Movie analysis

The movie Doubt is set in a private Catholic School in 1960s. Sister Aloysius is the principal of the school, and Father Flynn is the clergyman in the church. While the movie deals with some moral dilemmas such as doubt versus certainty, rigidity versus openness and so on, the central theme of the story pivots on accusation on Father Flynn of child molestation. The story has a hanging ending where Father Flynn is proven neither guilty nor proven innocent. Based on the contents of the movie and my own analysis, I believe that certainty plays a bigger role in accusations and I believe that Father Flynn had been falsely blamed and I am also against the rigidity of the society.

The first doubt about Father Flynn’s behavior occurs to Sister Aloysius when he gives a sermon on the nature of doubt. Father notes that doubt can also be a unifying force like faith, and Sister Aloysius assumes that he has had doubts of some kind that must have motivated the topic for the sermon. She then discusses the sermon with her fellow nuns, asks if anyone has observed unusual behavior that would inspire Father Flynn to preach about doubt, and instructs them to observe Father’s behavior closely. The second basis for the doubt occurs when Sister James reveals to Sister Aloysius that Father Flynn and Donald (a twelve year old African American boy in the school) have been spending an unusual amount of time in the church rectory. She also discloses that Donald was called by Father Flynn in the middle of a lesson and she could smell alcohol in his breath when he returned. Sister James also told her that she had seen Father Flynn place a white shirt in Donald’s locker. The movie ends with the final doubt that if Father Flynn were innocent he would not have re...

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...p thinking that the school had to adapt to the change in the society, and not because he was trying to make the school less religious. The rigidity of the school was hindering the progress of the school and making the students less adaptable to the world outside the church.

Doubt does have its own place, but doubt without proof is baseless and often considered invalid. In the movie “Doubt”, the real problem was that Sister Aloysius was doubtful of the acts of Father Flynn, and tried to take advantage of every little incident that might prove Father guilty of child molestation. However, I believe that Father Flynn was innocent and was trying to change the society for better. I also strongly believe that it was the rigidity of Sister Aloysius that was holding behind the progression of the school, and the openness in some aspects would drastically change the society.