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The Jesus Films: The 1950s and 1960s—Mainstream Images

In the mid-1950s, James K. Friedrich’s company produced Frank Borzage’s The Big Fisherman, the story of Peter (played by Howard Keel) based on a novel by Lloyd C. Douglas, author of The Robe. By this stage of the 1950s, Jesus is once again offscreen, with only the suggestion of his presence by his hand or his garments. In The Big Fisherman, Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law. He also encounters Herod.

By the late 1950s, a decade in which biblical films became popular again, especially with the introduction of Cinemascope and other widescreen processes used for all kinds of historical epics, Jesus was becoming more visible. In 1951 came the first of the major Gospel epics, Quo Vadis. The title comes from an episode in which Peter wants to leave Rome to avoid the persecution of the Christians. On the Appian Way, Peter encounters Jesus. Peter asks Jesus where he is going. Jesus replies that he is going into Rome to be crucified. Peter, of course, turns back. Since this is all shown by light and sound, there is no characterization of Jesus. (During Peter’s preaching, there are some flashbacks to the Gospels, amongst them a Last Supper that is a re-creation of da Vinci’s painting.)

There is a Crucifixion scene in The Robe (1953), but it focuses on the slave Demetrius (Victor Mature), who kneels at the foot of the cross thus allowing the audience to see Jesus’ feet and his blood running down on Demetrius and on the centurion, Marcellus (Richard Burton), and the soldiers playing dice for Jesus’ seamless robe; Marcellus gazes at the crucified Jesus while the camera cranes from the ground to just behind the crossbeam.

Other biblical epics of the early to mid-1950s were not Jesus films. They focused on biblical characters with an emphasis on fiction: Salome (1953), The Silver Chalice (1954), and an elaboration of the parable of the prodigal son, The Prodigal (1955).

It was in this cinema context that Jules Dassin, working in Europe because of the blacklist, directed a Greek film that foreshadowed the kind of film made thirty years later. His striking version of Nikos Kazantzakis’ He Who Must Die (1958) is the story of a village putting on a Passion play. It is the 1920s and the Turks have occupied the town. A shepherd who stutters is chosen to portray Jesus, while the butcher who wanted that role is Judas. A crisis occurs when some uprooted people come to the town and the citizens resent them, persecuting them. The film becomes a Gospel allegory of what is happening in the town. Thirty years later The Last Temptation of Christ and Jesus of Montreal were released.

Before considering the English language and mainstream films that emerged during the 1950s, it is important to remember the Jesus films of the 1940s from Mexico. Spanish refugee to Mexico from the civil war, José Diaz Morales made Jesus de Nazareth in 1942. The cast list includes Jesus, Mary, the Magdalene, and the apostles as well as the Samaritan woman and the woman taken in adultery. Mexico had not taken the stand that Jesus could not be represented fully on-screen with Maria Magdalena, pecadora de Magdala (1946); Reina de reinas: La Virgen Maria (1948), edited from Maria Magdalena; and El martir del Calvario (1952).

Maria Magdalena, pecadora de Magdala

After World War II, Mexico produced Maria Magdalena, pecadora de Magdala. It was less than twenty years since Cecil B. DeMille’s The King of Kings, and DeMille’s film may have served as model/inspiration for director Miguel Contreras Torres. The King of Kings opens with Mary Magdalene and features her as a central character. However, the film becomes more of a Jesus film as Mary experiences her conversion and becomes Jesus’ most devoted disciple (the apostles, with the exception of Judas, relegated more to the crowd or the background).

Maria Magdalena opens in Egypt with a more or less irrelevant but spectacular episode in which a prince steals a jewel from a temple and flees to Israel. He becomes one of several of the Magdalene’s clients (presented as suitors). Judas, dressed rather affluently, also visits her. She herself lives as if she were in DeMille’s Cleopatra, having a palace for a rich and intelligent courtesan. The Magdalene becomes curious about Jesus, who passes by her house with a crowd and stops to look at her before moving on. She listens, unseen, to him speaking and then visits him. He preaches to her with reference to the Good Shepherd, and there is an exorcism, rather gently shown, in which inner Marys representing the deadly sins (lust being the last to come out of her) are imposed under Mary and are seen leaving her. From then on she wears modest dress, frees her slave, gives away her wealth, and is prominently present at Jesus’ ministry.

The opening of the film has captions on respect for the scriptures and a note identifying Magdalene with Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, which the Gospel does not do.

Jesus, played by Luis Alcoriza, at first seems quietly bland and somewhat passive, and looks like the Jesus of popular holy cards. At times he becomes a little more animated, even occasionally smiling. The thinking behind this representation of Jesus is that his divinity seems to demand that his humanity be restrained and dignified, quietly superhuman. This is shown as he simply lays on hands and heals the sick, then offers a pious raising of his eyes to heaven.

A nice touch is the Magdalene meeting Mary, the mother of Jesus, and their becoming friends, sharing in Jesus’ ministry, though the Magdalene gets most of the close-ups.

Because the Magdalene is identified with Mary of Bethany as well as the anonymous prostitute of Luke 7, the film can visualize this chapter of Luke where Simon invites Jesus to a meal and the woman anoints Jesus’ feet, enabling Jesus to speak of love and forgiveness. And the film can show Martha and Mary, almost in tableau, Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet and Martha (uncharacteristically) standing by silent. As with most Jesus films, the raising of Lazarus receives attention. This time Mary gets the lines that Martha speaks in John 11.

Other Gospel episodes include Jesus drinking wine and dining with the tax collectors and prostitutes and being criticized by the religious leaders, the feeding of the five thousand with a substantial multiplication of loaves and fishes, Mary anointing Jesus’ head at the meal at Bethany with Judas’ criticism, some preaching, and the giving of the Pater Noster with Mary and then the crowds falling on their knees with Jesus who prays with his hands raised.

Judas betrays Jesus and the high priests discuss what they are to do to capture Jesus. A large Star of David is seen on the back wall.

The film gives quite some attention to the events of the last week of Jesus’ life. The palm procession into Jerusalem tends toward a DeMille–style spectacle. The Last Supper is imitation da Vinci, though the apostles do join Jesus in a group embrace. With no women at the supper, the screenplay takes some time with an invented scene in which Jesus explains what is about to happen to his mother and speaks with the Magdalene outside the upper room. The Agony in the Garden and Jesus’ arrest are more or less as expected as is the rather briefer scene of Jesus before Caiaphas—with a short interlude by the fire where Peter denies Jesus.

Crowds accompany Jesus to Pilate, again with the expected scenes and treatment: Jesus’ silence; the leaders’ denunciations; Pilate’s questions; the scourging, thorns, and soldiers’ laughter and mockery; the statement “Behold the Man”; Pilate washing his hands. The road to Calvary is longer, reflecting the traditional devotion and the Stations of the Cross: Jesus falling, a reluctant Simon trying to lift the heavy cross and helping Jesus, Jesus meeting not only with his mother but also with the Magdalene when he falls, Veronica and the image on her cloth. A difference from the usual treatment is that Jesus has a rope around his neck so that he can also be dragged by the soldiers.

The nailing and Crucifixion do not stand out, and Jesus on the cross is like traditional art. The leaders mock. The good thief is promised paradise. Jesus entrusts his mother to John. The soldiers throw dice for the robe. There is, however, a special look of love and a smile for Mary Magdalene as she tells him she loves him with all her soul—and some of his blood splashes on her face. Jesus says, in Latin, “Consummatum est” and dies. What follows is apocalyptic darkness, lightning flashes, thunder, eruptions of fire and quakes, seas heaving, and pagan temples and statues collapsing. A bewildered leader, with a Star of David behind him, proclaims Jesus as the Messiah. Then quiet and tranquillity takes over, and Jesus is lifted from the cross. At this point cinematically, Mary Magdalene is allowed a superimposed series of flashbacks to her encounters with Jesus.

The tombstone catches fire, and Jesus emerges from the tomb like an icon. But this is not the end of the film. The Magdalene goes to the empty tomb with oil and flowers and encounters the risen Jesus. The climax honors Mary as the first witness to the Resurrection (a point made in the initial captions) and has her preaching the good news, giving her testimony.

The credit for the adaptation and the story for Maria Magdalene is given to Medea de Novara, who played the Magdalene.

Two years later, Miguel Contreras Torres made a similar film, Reina de reinas: La Virgen Maria, with the same cast, another version of a Jesus film.

El martir del Calvario

As The Robe was being produced in Hollywood, Mexico released a full Jesus film, El martir del Calvario.

To modern eyes the film looks very old-fashioned, but when compared with its contemporaries, especially The Pilgrimage Play and I Beheld His Glory, it is very similar in its staging of the Gospel events. The events look particularly staged, and the limited sets look like sets. Camera movement is limited and action is within the often static frame. It does not look like Judea or Galilee. El martir is also similar in the way that Jesus is portrayed, very much like popular religious art in appearance and manner, an otherworldly aloofness that is sometimes mellowed by a slight touch or a slight smile. On the whole, Jesus is the Son of God and quite solemn, with a rhetorical style, a blend of preaching and declamation. It is really a one-note interpretation.

One different feature is the emphasis on Mary, the mother of Jesus, dressed like a holy card or as in a nun’s habit. She features more than she does in the Gospels, Jesus visiting her in Nazareth, her presence at his preaching, and a rather longer encounter on the way to Calvary. She is at the foot of the cross but is seen in a striking long shot standing upright, holding on to the cross after Jesus has died.

In fairness to the Mexicans who produced El martir, there were principally silent presentations of Jesus as precedents, along with Maria Magdalena, pecadora de Magdala and Reina de reinas: La Virgen Maria (both of which are technically and imaginatively superior to El martir), and we do not know whether they saw the American evangelical films. King of Kings was still nine years away.

El martir is really a succession of Gospel episodes one quickly following the other without a sense of continuity of time or a sense of place except for the events of the last weeks of Jesus’ life in Jerusalem. It opens with Jesus walking ahead of his disciples to the Sea of Galilee, which is followed by the miraculous draft of fish, the call of Peter and the other fishermen, the healing of the paralytic, the encounter with the rich young man, and the apostles asking what they would get. Then immediately Peter’s mother-in-law is healed. This all seems to happen in one day. With a transition, Jesus is praying, crowds gather and Jesus delivers the beatitudes, the centurion asks for the healing of his servant, and Jesus is commissioning the apostles to feed the crowd. Jesus continues to bring out sizeable loaves from a small basket.

At this point, it seems that the whole film has been influenced by Maria Magdalena, pecadora de Magdala.

Some attention is given to the stories of Luke 4, but the setting is not in a synagogue as the Gospel tells us. Jesus is criticized, quotes Isaiah about the work of the Messiah, and then directly states that he is the Messiah. Jesus has previously visited his mother and explained his mission to her. The indignant crowd want to attack him, but he walks silently through them, only stopping to heal a blind boy and welcome the children (with a mellow touch of slightly hugging and holding them). This offers an occasion for Jesus to answer the questions of John the Baptist’s disciples about who he is.

After what seems only a short walk, he is at Jacob’s well and telling the Samaritan woman that he is the Messiah and suddenly encountering Martha, who tells him Lazarus is ill. This rapid succession of events without a grounding in the geography that even the Gospels spell out can be disconcerting—but, for an audience not versed in the details of the scriptures, it may not have mattered very much.

Suddenly, some DeMille–like episodes take place. The set for Mary Magdalene’s house is rather more lavish—and her dress more suggestive. To complicate matters, the screenplay deviates from the Gospels by making Mary Magdalene the sister of Martha and Lazarus (which excludes the use of Luke 11, where Jesus visits the sisters and Mary sits listening to him). In other films, Mary Magdalene is wrongly identified with the anonymous prostitute who anoints Jesus in Luke 7. With a text about the Good Shepherd, Mary is instantly converted from her ways, sees a halo behind Jesus, and hears the words of forgiveness from Luke 7:50. This enables the screenplay to move on to the death of Lazarus (Martha and Mary reuniting) and the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

Judas has been foremost amongst the apostles (and wearing an earing and looking somewhat effete compared with the rugged others). Judas spurns the poor and is interested only in Jesus becoming king of Israel. He urges a procession of palms and is dismayed when Jesus rides the donkey and goes to speak with a group of poor by the city walls.

The rest of the film focuses on the events of Holy Week and the Passion. The film also introduces Caiaphas and Annas (with a huge Star of David on the wall). The high priests are shocked when Jesus gets a rope and clears the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, even hitting some of them with the rope. This is quite a spectacular scene compared with the others. Jesus confronts the high priests with his challenge “Destroy this temple and I will raise it in three days.” With little warning, they bring in the woman taken in adultery and leave when Jesus challenges them to cast the first stone. The woman kisses the hem of Jesus’ garments, but he does not raise her up or touch her.

Judas then receives his thirty pieces of silver and plans the betrayal of Jesus. The Last Supper is a da Vinci imitation with Jesus raising the bread and wine like a priest at Mass. After a few words about his going to the Father, Jesus and his disciples leave for Gethsemane. The Agony in the Garden and the betrayal are much as expected by now—except that Jesus sees a special effect chalice as he prays and has some blood drops on his forehead. There is also some dramatic swordplay in the garden and Jesus heals Malchus. The set for the Sanhedrin is, in fact, very large, a quite spectacular and crowded gathering. The witnesses speak. Jesus is silent. He is slapped. Judas interrupts and makes a scene. Caiaphas leaves the dais, makes a long walk to Jesus, and judges him to have blasphemed.

The scenes with Pilate are comparatively short. The Jewish leaders stand outside the wall of Pilate’s house. Jesus speaks with Pilate, is scourged (with, as in The Passion of the Christ, Mary watching), is crowned with thorns, is mocked with genuflections by the soldiers, and is then brought to Pilate, “Behold the Man.”

Much more is made of the road to Calvary than in other films, perhaps reflecting Mexican devotion to the Stations of the Cross. The cross is very large, with its beam trailing in the dust of the road. Eventually, Simon offers to help Jesus (and seems to struggle to lift it despite his burliness, making us wonder how Jesus could carry it). Jesus meets his mother and speaks with her. Veronica wipes his face and is rewarded with the imprint on the towel. On Calvary, Jesus is nailed (with the camera showing the nails and Jesus’ hand but then, with the loud sound effects, showing the face of Mary, then the other hand nailed, with the hammer coming down but the hand just below the bottom of the screen, relying on suggestion rather than full view). Scenes audiences would expect are included: the soldiers playing dice, the taunts of the leaders, the good thief, Jesus entrusting Mary to John, the sip of vinegar. When Jesus bows his head and dies, lightning flashes, and there are apocalyptic scenes of thunder, wind, rain, fire in the Temple, and the crowds battened down to the ground because of the elements. Jesus hangs on the cross. Judas is seen swinging from his own gallows.

Pilate gives permission for the body to be taken away, and Jesus is taken down from the cross, being seen in a long shot Pietà. There is a substantial procession to the tomb. Soldiers guard it. Light appears in the stone (exactly as in Maria Magdalena), and accompanied by Resurrection music, Jesus appears as a risen icon and “Gloria” and “Alleluja” are sung.

In many ways, El martir del Calvario is basic Jesus movie making—snatches of preaching, few miracles, no parables. But for an audience from a Catholic country with a Hispanic tradition, this film would have fulfilled the expectations of filmgoers at the time. And when, as has been suggested, it is compared with the evangelical and Catholic films of the time, there is not a great deal of difference. (The complete film can be seen on YouTube in twelve sections in Spanish, but there are no English subtitles.)

Ben-Hur and Jesus’ Reappearance

The most striking of the films that re-introduced Jesus on-screen, if only with partial view, is William Wyler’s multi-Oscar-winning film of 1959, Ben-Hur, subtitled A Story of the Christ. Jesus is seen from the back, walking in the hills, as well as up on a hill for the Sermon on the Mount. There are Passion sequences and the Crucifixion, but Jesus’ face is always obscured, except for an angle shot of him on the cross. There are no close-ups.

However, Jesus appears in two significant and parallel sequences that emphasize his humanity and thus allow an audience to feel for him as a person and begin an identification process.

When Ben-Hur is arrested and sent to Rome, the chained prisoners march through desert landscapes, arriving at Nazareth. We see them through the open workshop window, noticing the arm of Jesus with a carpenter’s tool. But it is when the captain refuses water to the parched Ben-Hur that Jesus appears, first as a shadow cast on Ben-Hur when he has sunk to the ground and groans, “God help me.” Jesus gives him water and, then, with a close-up of his hand, he pours water on Ben-Hur’s head and brow, gently and soothingly. Jesus strokes Ben-Hur’s hair as he pours the water. This sequence has great emotional appeal. When confronted by the captain, Jesus stares him down and the captain withdraws, taking the prisoners on, while Jesus continues to gaze at them (although this is completely dramatized through the reactions of the captain and then of Ben-Hur, photographed over Jesus’ shoulder, showing only the back of his head).

This connection is made several times during the film. When Ben-Hur rescues the Roman consul, Arrius, after the battle with pirates, Arrius gives him a cup of water before he drinks it himself. Later, when Ben-Hur meets one of the Magi, Balthasar, on his way to hear Jesus preach, they stop at a stream and Ben-Hur recalls the water incident at Nazareth. But, he is sad over the fate of his mother and sister and says that the water should have flowed into the sand. But the fulfillment comes during Jesus’ walk to Calvary. Falling under the cross and in need of water, Jesus is comforted by Ben-Hur, who offers him water and recognizes Jesus as the stranger who once comforted him.

This is all part of a conversion experience for Ben-Hur, who later relates how he heard the Sermon on the Mount, followed Jesus to Calvary, witnessed his death, and understood that he had to let go of his bitterness and hatred. The screenplay also has Ben-Hur’s mother and sister being healed of their leprosy and given life, at the very moment that Jesus dies.

Charlton Heston lent his voice to an animated film version of the story in 2003. Scott McNeil was the voice of Jesus.

Ponzio Pilato and Barabbas

In the wake of the production of Ben-Hur at Cinecitta studios in Rome, several other biblical spectaculars were filmed there. Two of these—Ponzio Pilato and Barabbas—focused on the Passion of Jesus; like Ben-Hur these two are transition films, moving away from the absence of the face-on Jesus in the period between first King of Kings (1927) and Jeffrey Hunter’s appearance in the second King of Kings filmed in 1961, the same year as Ponzio Pilato and Barabbas.

Ponzio Pilato was one of the hybrid films so popular in Italy with a cast of Italians and Americans. It was codirected by Italian Gian Paolo Callegari (a writer of many sword-and-sandal epics popular at this time) and American Irving Rapper. French star Jean Marais (from Jean Cocteau’s films) portrays the governor on trial before Caesar, giving an account of his stewardship. The flashbacks of his rule in Judea culminate in the Passion of Jesus. He manipulates Judas into betraying Jesus, then judges Jesus, washes his hands of him, and orders him to be crucified. Jeanne Crain portrays Pilate’s wife, disturbed in dreams about Jesus and his death. American John Drew Barrymore is Jesus and is said to have “acted” the role of Jesus, though he is generally seen from the back or, finally, at a distance on Calvary.

There are two different and distinctive moments in Ponzio Pilato that are worth noting and seeing. Jesus has been photographed from the back in a deep conversation with Caiaphas (Basil Rathbone), the high priest quietly trying to persuade Jesus to relinquish his mission. Then, he is suddenly shown in close-up—but only of his eyes. They are eyes with an intense and penetrating gaze. Not long afterward when Pilate has been examining Jesus before the crowd, he washes his hands. As he looks into the bowl of water, Pilate sees the same piercing eyes of Jesus and the water turns to blood, an interesting and imaginative cinematic touch.

The more ambitious and significant film is Barabbas, also from 1961. This was a huge production, by producer Dino De Laurentiis, with a cast of both Italians and Americans. The director was American Richard Fleischer, a more than competent director of many films of diverse genres. In Barabbas he made a fine biblical epic. The screenplay was written by celebrated playwright Christopher Fry, who had contributed (uncredited) to Ben-Hur. He adapted a Swedish novel by Nobel Prize laureate Par Lagerkvist, which had already been filmed in Sweden in 1953 by Alf Sjoberg. It was reported that the Swedish version was sidelined to make way for the De Laurentiis version. The musical score consists of repetitions and variations on the plainchant Kyrie Eleison.

The screenplay takes the briefly mentioned brigand Barabbas and weaves the story of a man bewildered by what he saw of Jesus’ death, imprisoned for twenty years in the Sicilian sulphur mines, and then transformed into a champion gladiator—only to be tormented by the mystery of why he was saved and ultimately dying on the cross himself.

Jesus is seen far more clearly in the opening sequences of Barabbas than before. However, he is still presented as silent, someone to be observed with pity and dismay.

Barabbas opens with Pontius Pilate’s dilemma: to condemn Jesus or to let him go free. According to the customs of Jewish law, Pilate could release a prisoner because of the feast of the Passover. However, the crowd, incited by the religious leaders, clamor for the release of Barabbas. Barabbas is a scoundrel robber rather than a Zealot. (A later set piece of an ambush and robbery after Barabbas fights and kills a fellow robber dramatizes this.)

Pilate is seen here as a strong leader, making his demands. Jesus is seen, but at something of a distance, as a living icon, backstage so to speak, dressed in white with two guards standing by him. He is then scourged, the visuals of which are rather different from the usual. Jesus is squatting, hands bound and tied to a short pillar. After the scourging he still squats but, when untied, falls to the floor. He is raised up to be crowned with thorns and mocked. Humiliated and tortured, he then stands exposed to the hostile mob. The art direction has relied on traditional paintings of the Passion for the manner in which Jesus is dressed in a red robe and crowned with thorns.

Barabbas (Anthony Quinn) is released, and as he ascends the steps from the dungeon, pushed out to unexpected freedom, he is momentarily blinded by the light. He has a blurred vision of Jesus standing there. The glare fades, and he sees the condemned Jesus—the framing and design are like a traditional painting. As Barabbas makes his way from the praetorium, ignored by the crowds, he backs into a cross—and out of the Gospel accounts and into biblical fictions like this film.

Soon, Jesus is seen being loaded with the cross and beginning his way to Calvary. The screenplay makes a dramatic contrast between the freed Barabbas and the condemned Jesus, his friends at the tavern welcoming him back declare that since Jesus claimed to be king, they should crown Barabbas. He is enthroned as a mock king, broom for scepter and bowl for crown. Surveying his drunken kingdom, he chances to look out the window just as Jesus is passing, bearing his cross to Golgotha, and stops, shocked.

Soon, the afternoon light darkens and Barabbas, stumbling, wanders toward the crosses on the hill. The sun is eclipsed, the people shudder, and many run away, but the light comes back. Jesus is dead, taken down from the cross. There is a Pietà tableau, the focus on Mary who holds Jesus (his head away from the camera). Mary then gazes at the bewildered Barabbas. Jesus is buried in the garden and the stone is rolled against the door. Barabbas and his friend, Rachel, watch. Rachel predicts that Jesus will be alive on the morning of the third day. Her description of the Resurrection is rather apocalyptic: light in the sky, a horn, music, and a giant spear appearing in the sky.

While the interpretation of the Passion is acceptable to more literal, even fundamentalist interpretation, the fictional framework and the emphases on the contrast between Jesus and Barabbas offer the possibility of a more symbolic reading (as in the Gospels themselves) of such phenomena as the eclipse. Christopher Fry’s spare and reverent screenplay captures the spirit of the Passion narratives.

One of the features of Barabbas is its portrayal of early Christianity and the range of disciples that it presents. Audiences can gauge something of the way Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire and the effect on men and women, especially those who were slaves and prisoners.

In the earliest sequences of the film, we are introduced to Barabbas’ woman, Rachel, whose life has been transformed by Jesus. It is she who explains the death and the hope of Resurrection to Barabbas. She goes to the tomb early on the first day of the week and sees Jesus talking with Mary Magdalene but, like Mary, does not recognize him. Barabbas goes into the room mystified but soon takes a stance of skepticism.

However, Rachel’s significance in the film is as a martyr. She speaks out about Jesus, and the crowd and the religious leaders threaten her. She is dragged to a pit/quarry outside the walls. A blind man is forced to give testimony against her and cast the first stone. The scene, straight out of the Acts of the Apostles with the death of Stephen, is martyrdom by stoning.

The death of Rachel is one of the reasons for Barabbas’ desperate behavior with the robbers and the arresting soldiers. But Barabbas also visits the upper room and encounters Peter and some of the apostles. Peter is fiddling, mending nets. He explains something of who Jesus was and how they were to become “fishers of men” (a “serious joke,” he says). However, Barabbas is skeptical and meets a kindred spirit in Thomas. He knows from Rachel that Jesus urged people to “love one another.” Barabbas says, “And they crucified him for that?” This gives Peter the opportunity to explain Jesus as the risen Lord whose body, though real, has different qualities and powers from those Jesus had as he walked Judea.

More than twenty years after this, Barabbas encounters Peter the preacher in Rome and finds the strength and conviction to die, crucified, for the Jesus who had been the cause of his freedom and his years of imprisonment.

When Pilate had condemned Barabbas to the sulphur mines of Sicily, Barabbas had told Pilate that he could not die because Jesus had died in his place: “He has taken my death.”

The Gospel narratives have excited the imaginations of artists and storytellers for two thousand years. Barabbas fits into this imaginative reading. It is historical fiction. Barabbas is mentioned only very briefly in the Gospels but his memory is still alive. Barabbas means, literally, “son of the father.” It is most appropriate that he becomes a parallel/contrast for Jesus who is Son of the Father. The story of Barabbas is one of a chance for a new life, of atonement and redemption, of a personal salvation. It is presented in the form of a life journey, a life that should not have been lived beyond Good Friday, a life of pain and puzzlement to Barabbas, who could not understand why he had to live this life.

The Sin of Jesus

Any film with the title The Sin of Jesus is certainly to be noticed. However, this one is not available. Some details are found on the Internet Movie Database indicating that it was from 1961, ran for thirty-seven minutes, and included Julie Bovasso, Telly Savalas, and character actor Roberts Blossom in the cast. The director, Robert Frank, was born in Switzerland but moved to the United States where he worked as a photographer and then as a filmmaker; he worked with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg and later made a documentary about the Rolling Stones and adapted a story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Ivan Butler comments in his Religion in the Cinema,

The incredible story concerns a woman-servant in a hotel who is six months pregnant by the janitor. She has already had twins by him, and he now deserts her. She thereupon appeals to Jesus, who presents her with an angel-husband for four years, but stipulates that he must take off his wings before getting into bed. The woman gets drunk, and, heavy with child, rolls on top of the angel and kills him. Jesus is furious with her for smothering his angel, bawling at her with such Christ-like expressions as “You filthy scum!” Later He asks her forgiveness which she refuses. It is just conceivable that this farrago is intended to make some obscure comment after the manner of television “satire”—the question is how far offensiveness can sheer silliness can go before losing claim to even that dubious result. This is, at least, curiosity raising, especially when one commentator calls it “bleakly Bergmanesque.”1

Note

1. Ivan Butler, Religion in the Cinema (New York: A.S. Barnes, 1969), 46–47.