Comparison:Jesus Gospel Manifesto

I want to use a clip to illustrate Luke's portrayal of Jesus' rejection in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30). Luke is the only gospel to depict Jesus reading a particularly apt text from Isaiah which narrows my focus somewhat. Whilst a few more versions of this episode are out there I'm going to focus on those below as the quality of the other films overall is too poor to make them a serious possibility. So these are those listed in Staley and Walsh from which I will also cite start times and chapters in brackets (Region 1). The unbracketed timings are my own (Region 2). I've excluded Pasolini and Saville's films here as they are based on the accounts in Matthew and John respectively. I've also included the scene from Mary, Mother of Jesus which is not included in Staley and Walsh's book.

Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
From 1:33:30 (1:36:51)
Instead if shooting this scene from inside a synagogue, Stevens films out in the open air, next to a pool where a number of people have gathered. There are quotes from all 4 gospels, but particularly John (e.g. 10:24), and the critical quotations from Luke. When the confrontation is over Jesus walks away with his back to the camera and we see someone throw a stone at him that hits him squarely on the back

Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
From episode 2 10:33 (1:43:00)
This takes the scene almost directly from Luke alone. There are a few dramatic flourishes, but the location of this clip (right at the start of Jesus' adult ministry) and its inclusion of the fulfilled OT prophecy both suggest Luke. After Jesus has made his statement, Mary repeats the key phrase "today in our hearing the scriptures are fulfilled". We also see Jesus being ejected from the temple and there's a similar shot of Jesus' back as was found in Greatest Story. This time however no stone is actually thrown. This is certainly the version that came to mind when I started thinking of portrayals of it and so I may well use this one.

Jesus (1979)
From 13:00(0:15:11)
This film is an adaptation of Luke so it's not surprising to find that it's the one that most closely corresponds to that gospel. We see Jesus sitting on the floor and covering his head and kissing the scriptures before reading them. The wording here is pretty much as per the gospel. It even includes Jesus being brought to the cliff edge though whilst the narrator describes Jesus walking through the middle of the crowd we only see him walk away from them.

Mary, Mother of Jesus (1999)
From 0:56:55
This film is usually pretty dreadful, but Bale is capable of turning any scene into something memorable so I thought this might be worth a try. And so it turned out. There's a bit of an underemphasis on the words Jesus speaks, but a few nice touches. For example, as Jesus is reading from the scroll another man moves a pointer along the text to help him keep his place. When Jesus begins to close the scroll in the middle of a section the man gives Jesus a shocked look. The confrontation that ensues goes on quite a bit, but it's still a fairly good scene. There's also a visual nod to Jesus of Nazareth as we see Jesus in the synagogue from behind the screen that separated off the women.

Overall it's interesting that other than Greatest Story all these portrayals are keen to show Jewish customs relating to synagogues. All 3 of these other films also join up the dots for the audience by explaining that Jesus was claiming to be the messiah.

Alex von Tunzelmann on Prince of Egypt and Greatest Story Ever Told

I've mentioned before Alex von Tunzelmann's hugely enjoyable Guardian series Reel History. (In fact, I may as well give it its own label). Well, as with last Christmas she celebrated the festive season by review two Bible films - The Prince of Egypt and The Greatest Story Ever Told.

She's a bigger fan of Prince of Egypt (Entertainment grade: A– to Greatest Story's E), but ranks the Jesus epic higher in terms of it's history (C as compared to the Moses film's D). As ever they are written in style that manages to be light-hearted, perceptive, history geeky and enjoyable all in one go. Take for example her shrewd take on the depiciton of Mircales in Greatest Story:

Lazarus is raised from the dead in long shot, so you can't really see what's going on. The feeding of the 5,000 and turning water into wine are mentioned, but not shown. "The next thing we know, they'll be calling him the Messiah," complains a Jewish leader. "And that's not all." "What else?" asks Pontius Pilate. "He walked on water." "Get out!" Historically speaking, this is fine: there's no independent evidence for any of the miracles. Cinematically, it's more of a problem. If the director was concerned about excluding the sceptical audience, you've got to wonder why he picked this subject. Because, if you don't go in for God, this is just three hours of the musings of a first-century Middle Eastern hippie. A few whizz-bang moments would really have livened things up.

These are two films which have been criminally under-discussed by this blog. The Prince of Egypt didn't even have it's own label until just now. The Greatest Story Ever Told does, but there's precious little there except my podcast review.

Facets: Jesus Christ Movie Star

I stumbled across this on the blog of film distributors Facets the other day: Jesus Christ, Movie Star. No real surprises on the list, and the odd inaccuracy, but I did enjoy this comment on The Greatest Story Ever Told

One of Hollywood's most humongous productions offers the best and worst of the epic production and is a must-see precisely because of that. Max von Sydow's performance as Christ is superb--perhaps the best ever done for the screen--and the film's slow pace and solemn nature can really work for the patient viewer.

I'll be adding this to my list of Jesus film surveys (right hand sidebar) shortly.

The article also links to a list of biblical / religious films for purchase - 78 in all, which may be of interest to some.

Decent Films Reviews The Greatest Story Ever Told

Over at Decent Films, my friend Steven D. Greydanus has just posted a great review of Greatest Story Ever Told. It's actually one film I've not posted a written review for yet, although I did record a podcast review for the film last year. I've heard Steven talk many times about the unintentionally hilarious baptism scene, but it's nice to hear him extolling some of the film's other virtues.

In trying to source some photos for this blog entry I also came across a review at thecinemalaser.com . I also just discovered that there was a 2001 documentary about the making of this film called He Walks in Beauty: The George Stevens Production 'The Greatest Story Ever Told'.

Are the Dardenne Brothers Making a Film Called A Jew Named Jesus?

Ron Reed is turning out posts at his blog at an incredible sped at the moment, and the really galling part is that there so well written! Amongst the articles that Ron has posted recently is a summary of supposedly forthcoming projects which includes films I've covered elsewhere such as Christ The Lord: Out Of Egypt, The Final Inquiry, Mary, Paradise Lost, The Resurrection, and Risen: The Story Of The First Easter. However, he also includes this intriguing quote from Doug Cummings:

"in his newly published diary, Luc Dardenne mentions a couple of times that he and Jean-Pierre are thinking about making a Jesus film. I don't have it with me at the moment, but he writes something like, 'this would not be the story of his life, but a snapshot of his reality; the faces, places, bodies, and interactions of his world' or something like that. He insisted they'd shoot it in Israel."

I've not been able to find the source of this quote, or much information about this project other than a tentative title - A Jew Named Jesus. There is apparently some information about this project in their published diary, which has been out since at least 2005.

I'm fascinated by this news (and surprised I'd missed it before). The Dardenne brothers are incredible film makers and it would be great to see them have a go at the material. Some might argue that they have already visited this material at least once in Le Fils (my brief review). That said it's also a marked departure from their other films, which are generally set around the peripheries of everyday modern life.

I'm reminded of two other great film makers who wanted to make films about Jesus. The first is Carl Dreyer. Both have produced a number of landmark films many of which are deeply spiritual. There are certain similarities in their styles of film making, and obviously they both work outside the Hollywood mainstream. Like the Dardennes, Dreyer also wanted his film to emphasise Jesus's Jewishness. Sadly Dreyer's dreams were never fulfilled.

The other is George Stevens. Like the Dardenne brothers he had already made a critically acclaimed film who's central character is a Christ figure (Shane). Stevens succeeded where Dreyer failed and managed to bring his Jesus film to the big screen. But The Greatest Story Ever Told was roundly criticised, and not a few commentators have noted that having made one masterful telling of the Christ story he shouldn't have attempted to revisit the material.

Hopefully the Dardennes will manage to avoid the pitfalls of both Dreyer and Stevens. Watch this space.

Podcast: Greatest Story Ever Told

Having taken a month off from podcasting from Christmas, I'm back this month with some comments on George Stevens's The Greatest Story Ever Told.

This is the third Jesus Films Podcast I've done now. The other two, November's Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to St. Matthew - 1964), and October's Jesus of Nazareth (1977) are both still available to download.

Entertainment Weekly's Top 12 Film Jesuses (Jesi?)

Firstly apologies for the lack of a post yesterday. There were problems with Blogger which seemed to have sorted themselves out. I'm amazed at how angry some people get on the Blogger Help Forum. Whilst not being able to post is a bit annoying, Blogger does give us web space and blogging software for free. Perhaps I'm just being naïve.

Anyway, anyone who has read FilmChat recently will know this old news already, but as I wasn't able to post anything it before Easter, I thought I would do so now. In addition to Peter Chattaway's top ten Jesus films at Christianity Today, and my top ten Jesus films, there is now a list of the top 12 film Jesuses (or Jesi as Clayton Slaughter suggests) up at Entertainment Weekly. Their list is as follows (in chronological order:

Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ)
Christian Bale (Mary, the Mother of Jesus)
Will Ferrell (Superstar)
Jeremy Sisto (Jesus)
Martin Donovan (Book of Life)
Willem Dafoe (Last Temptation of Christ)
Chris Sarandon (The Day Christ Died)
Robert Powell (Jesus of Nazareth)
Victor Garber (Godspell)
Ted Neely (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Max von Sydow (The Greatest Story Ever Told)
Jeffrey Hunter (King of Kings)

I always wonder with things like this how they devised them. For a start it is strange that they have done a top 12 rather than top 10. I can only assume that this is because they felt they had to include the major film Jesi down to Hunter and von Sydow, but also wanted to include lesser known portrayals such as Bale, Ferrell, Donovan and Sarandon.

There are two films on the list that I have yet to see. Like Peter, I'd not heard of Ferrell's turn in Superstar (1980), and will have to see if I can dig it out. On the other hand I've known about The Day Christ Died (1980) for a long time, but sadly it's not available to buy.

The limitations of the list are not to hard to spot. Firstly, all these films are American. Whilst I can understand that Entertainment Weekly is a popular magazine, and trying to write for as wider readership as possible, would it really have hurt them to have included Enrique Irazoqui from Pasolini's Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)? Similarly the list only covers the last 45 years. Whilst going back this far is, in itself, a positive step, it would have been nice to choose a film from the silent era. Personally, I'd include Robert Henderson-Bland's performance in From the Manger to the Cross (1912). Thirdly they seem to have deliberately excluded all church sponsored projects like the Visual Bible's Gospel of John (2003). Whilst some of these church films are awful, Henry Ian Cusick's performance at least deserves a nod. The final flaw is that by so limiting the available selection, the list really becomes a no-brainer. It's hard to think of a portrayal that fits the presumed criteria that isn't included.

Anyway, it's easy to criticise, without offering anything in return, so here's my list.

Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ)
Henry Ian Cusick (Gospel of John)
Christian Bale (Mary, the Mother of Jesus)
Jeremy Sisto (Jesus)
Martin Donovan (Book of Life)
Bruce Marchiano (Visual Bible: Matthew)
Willem Dafoe (Last Temptation of Christ)
Pier Maria Rossi (Il Messia)
Colin Blakely (Son of Man)
Max von Sydow (The Greatest Story Ever Told)
Enrique Irazoqui (Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo)
Robert Henderson Bland (From the Manger to the Cross)

I should add that I was mainly voting on the basis of the actor's performance given what they were asked to do. Admittedly there's some guess work as to where the actor's performance starts and teh direction ends, but even so that seemed to be the best way to do it. So, take Bruce Marchiano, in places some of the things he has clearly been asked to do are crass (e.g. emptying a jar of water on a disciple's head during the Sermon on the Mount), but a lot of his work is very good in my opinion.

Finally, a while back there was a discussion on Arts and Faith called "Who's Your Favourite Film Jesus?" which was also discussed at NT Gateway and Codex. For what it's worth I voted for Jim Caviezel, although I regret that now. Predictably, he and Robert Powell were way ahead of the rest. There's also another top ten Bible Films list at my favourite everything.