THE SONG OF BERNADETTE (1943) (***1/2)

This is a religious film. It tells the Virgin Mary sighting at Lourdes as truth. But it does present the other side, cynics, atheists and jealous believers come to question the validity of the miracle. Each of them, one by one, comes around to the side of the faithful. And yet it makes interesting arguments for and against. No matter what you believe it says some provocative things about faith.

Bernadette Soubirous (Jennifer Jones, LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING) was an asthmatic teenager, who knew little of Christianity, when she saw the "beautiful lady" at the city dump. Her mother Louise (Anne Revere, GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT) was angered with her daughter's childish daydreams when their family was under increasing financial problems. Town leaders, including Mayor Lacade (Aubrey Mather, HEAVEN CAN WAIT), Dr. Dozous (Lee J. Cobb, 12 ANGRY MEN) and Prosecutor Vital Dutour (Vincent Price, THE HOUSE OF WAX), worry that it will give the village a bad name. Sister Marie Therese Vauzous (Gladys Cooper, NOW, VOYAGER) thinks the girl is a blasphemer. But when the young girl makes a spring burst forth from the ground that seems to have healing qualities, the doubters start to come around.

Jones won an Oscar for her first major role. She makes Bernadette a pure innocent. The future saint represents a religious ideal. Her grace in the face of pressure to recant is inspiring. Jones brings no guile to the part, which makes her effortlessly believable.

Two detractors stick out – Price's Dutour and Cooper's Vauzous. Dutour is an atheist who believes that the faithful coming to be healed are hypochondriacs curing ailments they never had. For him no explanation is good enough. His last minute confession at the end of the film isn't a total conversion, but a fairly obvious, even unfair, critique of the faithless. Karma's a cold customer in this movie's mind. But when one simply looks at Dutour as one individual, the reason for his change of heart comments on desperate reasons for last minute conversions.

Vauzous is even more interesting. She is a cold nun who has dedicated her whole life to suffering for the church. She resents this young girl who doesn't even know what the holy trinity is. Her turn around says a lot about herself, Bernadette and a specific interpretation of how to get closer to God. Is life supposed to be full of suffering? If suffering comes from your own actions does that make you more faithful or less than the one who doesn't chose suffering? Why does God make one person suffer more than another?

As the film states, for the faithful, no explanation is needed, while for the non-believer, no explanation will do. Where you fall along that statement will affect your appreciation of the film. Director Henry King, working from George Seaton's script based on Franz Werfel's novel, makes a film that wants to believe. But like someone with true faith, it's not afraid to address the best arguments against. As a biopic, the film believes in its central character's faith. That faith is what inspired so many. That is one thing everyone can believe in and that's why the film is so effective.