV like it so much?

Perhaps one reason can be found in the writing of Pope Leo’s fellow Chicagoan Roger Ebert, who noted in his review of the film that one of the things he most appreciated about Ordinary People is that its characters truly change over the course of the film. Ebert’s not wrong. Conrad’s conversations with his therapist eventually lead him — and his parents as well — to confront the reality of their intertwined emotions and interior motivations.

In short, the Jarretts encounter the truth, and it changes each of them forever, offering them a path to redemption should they accept it. For those characters that do, we last see them embracing as the strains of Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major begin again. The lyrics are absent this time, but we feel the characters can still hear them because, finally, they truly express what some of the characters are experiencing: “In the silence of our souls, O Lord, we contemplate Thy peace. Free from all the world’s desires. Free from fear and all anxiety.” Now that truly sounds like a film a pope might enjoy.