Podcast: Life of Brian (1979)

I've just posted September's podcast on Monty Python's Life of Brian.

The other 18 talks in this podcast are still available to listen to.

Paul Newman (1925-2008)

I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of my favourite actor of all time, Paul Newman. Newman started his acting career in 1954 with a stinker - The Silver Chalice - but never looked back. He brought to the screen some of the cinemas most memorable characters including Butch Cassidy, Henry Gondorff, Fast Eddie Felson and my favourite, Cool Hand Luke. I've seen 20 of the 60+ films he stared in and he was mesmerising in almost everyone. Even when the film itself had little to recommend it Newman turned up and put in a grent performance.

But it's his life off screen that impressed me most. He was famously married to Joanne Woodward for 50 years - almost unheard of in Hollywood. Whilst many of his colleagues in the fifties ruined themselves with drugs and drink he found his way to a steadier path. When he was faced with huge personal tragedy when his son, Scott, died of an overdose, he started a drug abuse prevention centre in his memory. And as he grew older he not only gave generously to charity, but had the foresight to start businesses in his name that would generate wealth for charities on his behalf.

I'm saddened that I don't have the time right now to write down all I would like to say about Paul Newman, but it's late and I need to go home to my wife. I think he would have approved.

Mary, Mother of Christ: An Update from Barbara Nicolosi

Back in January 2007, MGM gained the rights to Benedict Fitzgerald's screenplay Myriam, Mother of the Christ. Despite the fact it was lined up for an Easter 2008 release date, there's been almost no news about it at all, save the occasional detail about Fitzgerald's law suit against Mel Gibson.

But yesterday, Barbara Nicolosi, resurfaced to announce that not only had she just handed in the fifth rewrite of the script, but that it had also just changed it's title to the more obvious Mary, Mother of Christ (see IMDB page). Here's what she had to say:

I submitted probably the fifth version of the rewrite today. I think the thing is amazingly better than it was two weeks ago. ("Amazingly better"? Yeah, I have no words left with which to think or express myself.) Hopefully, the producers will agree and I will have a break for a bit.

It was cool to see that the production company has entered a listing for the project here. I can't say a lot about the project yet. I can say it has some wonderfully profound theological moments that hearken back to The Passion of the Christ in style.

I have two or three other projects which could be listed up on IMDB, but for some reason the producers are cagey about doing that. Now, that I'm really up there, I've become obsessed with getting the others up. This is that Hollywood disease, I think. But, as we say in the biz, it is an honor just to have a listing.

Quite. Not really sure what to make of the final line of the second paragraph. Jeffrey Overstreet credits Nicolosi with "talking Mel Gibson into adding flashbacks to The Passion of the Christ" and Fitzgerald obviously wrote that film's screenplay, but at the same time comparing your movie to that film is par for the course of promoting a Bible film these days. And calling parts of your own screenplay "wonderfully profound" seems to rubs me up the wrong way. But then we British are pretty squeamishness about anything other than self-deprecation.

Nevertheless, it's good to hear that this film, at least, is still on track. Thanks to Peter Chattaway (IMDB page) for spotting the story.

Trial Of The Knights Templar

Having reviewed the three other entries in Channel Five's religious documentary series Secrets of the Cross, I thought that, for the sake of completeness, I would offer a few comments on tonight's programme Trial Of The Knights Templar.

I don't have a great deal of knowledge about the Templars. In fact, I'm ashamed to say that most of what I have been told about them came from "The Da Vinci Code" and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. So as something of novice I'm hoping tonight's episode was at least as accurate as the earlier entries were.

Having said all that, had I sat down and made a list of all the topics I thought this programme would cover I would have got a good deal of it correct. So talk of their trade in relics, the Holy Grail and the Turin Shroud occupy the programme's early stages. This then leads back into a more detailed look at the Crusades. But, for a modern documentary, the approach the filmmakers took was most unusual. Instead of telling the usual tales of crusader violence towards Muslims, Jews, and even other Christians, the Templars were treated far more deferentially. Whilst this approach may have been in vogue 50 years ago, its rare that anyone praises the crusaders for anything these days. Whilst it certainly wasn't a whitewash, it did feel a little odd.The film then turns its attentions to the fall of the Templars at the hands of Philip IV. Here we are told about the power hungry king and a weak and vacillating pope. Philip was in debt to the Templars and so charged them with heresy to get them out of the way. Pope Clement absolved the Templars (even despite a damning, and recently re-discovered, report into their initiation ceremonies) but was ultimately unable to save them from Philip's schemes.

It's to the film's credit that during its final section, which examines what became of the Templars and their still undiscovered wealth, it never once mentions Opus Dei, or "The Da Vinci Code". All of which leaves me with the impression that it may, actually, be reasonably trustworthy, and Wikipedia, at least (!), broadly agrees with the programme's presentation.

Once more, the visuals are fairly impressive, and whilst the score for this series was starting to become a little tiresome overall, it was no less effective here than in any of the other episodes.

Bible Society Releases Passion DVD

The Bible Society released their resources on BBC1's The Passion today. The major news in their 3 disc DVD (above right) which contains all four episodes and a number of extras. The site actually gives two list of extras, one for teachers and the other for churches, and it's a little unclear as to whether this means that you can opt for one or the other or whether both lots of extras are included in the one set. What is clear is that the third disc is actually a CD-ROM, the notes from which are available to purchase pre-printed (above left).

The full list of extras are listed as follows:

For Teachers:
DVD features special Clips for Schools menus, giving instant access to clips identified in the classroom resources.

The CD-ROM - features a range of RE creative learning activities produced by top educational writers and advisors providing

* Fully developed classroom resources linked to film clips for Key Stage 3, GCSE and 16+ general RE - all keyed into national guidelines and criteria for learning objectives and assessment.
* Worksheets and handouts to project and copy.
* Reflective activities and discussion starters.
* Ideas for collective worship and animated slide show suitable for collective worship and class use.
* A unique, dramatic and inspiring perspective on the person of Jesus, Holy Week and Easter and the Christian faith.
* Creative viewing and thinking strategies using the DVD.
* Certificate 12, Region 2 PAL, Length: 180 mins.
* Includes English subtitles.
* Teaching resources also available separately as a 44-page printed book.

For Churches:
* The CD-ROM features a range of stimulating and creative resources to integrate the BBC series in your church, home group, Lent programmes and Christian enquirers' groups.
* Step-by-step discussion guide through all four episodes with the option of dividing the material into six Lent sessions.
* Reflective activities and creative discussion starters.
* Creative viewing and thinking strategies using the DVD.
* Ideas for use in worship

One bonus of this release is that "the DVD may be shown in home, educational, church and cultural settings provided there is no admission charge" which is actually very rare.

The BBC DVD goes on sale next month, but at the same price (RRP£19.99) and seemingly without this sets host of extras I'm not really sure what the point is. It does have better cover art (I don't really like this set's cover at all), and I suppose it may be available more cheaply. For example Amazon are selling it for just £12.98 at the minute.

Bible Films that Never Were

Cecil B. DeMille's name will forever be associated with the biblical epic even though he only ever made three and a half films based on the Bible - his two versions of The Ten Commandments (1923¹ and 1956), his Jesus film The King of Kings and 1949's Samson and Delilah. Indeed, given that Samson and the second Ten Commandments were two of the last three movies he ever made , it's a reputation he might never have earned at all. True, there were a number of other ancient epics in his seventy-film canon, but it was those last two films in particular, that cemented his place in the popular imagination as the man that made biblical epics.

However, I've been reading Robert S. Birchard's "Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood" recently, and one of the appendices lists the veteran director's unrealised projects. Given the vast number of movies he made, it's surprising that there are only twelve sucfilms, but it's interesting that four of them are Bible films.

The first of these is The Deluge which I discussed last year. DeMille was considering making the film in the late 20s, but when it became apparent that Michael Curtiz was already making Noah's Ark he switched his attention to The King of Kings instead. Aspiring filmmakers considering adapting the story of Noah take note.

The second film on Birchard's list was Esther (or The Story of Esther) and he notes that MacKinlay Cantour was working on this in the summer of 1934². Birchard doesn't say anymore, but given that this was the same year that DeMille directed Cleopatra, my guess is that he ultimately decided he could only handle one heroine-driven ancient epic at a time.

There's a good deal more information on Queen of Queens, DeMille's planned story of Jesus's mother, (though it's hard to believe that such a title would ever have been taken seriously).

Jeannie Macpherson worked on the script from November 20, 1939 to July 27, 1940. William C. DeMille also worked on the script from March 4, 1940 to June 7, 1941, and William Cowan wrote on the project from September 3 to October 9, 1940. Queen of Queens met some resistance from the Catholic Church , and the film was never scheduled for production.³

Lastly, Birchard tell us that Macpherson also started work on a script for the story of King David, Thou Art the Man.⁴ This was six years before David and Bathsheba reached the screen with its take on David's adultery, so it seems unlikely that once again DeMille had been put off by a similar project at another studio. Perhaps, given his long-standing desire to bring Samson's story to the screen he decided to focus on that instead.

Aside from the list of DeMille's films-that-never-were, I was also interested to read that Steve Reeves and Cary Grant had both been considered for the leading role in Samson and Delilah. Reeves is not in the least surprising, given that he went on to play Hercules and Goliath, but it's incredible to think that any kind of consideration was ever given to Grant. Of course, the whole point of the Samson and Delilah story is that the source of Samson's strength isn't obvious. So it wouldn't have been inconceivable for Grant to play him, but when you look at the final film, and it's emphasis on, and love for, Mature's oiled torso, it's hard to imagine Grant in that same role.

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On a not unrelated note, Eric David of Christianity Today has written a short piece on French director Robert Bresson which claims that he was initially approached to direct Dino de Laurentiis' The Bible: In The Beginning.

In the mid 1960s, Dino de Laurentiis planned a series of films based on the Bible, featuring top directors of the day, including Huston, Visconti, Welles and Fellini. When Bresson, slated to direct Genesis, told de Laurentiis that he planned to film it in Hebrew and Aramaic, and wouldn't show any animals on Noah's Ark, only their footprints in the sand, he was fired. Huston took over and The Bible: In The Beginning, was released, but did not perform well enough to justify the other directors helming their respective films. Bresson yearned to film Genesis the rest of his life, but it never came to pass.

That would certainly have made for a very different film, but given that Bresson instead went on to direct his masterful Christ-figure film Au hasard Balthazar that same year, and that Huston's version has so much to commend it, it may well have all been for the best.

Saint or Sinner Review at ReJesus and CTVC Trial of the Templars Page

I've just got a couple more pieces on Channel 5's Secrets of the Cross series. Firstly, following my review here for Mary Magdalene: Saint or Sinner?, I have written a second, quite different review for rejesus.

Secondly, producers CTVC have uploaded a page on their website about their final entry in the series Trial of the Templars. Here's their summary

Mysterious warriors in The Da Vinci Code, the real Knights Templar have been shrouded in mystery for 900 years... A corporation of Christian Crusaders condemned by the lies and disloyalty of their allies, the Templars are inseparable from the legendary Holy Grail. In an eerie story taking us from Paris and Avignon to ancient tunnels under Jerusalem, a shocking manuscript unearthed in the Vatican shows that the Templars were liquidated by an extremist with a Christ complex, amid a tale of corporate greed. Though viciously tortured by the King of France, did the Templars ultimately aid in their own destruction..?

I'm going to wait until I've seen this before deciding whether to review it and if so where. It's not a Jesus film as such so I may leave commenting on this episode to others.

Edit: The CTVC website now has short excerpts from reviews at The Sunday Times, the Mail and the Express, though strangely I've not been able to find those reviews at those paper's websites.