Entertaining Angles: The Story of Dorothy Day is one of the most Christian and catholic films ever made. Some invisible force, I believe, was present during the making of this film. Moira Kelly as Dorothy Day and Martin Sheen as Peter Maurin both turn in performances that deserve Academy Award nominations.
The story, told almost entirely in a flashback, covers the life of Dorothy Day from 1917, when she was a twenty-year-old journalist and social activist, through 1963, when she was briefly imprisoned for protesting the nuclear arms race.
The film dramatizes her love affairs, the abortion of her first child, her common-law relationship with Forster (Lenny Von Dohlen), the father of her daughter Tamar (Heather Camille), as well as her conversion to Catholicism, her disciple-tutor friendship with the French peasant-philosopher Peter Maurin, and her life-long commitment to serve and live among the poor.
As a team project in which several artists do their best work, the film reminds me of On the Waterfront (1954). The model for the priest role in that film, and also a special advisor on the film, was Fr. John Corridan, S.J. Years later Fr. Corridan claimed that during the shooting of the film there was an indescribable feeling among those present that a curious force was helping direct the picture.
In the first scene of Entertaining Angels a chained African American drug addict is thrown into the same cell as Dorothy, who has been temporarily imprisoned for her part in the 1963 protest. As the hysterical addict stretches her chained wrists she momentarily appears like a crucified figure and, bewildered by the kindness of her cellmate, asks, “Who are you?” Cradling the sobbing young woman in her arms, Dorothy softly sings “Amazing Grace.”
Early scenes of Dorothy’s bohemian life in Greenwich Village create a claustrophobic atmosphere, as though she is trapped or imprisoned in her wild lifestyle. The musings of Dorothy’s friend, playwright Eugene O’Neill (James Lancaster), about the transcendent provide a foreshadowing of Dorothy’s encounter with God.
There is an especially touching scene in The Catholic Worker House on the Bowery in which Peter Maurin is washing a foot of one of the derelicts. With no conversation at all, Dorothy takes off the derelict’s other shoe and begins to bathe it. As they are washing the man’s feet, Peter and Dorothy smile at one another, providing us with an inspiring image of two twentieth century apostles following the lead of Jesus at the Last Supper.
Among my favorite scenes in Entertaining Angels is the baptismal scene in which Dorothy and her infant daughter join the Church. With a large crucifix in the background, a nun who befriended the questioning young social reformer is on one side of the two new Catholics and on the other is the derelict who had been helped by Dorothy. The composition of the shot depicting the baptisms succinctly sums up in visual terms the entire film’s dramatization of Dorothy’s Catholic commitment to the poor.
The climax of the film and the most moving and powerful moment in this very moving and powerful film has Dorothy, having overcome doubts about The Catholic Worker apostolate, giving a stirring talk to her coworkers on the Bowery, explaining why and how she will spend her life serving Jesus in the poor. I will not be the only one moved to tears by this scene.
Just before the film ends, the almost film-length flashback concludes, and once again it is 1963. Dorothy is in the prison cell cradling the drug addict and softly singing “Amazing Grace.” A very fitting ending to Entertaining Angels, which I believe is itself an amazing grace.