When the Whales Came

Alphabetical Listing of Movie Reviews

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  • When the Whales Came -- Some 70 years after an 1844 legend about a curse befalling England's Scilly Isles for slaughtering a pack of beached whales, a deaf hermit (Paul Scofield) manages to successfully warn neighboring islanders to lay off some newly beached whales. In a tedious adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's children's book, director Clive(R) ees lets a lovely story with the gentle hermit, two island children and an ecological theme get bogged down in boring extraneous action and predictable period caricatures. Occasional menace involving parental abuse and minimal rough language.(A-II) (PG) ( 1989 )




    These movies have been evaluated for artistic merit and moral suitability by the media reviewing division of Catholic News Service. The reviews include the CNS rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

    The classifications are as follows:

    A-I -- general patronage;
    A-II -- adults and adolescents;
    A-III -- adults;
    L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
    O -- morally offensive.

    Note: Some movies previously were designated A-IV. Older films with this classification should be regarded as classified L.

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