The Wrath of God

The movie gods are playful in the action-oriented The Wrath of God – frisky, risky, violent, over the top and delivering a cast that includes Robert Mitchum, Frank Langella in an early-career performance and, in her last role, unforgettable Rita Hayworth. “This is the kind of movie we don’t see very often anymore: a simple, dashing tale told for sheer fun,” writes Roger Ebert in his Chicago Sun-Times review. Screen tough-guy Mitchum plays Oliver Van Horne, a U.S. priest on a supposed fund-raising mission in a strife-torn Latin American land. But if he is a priest, you might wonder about the machine-gun nestled in the case he carries. The pistol hidden in a Bible and the crucifix that serves as a lethal switchblade may also come in handy as he comes to the defense of people oppressed by a tyrant. God works in mysterious ways, says the combative man of the cloth. Especially if one of those ways is the enigmatic Van Horne.