michael-corrieri
I don't know if I believe in heaven or hell, but if there's a heaven Theresa of Calcutta is as surely there as Hitchens would be if there was a hell, if for nothing else, the sheer lousiness of this film.And I am not saying it's lousy merely for the content, which is a full frontal assault on a person who spent her entire life working for the poorest of people. It's lousy not only for what it attempts to do - for the clearly stated anti-religious bias of the film maker - but it's lousy in how it does it too, presenting one-sided views of the most anti-Christian interpretation of everything she did, without giving a voice to any others.SPOILER ALERT: --------------- An example is the "exposure of Theresa's hypocrisy" regarding her own health care. The fact is the poorest of poor in India do not have health care, and the government regulations during the life of Theresa prevented them from receiving pain killers anyway. Those regulations were only loosened in 2012. But this is completely ignored by the film maker, as would be expected in a hatchet job. Mother Theresa, in contrast, had the basic health care insurance that every Catholic nun/priest has, and as a European citizen had access to it, even though she had to leave India to receive it. And that's where the rubber meets the road - as a Catholic it was her religious duty to take the health care, refusing it would have been suicidal, which was itself a sin. -----------------The film would have been better had it taken into consideration the impact of her beliefs and Catholic doctrine on everything she did, as well as the political situation of the poor in India.As it was it's just a hit job with gaping holes, and it screams out to even non-Catholic Christians as a really, really, really low-shot. There's plenty of fodder to attack the Roman Catholics without taking pot shots at people who are doing the services nobody else cares to do.I'll give it 3 stars for continuity and editing. It was better made than most pieces of this type.
t_atzmueller
There are certain people who seem to inspire sympathy and admiration by the sheer value of their reputation, even among people with whom they don't share creed, social-background or any other common denominator. To mind come the Dalai Lama, Ghandi or Diana Spencer, former princess of Wales. In simple terms, just hearing those names make most people convinced that they're automatically dealing with "the good guys" or some "messianic figures". Among those names is Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, an Albanian nun, who today is better known under her nome de guerre Mother Teresa.As is often the case, people tend to celebrate the good sides while choosing to ignore the negative aspects. Surely, Ghandi was fundamental in the independence of India, but many would like to forget that he was an unrepentant racists who, would he have lived, might well have turned India into a backward, feudal-like nation. People remember the beautiful, media-savvy "Lady Di", disregarding that she was also a calculating hanger-on, whose main (if not only) real accomplishment was to sell more tabloids to bored housewives around the world.It seems only fitting that journalist, author and one of the most militant Atheists of his time, Christopher Hitchens, should sink his teeth and sharp wit into the titular Hell's Angel, Mother Teresa. As one reviewer pointed out: don't expect an objective documentary. "Hell's Angel" is as objective as the documentary "Something Beautiful for God", which brought Mother Teresa into the limelight back in the late 1960's. However, what it lacks in objectivity, it compensates manifold with facts and common sense.First, we see the "Home of the Dying", the hospices founded by Teresa in Calcutta. Here we see scenes that one participant likened to a concentration camp, where the poor go to die, although (often) simple medication could save their lives and nuns work with nothing more than a handful of aspirin and unclean needles. We are told that it is their job to "help the dying pass as peacefully as possible", not to cure or medicate.We follow Teresa as she's being handed around the media-circus, being courted by statesmen, royalty, the rich and influential, but also the corrupt and bloodthirsty, megalomaniac dictators like Haiti's "Papa Doc" or Enva Hoxa in her native Albania. Teresa shakes all those hands without discrimination. There's preciously little talk about the poor or impoverished coming from Mother Teresa. Rather, like a tape-recorder set to eternal replay, she repeats her diatribes against contraceptives and abortion. Whether an official statistic is available I know not, but arguably her uncompromising stance has caused millions of deaths and much misery in the Third World alone. But Hitchens does not paint Teresa as an evil person, who hides behind the mask of piety. Rather, (perhaps not even realizing it completely), she is shown as a naïve and willing tool, who is used to promote the doctrines of her bosses in the Vatican. In essence, she was the definition of a zealot.Had this documentary been shot a few years later, after Mother Teresa passed away, Hitchens could have added the attempts of the Catholic Church (no less fraudulent than above mentioned "Something Beautiful for God", but no less successful) at beatification and canonization of Mother Teresa. Of course such a beatification required a certified miracle. Such miracle was quickly found in India, where a woman named "Monica" claimed that the deceased nun had cured her of cancer in 2002. Opposing that claim were her husband (who claimed that medicine had cured her) and her physician (who claimed that the cancer wasn't a cancer but a cyst) – but such trivia didn't stand between Mother Teresa being declaring her "blessed" (a second miracle, which would make her a saint, is expected in the near future)."If the devil tempts you to do good", reasons Richard III in Shakespeare's play. If you consider yourself living in the age of reason and don't believe in the devil, it could be argued that fanaticism, gullibility, ignorance and manipulation do just as good a job.I'd give the documentary a 9/10, being short and straight to the point; it is just doubtful whether Mother Theresa fans and believers will enjoy it very much.
Theo Robertson
If you've never heard of Christopher Hitchens let me explain he's the only person in the world who makes Professor Richard Dawkins look like a happy clappy vicar . He's a radical atheist who is openly hostile of religion . Dawkins uses scientific arguments to illustrate his belief that there is no god . Hitchens on the other hand is not a scientist but his cynicism towards religion makes him far more accessible to a mass audience , and over the years this expose by Hitchens on Mother Teresa has taken on legendary status . Such a pity that it's difficult to track down , but all you have to do is type in to any search engine " Hitchins Hells Angel " and you might be presently surprised how easy it is to findHitchens does not for a moment pretend this is going to be objective - It's a hatchet job on someone who is somewhat regarded even amongst secularists as someone who has brought hope and joy to the destitute and needy in the slums of Calcutta . Early on we're shown a clip from a 1969 documentary by ( in )famous Christian Malcolm Muggeridge who started the Teresa myth by proclaiming that a miracle had happened , but this so called miracle involving light is easily explained by the cameraman going in to details as to how it's all down to the film in the camera . Strange to say that despite all the publicity and donations she has received her hospice has not changed one bit 25 years later . People still lie on stretcher beds with their heads shaved and the image to quote one former nurse who worked there " resembles Belsen ...where the dying and stricken are given nothing stronger than aspirin as a painkiller ... and where dirty needles are washed in cold water to be used again " Abortion and Teresa's attitude to it is next in Hitchens sights . We're shown footage of her stating that " The greatest destroyer of world peace today is the cry of the unborn child being murdered in her mother's womb " then footage of a rally in Ireland where she states her dogma against abortion and birth control . It's at this point journalist Mihir Bose points out that she's a crusader for reactionary hardline Catholic dogma and why so many leaders of western democracies admire her so much But perhaps it's not so much western leaders she should be remembered for meeting according to Hitchens " She may not comfort the afflicted but has never been known to afflict the comfortable " . she shakes hands with Ronald Reagan , a sponsor of right wing death squads in Central America , Haitian despot Papa Doc Duvalier and laying a wreath on the tomb of Stalinist dictator of Albania Enva Hoxa . Hitchens poses the question that why is she renowned as being " Mother Teresa Of Calcutta " when in fact she seemed to spend most of her life preferring to shake hands with the ( not ) great and ( far from ) good thousands of miles away from CalcuttaIf I have any problem with HELLS ANGEL it's that might have pulled his punches just a little bit . It's a well known fact that whenever Mother Teresa fell ill she would go to America to be treated by the world's leading and most expensive doctors . Apparently what was good enough for dying penniless beggars in the Indian subcontinent wasn't good enough for her , and I don't think Hitchens hammered this point home enough in this documentary though to be fair Hitchens has certainly made up for it in articles over the years . But still it's a very well argued documentary which should be seen by anyone who's sitting on the fence where religion and its hypocrisy is concerned
