The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) on Netflix
Kiril Lakota leaves a Siberian labor camp after twenty years, freed on Premier Piotr Ilyich Kamenev's orders. In Rome the pope names him a cardinal, and then the pontiff dies.
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Plot summary
During the Cold War, Kiril Pavlovich Lakota, Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv, has spent twenty years in a Siberian labor camp. Piotr Ilyich Kamenev, once his guard there and now Premier of the Soviet Union, orders his release and has him brought to Rome. The pope names him a cardinal and grants him the Church of St. Athanasius as his title. Lakota begs instead for a simple task among simple men, but the pope tells him to kneel and accept the scarlet zucchetto. When the pontiff collapses and dies, the cardinals gather in conclave, with Cardinal Leone and Cardinal Rinaldi the leading candidates, and Lakota takes part as one of the electors. Beyond the Vatican, a feud between the Soviet Union and China, worsened by crop failures and famine, has brought the world close to nuclear war.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Morris West spent months on a scene where Father Telemond is questioned by the Inquisition, then found the actors had altered it with the director's consent, which he argued destroyed the plot's theological validity; he took his name off the script.
- The escalating costs of The Shoes of the Fisherman and Ice Station Zebra led to MGM president Robert O'Brien's transfer to chairman of the board, and he resigned in early 1969 after both films failed to recoup their costs.
- George Englund asked the Vatican for technical advice but received no permission to film there, so the Sistine Chapel and other places had to be recreated.
- British director Anthony Asquith was set to direct the film but fell ill in November 1967 and died a few months later, and Michael Anderson replaced him.
