critics consensus

Exceptional research elevates Constantine's Sword from a talking heads documentary to a resonant and thought-provoking expose of the church's dark history. Read critic reviews

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Constantine's Sword Photos

A scene from the film "Constantine's Sword."

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Movie Info

Author and former priest James Carroll explores his past and confronts religion's history of violence committed in the name of God.

Genre:

documentary
Original Language:

English
Director:

Oren Jacoby
Producer:

Oren Jacoby, Michael Solomon, Betsy West
Writer:

James Carroll, Oren Jacoby
Release Date (Theaters):

Apr 18, 2008 limited
Release Date (Streaming):

Mar 23, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA):

$179.5K
Runtime:

1h 35m

Cast & Crew

Oren Jacoby
Director

James Carroll
Writer

Oren Jacoby
Writer

Oren Jacoby
Producer

Michael Solomon
Producer

Betsy West
Producer

Critic Reviews for Constantine's Sword

All Critics (31) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (4)

Quote not available.

November 18, 2011 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

Hank Sartin
Time Out
Quote not available.

November 17, 2011 | Rating: 3/5

Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out
Jacoby and Carroll make their case skillfully, carefully excerpting key scenes from Lenny (with Dustin Hoffman doing a Lenny Bruce monologue on anti-Jewish prejudice) and The Robe.

August 29, 2008 | Rating: 3/4

John Hartl
Seattle Times
Constantine's Sword speaks provocatively to history and our moment.

May 30, 2008 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…

Ty Burr
Boston Globe
The breadth of Carroll's scholarship and the depth of his religious understanding strengthen his assertion that our misadventure in Iraq is the beginning of a new holy war.

May 30, 2008 | Full Review…

J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
But I ramble. So does the movie, in an insidiously fascinating way.

May 30, 2008 | Rating: 3/4

Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Whether humanity chooses to learn from the past, embrace new ideas and come to a meeting of the minds has yet to be seen. CONSTANTINE'S SWORD is a journey that we all should all take and from which we all should learn.

November 7, 2019 | Full Review…

Debbie Lynn Elias
Behind The Lens
It's a film at once depressing and exhilarating.

August 24, 2009 | Full Review…

Rob Nelson
Boston Phoenix
Absolutely stunning mixture of the personal story of a disillusioned Catholic priest and the sordid Christian history that drove him to cut his ties--all the while remaining deeply committed to the ethical vision of Jesus.

September 8, 2008 | Full Review…

Louis Proyect
rec.arts.movies.reviews
Less a history lesson than Carroll's personal odyssey through the opposing powers of church and state.

August 29, 2008 | Rating: B- | Full Review…

Bill White
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Not precisely journalistic, as a personal chronicle writ large it is a stirring, richly intellectual work.

August 29, 2008 | Full Review…

Stan Hall
Oregonian
This exceedingly contemplative work is both topically important -- warning of what happens when military might and religious fervor are mixed -- and intellectually stimulating as all get out.

August 28, 2008

Brent Simon
Los Angeles CityBeat

View All Critic Reviews (31)

Audience Reviews for Constantine's Sword

Oct 12, 2011

James Carrol's theory that the Cross is a violent rather than peaceful symbol is intriguing, as is the connections he makes between the Antisemitism from the formation of the Church, to the Holocaust, and finally the disquieting merge between Evangelical Christianity and the American Military. Carrol makes some bold, possibly true, statements but his arguments are too thinly drawn for my taste. Its also hard for me to connect the Catholics with Evangelicals because of how much the latter dislikes the former.

Alec B Super Reviewer