Not many people can say their work has ever forced them to choose between Pope John Paul II and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee.

Alas, this is the path I have chosen.

Come back Monday for a review of the new NBC reality series “Tommy Lee Goes to College.”

Today, we’ll take a look at “A Man Who Became Pope,” a four-hour movie that premieres at 8 p.m. Monday on The Hallmark Channel (check your listings for a channel number).

It will be repeated at 9 a.m. the following Sunday, Aug. 21.

The movie is the first of a string of films documenting the life of the pontiff, who died in April.

ABC and CBS busily began lining up TV movies about the pope after his death.

ABC’s version, “Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II,” started filming in Lithuania this month.

CBS’s “Pope John Paul II” will star Ian Holm of the “Lord of the Rings” movies but has not yet begun production.

The Hallmark Channel’s biopic – the channel reportedly paid nearly $3 million for the rights – is different not only in substance, but also in stature.

It’s the only one that carries the endorsement of the pope himself. The pope watched the Italian-made film before he died and, according to a Vatican press spokesperson, was impressed and appreciative.

The film is based on Gian Franco Svidercoschi’s book, “Stories of Karol: The Unknown Life of John Paul II.”

It takes viewers through the tumultuous life that Karol Wojtyla lived in Poland, starting before he even had aspirations of becoming a priest and continuing to the day he assumed the papacy.

Polish TV star Piotr Adamczyk (“Spellbound”) plays Pope John Paul II with an intensity and honesty that make you believe who he is, leading to the climactic emotional moment of his election.

It’s a surprisingly violent and gripping drama – if not particularly well acted by the supporting cast – that even people who are not Catholic would appreciate.

For the many of us who knew Wojtyla only as the leader of the 1 billion-strong Catholic Church, it paints a more complete picture of the complex and dangerous circumstances from which he came.

He truly was just a man who became pope.

He was an avid writer, poet and actor. He was a university professor who took his students on kayaking trips. He was self-conscious about his tattered shoes – including the ones he was wearing on Oct. 16, 1978, the day the white smoke declaring him the new pope emanated from the Sistine Chapel.

The film begins with the invasion of the 19-year-old Wojtyla’s native Poland by the Nazis in September 1939. He joins a resistance movement, leaves Krakow and begins an underground theater to sustain Polish art during the Nazi occupation.

Wojtyla’s mother died when he was 9 years old, and his only brother died three years later.

When his father, a noncommissioned army officer intent on fighting the Nazis, died just two years after the Nazi invasion, Wojtyla was left all alone. He began taking courses for the priesthood the following year in secret at the clandestine seminary in Krakow.

He entered the priesthood despite the wishes of Hania, a woman whom he apparently loved, although it’s never spelled out for us.

“I can’t see you spending your life confessing a bunch of old women,” she tearfully tells him after learning of his decision.

“You are leaving me alone,” she tells him. “I’ve lost you.”

But it’s a decision he’s already made, and it begins his journey toward assuming one of the most influential positions in the world.

Victor Balta’s column runs Mondays and Thursdays on the A&E page. Reach him at 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.