Hell's Angel (documentary)
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''Hell's Angel'' is a
television documentary Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...
programme criticising
Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, MC (; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa ( sq, Nënë Tereza), was an Indian-Albanian Catholic nun who, in 1950, founded the Missionaries of Charity. Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu () was ...
which premiered in the UK on
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
's ''Without Walls'' arts
strand Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline * Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa * Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * Strand Street ...
on 8 November 1994. It was hosted by
Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...
, directed by Jenny Morgan, and produced by journalist
Tariq Ali Tariq Ali (; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and con ...
. Hitchens and Ali co-wrote the programme's script. Hitchens originally titled the documentary ''Sacred Cow'', but the film's backers instead chose ''Hell's Angel'' as the title. A precursor to Hitchens' book '' The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice'' (1995), the film argues that Mother Teresa urged the poor to accept their circumstances as their destiny and for the poor and sick in particular to submit to the substandard, unsafe, and non-therapeutic medical care provided by her clinics while she endorsed and accepted money from a variety of rich and powerful people who had stunning ethical lapses.


Context

''Hell's Angel'' stands as an opposition voice to what its creators perceived as the largely fawning and unquestioning press coverage of Mother Teresa at the time. Of the prior and contemporary press coverage, it states: "This profane marriage between tawdry media hype and medieval superstition gave birth to an icon which few have since had the poor taste to question."
Aroup Chatterjee Aroup Chatterjee (born 23 June 1958) is a British Indian author and physician. He was born in Calcutta, and moved to the United Kingdom in 1985. He is the author of the book ''Mother Teresa: The Untold Story'' (originally published as ''Mother T ...
's criticisms of Mother Teresa inspired the creation of the film.


Synopsis

Christopher Hitchens narrates the documentary on camera, introducing and explaining a series of video clips to make a case against Mother Teresa and her enterprise. The documentary's key claims and points are: * The media's credulous reporting on Mother Teresa started with a 1969 BBC documentary by
Malcolm Muggeridge Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990) was an English journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romford, in Essex). In ...
called ''
Something Beautiful for God ''Something Beautiful for God'' is a 1971 book by Malcolm Muggeridge on Mother Teresa. The book was based on a 1969 BBC documentary on Mother Teresa (also entitled ''Something Beautiful for God'') that Muggeridge had undertaken. In his book Mugg ...
''. It reported on Mother Teresa's Home for the Dying in Kolkata, India. Some parts of the documentary were successfully filmed in dark interior spaces and Muggeridge claimed that the ability to see details in the film was due to Mother Teresa's "divine light." However, the camera operator at the time, Ken McMillan, is interviewed and says the real explanation was that a new, higher-sensitivity film from
Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
was being used. * Mary Loudon, a writer and former volunteer at the Home for the Dying, says in an interview that it reminded her of photos she had seen of World War I facilities. There were basic cots but no chairs, no garden, and no yard. The dying patients were not being given any medication other than aspirin and the like. She also relayed a story about how drip needles were not sterilised between uses because the nuns saw no benefit to it and a story about how a sick, but treatable, 15-year-old boy should have been sent to the local hospital for help but the nuns refused. * Hitchens relates that in 1980 Mother Teresa said that the Home for the Dying is "how we fight abortion and contraception in Kolkata." In her 1979 acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa is shown calling abortion murder and the "greatest destroyer of peace." She is also shown saying that abortion and birth control should remain illegal in Ireland. Hitchens charges that "a campaign against family planning is low on the list of Kolkata's many pressing needs" and that Mother Teresa's "tenderness" toward the unborn should be seen as an overtly political position since she also campaigns against birth control. *
Mihir Bose Mihir Bose (born 12 January 1947) is a British Indian journalist and author. He writes a weekly "Big Sports Interview" for the ''London Evening Standard'', and also writes and broadcasts on sport and social and historical issues for several ou ...
, author & journalist, explains in an interview that the people of the West see Mother Teresa as one of them, making sacrifices for the poor in the third world and rescuing them. * Mother Teresa is documented as having supported and been rewarded by Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier (Haiti), Enver Hoxha (Albania),
Charles Keating Charles Humphrey Keating Jr. (December 4, 1923 – March 31, 2014) was an American sportsman, lawyer, real estate developer, banker, financier, conservative activist, and convicted felon best known for his role in the savings and loan sca ...
(U.S.), and
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
(U.S.) – all of whom had a need to publicly gloss over their various shortcomings. * After the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India, Mother Teresa's advice to the victims was merely to "forgive." Mihir Bose says that this shows how Mother Teresa is wholly uninterested in improving the lives of the poor in the world and tackling the problems of poverty.


Reception

The documentary was seen by 1.6 million viewers. The programme "sparked an international debate" on Mother Teresa's work as its reporting contradicted the feel-good Mother Teresa narrative promulgated by the media. 130 complaints were submitted to the
Independent Television Commission The Independent Television Commission (ITC) licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom (except S4C in Wales) between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003. History The creation of ITC, by the Broadcasting Act ...
, which took no action. Hitchens reported that it led to "venomous and irrational attacks."


Follow up

Christopher Hitchens' 1995 book, '' The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice'', detailed and expanded on many of the same points made in the film. Mother Teresa "forgave" the documentary's creators for making it. Christopher Hitchens found this "odd, since we had not sought forgiveness from her or from anyone else. Odder still if you have any inclination to ask by what right she assumes the power to forgive." Mother Teresa died in 1997.
Aroup Chatterjee Aroup Chatterjee (born 23 June 1958) is a British Indian author and physician. He was born in Calcutta, and moved to the United Kingdom in 1985. He is the author of the book ''Mother Teresa: The Untold Story'' (originally published as ''Mother T ...
and Christopher Hitchens took the position of '
devil's advocate The (Latin for Devil's advocate) is a former official position within the Catholic Church, the Promoter of the Faith: one who "argued against the canonization (sainthood) of a candidate in order to uncover any character flaws or misrepresentat ...
s', or Promoters of Justice (), in the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
's
beatification Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...
procedures for Mother Teresa in 2003. She was
canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of s ...
as a Roman Catholic saint in 2016.
Sanal Edamaruku Sanal Edamaruku (born 26 May 1955) is an Indian author and rationalist. He is the founder-president and editor of ''Rationalist International'', the president of the Indian Rationalist Association and the author of 25 books and other articles. ...
and others have argued against the two miracles that were required for her canonization and credited to her. Gëzim Alpion wrote the critical book '' Mother Teresa: Saint or Celebrity?'' (2007) and Aroup Chatterjee wrote ''Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict'' (2003) which was reissued as ''Mother Teresa: The Untold Story'' in 2016.


Footnotes


External links

* * {{Christopher Hitchens 1994 television specials Channel 4 original programming British television documentaries British television specials Mother Teresa Christopher Hitchens Television controversies in the United Kingdom 1994 controversies