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The Jesus Films: The 1990s

With such a wealth of material from the 1970s and the creative burst at the end of the 1980s, the question for the 1990s was whether anything new or creative could appear. The 1990s were marked by the effect of the video revolution. Many local groups made their own films, amateur and professional. It was at the end of the decade, with the impending millennium, that studios and production companies moved again into Jesus films.

La belle histoire

La belle histoire (1992) is perhaps influenced by Jesus of Montreal and the idea of having the Gospel story alive in contemporary times. French director Claude Lelouch (who won an Oscar for his A Man and a Woman) presents three stories with the same characters. The hero of the 1990s story is a gypsy named Jesus (Gerard Lanvin). The heroine is his childhood friend Mary (Marie-Sophie L). However, they also appear in a story set in Gospel times, paralleling the familiar narrative. Lelouch sees this as a beautiful, recurring story. (Others have interpreted it as reincarnation.) The film, which runs over three hours, was not a success at the box office.

The Visual Bible: Matthew, Acts

The Visual Bible project was begun in 1993 with Matthew, directed by Regardt van den Bergh. It was filmed in South Africa. Once again the whole text of the Gospel is seen and dramatized. It is seen as a sympathetic interpretation of Jesus, lightened by a little horseplay (as in Roger Young’s 1999 Jesus with Jeremy Sisto). As played by Bruce Marchiano, Jesus is particularly cheerful, often grinning and laughing (perhaps sometimes unexpectedly as at the Sermon on the Mount), but he also has a pronounced American accent compared with most of the other characters, like Peter, who speak with a South African accent. This is not exactly the Jesus of Matthew’s Gospel. While he does welcome the children and urges his disciples to do likewise, the Jesus of Matthew tends to be straightforward, a no-nonsense Jesus, a no-frills Jesus. Pier Paolo Pasolini certainly took this view in his classic version.

The film opens with an old Matthew (played by Richard Kiley) reminiscing about his life and using a nonbiblical text as an explanation of his background in Capernaum as a tax collector and giving witness of how Jesus was the longed-for Messiah, the fulfillment of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. He is then seen dictating to two scribes what was to become the Gospel. This device is used throughout the whole film, the action moving backward and forward from visualizing the Gospel story to details of Matthew’s life: his home, his friends, other children, walking in the hills, day sequences, and night sequences. As a welcome dramatic variation, Matthew also voices some of the sayings of Jesus, alternating with Bruce Marchiano. Richard Kiley has a clear diction and speaks Jesus’ words as well as the narrative with a strong gravitas.

With the film using the complete text of the Gospel, audiences know the story and its development and can be checking with a printed text as the film proceeds. The film also has the Bible references as subtitles on-screen as the narrative develops.

The film gets over the detail of the genealogy by showing Matthew at work as he names the ancestors. The transition is then to a young, smiling Joseph who hesitates on seeing the pregnant Mary. An interior voice speaks the words of the angel, Joseph at first blocking his ears. The infancy narratives move rapidly at this stage, showing an affectionate Joseph with the baby Jesus. The Magi come to a bustling Bethlehem and then visit Herod and experience quite a dramatic questioning. They come and offer their gifts and then return. The massacre of the innocent children is always dramatic, and there are the usual soldiers, swords, and babies here—as well as a very sad Matthew telling the story. When Herod dies, Mary and Joseph are lit as the angel gives them a voiceover message to return to Nazareth.

Jesus makes his first adult experience, all smiles already, while the Baptist is at the Jordan (with more of a British accent) preaching to some passive listeners and some rather fat Pharisees. John clasps Jesus’ face and Jesus nods, is baptized by immersion. This version does not show a dove at all, and Matthew describes the voice from heaven. Matthew also supplies the voice of Satan for the temptations in the desert, alternating with a very weak Jesus’ responses and rebukes after forty days of fasting.

The limitations of Gospel text as screenplay now become more apparent as events move dramatically and quickly: Jesus calling the fishermen apostles, immediate healings—although this Jesus is vigorously charming with children and the elderly. The charm continues through the key chapters, 5–7, with the Sermon on the Mount. There is a whole lot of laughing going on—with the statements on salt and other images, like the plank in the judgmental eye—and Jesus standing with hand on hip or moving briskly around. However, with the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus becomes quite serious.

Matthew 8 contains a series of miracles including close-ups of Jesus’ concern for the leper and the centurion riding in on horseback. With the storm on the lake, Jesus is very wet but there are guffaws of relief when the storm is calmed. What follows is a mixture of preaching, affection for the children, the raising of Jairus’ daughter, and the kindly bending down to the woman with the hemorrhage who wants to touch the hem of Jesus’ cloak. As the screen scenes move from the Gospel back to Matthew and then to Jesus, the locations for Jesus’ activity are varied: at the lake, with children, around a campfire, in the cornfields where they are caught picking grain on the Sabbath by the spying Pharisees, and in the synagogue where Jesus heals the man with a withered hand after being interrogated superciliously by the religious leaders.

Matthew 13 is a long chapter containing many parables and explanations. Jesus teaches from a boat. While it is not in the text as such, the film shows Mary Magdalene listening to Jesus behind a grille as he speaks of judging people by their fruit. The film also adds its own detail to the swirling dance of Herodias’ daughter and the head of John the Baptist on the platter.

As the film goes on, Jesus becomes more vigorous, yelling at the fearful disciples who thought he was a ghost walking on the lake. At the beginning of chapter 15, we are surprised to see him laboring in a field, shirtless.

Jesus takes pity on the plea of the Syrophoenician mother for her daughter’s health and on the crowds (very large), grinning while multiplying the loaves and fishes. With Peter’s profession of faith in chapter 16 (extremely South African sounding), they are on the move, Jesus laughing as he promises the keys of the kingdom to Peter and hugging him even as he says, “Get behind me, Satan” when Peter hopes to protect Jesus. The vision of Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration is rather literal, although the experience itself is a climbing one, up the mountain.

At this stage, with eleven more chapters to go, the film heightens some of the activity: walking through a flock as Jesus talks about the shepherd and the lost sheep, the rich young man coming on horseback and riding off dejected, seeing laborers in the vineyard, Jesus hopping on a wagon to talk about marriage and divorce, Jesus holding up a child to illustrate who was greatest in the kingdom of heaven—and Jesus and the apostles indulging in horseplay under a waterfall. Jesus riding into Jerusalem receives enthusiastic crowd acclaim, and the whipping of the buyers and sellers in the Temple is in slow motion. An interesting variation is the story of the unjust steward with Peter and Jesus acting it out in action and in word.

In moving toward the Passion, Matthew has a number of parables and preaching about apocalyptic times. The parable of the talents is visualized. The anointing of Jesus by Mary is the moment when Judas is introduced as a specific character, although it is several of the disciples who criticize the waste of money with the expensive oil.

The Passion sequences are treated more familiarly—though, for a change and relief, the Last Supper is not modeled on da Vinci. In Gethsemane, Jesus gasps, cries, weeps. The pain of Jesus in the Passion is suggested by his extremely bruised and battered face. There are close-ups of Jesus’ face when he is nailed. A glimpse of Mary, not in the text, is added.

Jesus’ final cry is more of a scream, and Matthew’s voice emphasizes the apocalyptic imagery on-screen. Jesus is seen being taken down from the cross in a silhouette. For the last chapter, Matthew describes the Resurrection rather than the film dramatizing anything. What is seen is Jesus encountering the Magdalene and raising her up and the guards being bribed to say that the body was stolen.

At the end, with his exhortation to go out to the nations, preach the good news, and baptize, Jesus looks out at the audience, walks, and looks back, smiling and beckoning everyone to follow him as a choir sings “Alleluia.”

This version of Matthew comes from an evangelical perspective. Its aim is to present Jesus as a credible and sympathetic human being who is on a mission from God. While some aspects of the Gospel are presented literally, it is still an interpretation of the text and the filmmakers have tried hard not to have the audience feel that they are bogged down in a great deal of serious preaching. In that, it succeeds, helped immeasurably by Kiley’s dignified but attractive reading of the text as well as in the surprise of Marchiano’s Jesus smiling and laughing so much.

The next project was a film version of the Acts of the Apostles, simply called Acts. It runs for 183 minutes and covers the whole text of the New Testament book. Jesus does not appear very much after his ascension in the first chapter. He is played by Bruce Marchiano, from Matthew, once again very cheerful as he was in the Gospel film. Jesus’ appearance is limited in the Acts of the Apostles to his being seen in Galilee by the disciples and his ascension into heaven, which is rendered quite literally here. Peter is played by James Brolin and Paul by Henry O. Arnold, an actor and writer of religious-oriented films, including The Second Chance and a documentary on Billy Graham. The director was again South African, Regardt van den Bergh.

Acts uses the device of the older Luke (Dean Jones) remembering his life and recalling the events, the same technique as was used in Matthew with Richard Kiley as the older Matthew.

The third installment of the Visual Bible was The Gospel of John, an ambitious project that will be considered later.

The Gospel According to Jesus

This film is a 1995 production with selected Gospel readings by well-known Americans, including Maya Angelou, Deepak Chopra, Judy Collins, Andrew Greeley, Tim Robbins, and Susan Sarandon, followed by discussion and theological reflection.

The Revolutionary: Parts I and II

Another venture in the mid-1990s was a two-part film on the public life of Jesus, the first focusing on his preaching, the second on his miracles. Written by Joyce Marcarelli, who had written a number of religious documentaries, and directed by Robert Marcarelli, who was to direct The Omega Code, it was produced by Paul Crouch Sr., who founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), which promotes more evangelical programs and films, many with an immediate apocalyptic perspective. British actor John Kay Steel portrayed Jesus.

The TBN also produced two concert films in the mid-1990s, featuring a large array of artists and the actor Danny York. TBN tends toward a strong patriotism as well as an evangelical interpretation of the Bible, which grew more apocalyptic as the millennium approached. The two concert films indicate the tone: The Glory of the Resurrection and The Glory of America (both 1996).

Mary, Mother of Jesus

While Mary, Mother of Jesus (1999), directed by Kevin Connor, is a Mary film, the portrayal of Jesus is significant and substantial. Made with the millennium in mind (as was the telemovie Jesus, which will be discussed in the next section), it was screened on American television in 1999. Mary is portrayed by Danish actress Pernilla August (who, ironically, in the same year appeared as the mother of Annikin, later Darth Vader, in George Lucas’ The Phantom Menace).

The initial focus is, of course, on Mary in Nazareth, the Annunciation, the visitation, Joseph’s acceptance of her pregnancy, the census in Bethlehem, and the birth of Jesus (with both shepherds and the Magi, who have met Herod and then avoid him), the Massacre of the Innocents and the flight into Egypt. Mary, it should be said, is what they call “feisty,” a strong-minded girl who defies the Romans, witnesses the death by stoning of a woman caught in adultery, and speaks her mind to Joseph—she’s a strong role model for her son.

Jesus himself appears as a boy on the way back from Egypt. The screenplay posits many years in Egypt. Jesus has a touch of precocious awareness about him as he asks his parents about the law of an eye for an eye. This is emphasized with his being lost in Jerusalem and his discussions with the religious leaders. He tells his parents, “I thought you would know where to find me!” Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband, comments to Mary and Joseph how wise their son is.

However, back in Nazareth, there is some inventive storytelling. Mary tells her son the story of the Good Samaritan and, later, he will tell her that he knows how to teach with the stories she told him. However, the local kids think he is stuck up and fight him, giving him a bloody nose. Jesus does not retaliate.

When he grows up, Jesus is more popular, especially in his carpentry work and satisfying his customers, allowing them to pay when they can.

There is also the death scene for Joseph. Elizabeth comes to visit and Jesus looks on quietly and thoughtfully. As Joseph dies, he tells Mary, “Everything he is—you made him what he is.”

The rest of the film shows us Mary and Jesus in the Gospel episodes where they appear together. Christian Bale portrays Jesus in quite a low-key performance. He is strong minded, not immediately prone to smiles or laughter, a serious man who accompanies his mother to the Jordan and, at her encouragement, is baptized and recognized by John as well as by some of those who will become the twelve apostles. He also quietly tells his mother that he must go away to the desert to prepare himself for his mission. He says he heard God’s voice when he was a boy in Jerusalem and now he has to go away for God’s guidance. Mary did not accompany her son during the forty days and forty nights, so we just see him returning, ready to preach and with some disciples.

The key Gospel story of Mary is that of the wedding feast at Cana. It is dramatized in the familiar way, quite straightforwardly with Jesus hesitating—and his mother not hesitating. She knows her own mind and her son’s. In a lighter touch, they join in the dancing. Mary is also present when, as in Luke 4, Jesus goes back to Nazareth to read from the scroll—but the screenplay takes the text further and Jesus speaks the words from John 6 about being the bread of life. He receives the same contempt: that they know who he is, his parents and family, and Mary who is there in the synagogue.

The other Gospel story is that where Mary and others want to see Jesus while he is preaching and he declares that those who believe are his mother, brothers, and sisters. We observe this from Mary’s point of view, outside the area where Jesus is teaching. While Mary realizes that Jesus includes all his followers as his disciples, one of them takes what he said very much amiss. Then Jesus comes out and embraces his mother.

The Passion is presented briefly and rather quickly. Jesus speaks to his mother, after riding the donkey into Jerusalem, about the journey that both he and she have been traveling. There is a glimpse of Jesus before Pilate, but the focus is on Jesus carrying the crossbeam, like a halter, and falling. In these sequences, Bale’s face expresses intensely what Jesus is going through. After the nailing, there is the brief word from John 19 entrusting Mary to John’s care.

Jesus speaks the words of forgiveness, that his mission is finished, and then he commends his spirit to his father. When he is taken down from the cross, his mother cradles him. After the Resurrection, he appears to his mother, distant and on a roof where he appears glorified. He does not speak but disappears from view.

This portrayal of Jesus draws on the tradition of Jesus films. However, Bale’s quiet dignity makes us wonder what he would have been like in a full Jesus film.

Other Mary Films

Two other Mary films appeared in the mid and later 1990s. The first was French, Marie de Nazareth (1995). Veteran French director Jean Delannoy, who had made respectful films about Bernadette of Lourdes, Bernadette (1988) and La Passion de Bernadette (1989), took up a suggestion of John Paul II to make a film on Mary like Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth. There was no budget for a project that size, and Delannoy was ageing (eighty-six to eighty-seven while filming, though he died in 2008 at the age of one hundred). Jesus appears more as infant and child. The film is rather pious in its presentation of Mary, then begins to move more rapidly toward the end and the Crucifixion, relying somewhat on familiar images of the Passion and tableaux (again, perhaps because of time and budget constraints).

The other film was an Italian drama on Mary, with a theological conundrum in its title, Maria, figlio del suo figlio (Mary, Daughter of Her Son), playing on physiology and sanctification. It is an almost three-hour telemovie, covering the whole of Mary’s life according to the Gospels and some of the apocryphal Gospels with Israeli model turned actress Yael Abecassis as Mary and Australian model Nicholas Rogers (only two years younger than Abecassis) as a conventional Jesus.

A 2002 film, Mary and Joe, directed by John Hamilton, portrays a contemporary Jewish couple in New York City who are parents waiting for the coming of the Messiah and whose experience parallels that of the Gospel Mary and Joseph. Hamilton had World Vision and Rotary amongst his clients for film and video production. With this humanitarian background, he also lectures in cinema at the Christian college Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles County.

As of this writing, Mary, Mother of Christ (working title, Myriam, Mother of Christ) has been in pre-production since 2009. The script is by Barbara Nicolosi and Benedict Fitzgerald (writer of The Passion of the Christ). Camilla Belle has been cast as Mary. A high-powered cast includes Jessica Lange, Al Pacino, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Peter O’Toole.

Jesus (United States, 1999)

At first, Jesus (directed for American television by Roger Young, who made several of the telemovies on Jewish scripture characters like Joseph) might seem like a throwback to the 1960s, another attempt at “realism.” However, it benefits from the influence of the stylized images of Jesus during the 1970s. This is immediately evident as the film opens with contemporary battle scenes that startle the viewer. In fact, it is a dream (or vision) that Jesus has, a kind of recurring dream that takes him into the future, glimpsing the sin and evil of the centuries—Crusades, World War I, and so on—for which he must sacrifice his life. The most striking use of this stylization is in the sequences of the temptations in the desert, with images of contemporary poverty and hunger, and the Agony in the Garden with even more detail of the Crusades, the burning of a witch, as well as Jesus and Satan walking through the gunfire in a bombed town. In the desert a scarlet woman first appears and taunts Jesus with his human condition, inviting him to empty himself of his divinity, of his Father. Jeroen Krabbe then appears playing Satan dressed in a black suit and, again, offering Jesus tempting modern visions of power that resonate with a contemporary audience. He tells Jesus it has only just begun. He returns even more vengeful for those scenes at the Agony in the Garden.

Contemporary and Relevant

This Jesus film is an attempt to make the Jesus story contemporary and relevant.

The screenplay also gives a great deal of time to the Roman background of the times, with Pontius Pilate (Gary Oldman) center screen along with G. W. Bailey as Livio, a smiling but sinister courtier, adviser, and spy who runs between Herod and Pilate, ingratiating himself into their confidence. He is able to explain the Palestine situation to Pilate, as well as the situation with Caiaphas and the Temple, the Zealots, and the “Messiah.” In an intriguing link between the two parts of the miniseries presentation, Livio indulges Pilate and his guests in a piece of theater poking fun at Jesus cleansing the Temple of the buyers and sellers (which has just preceded it). In this brief sequence, the attitude of the contemptuous Romans who heckle, laugh, and catcall is arrestingly communicated. Pilate leads the jeering. By the time of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, Livio is much more serious, advising Pilate to kill Jesus, acting as counselor to Herod during Jesus’ visit to him. Finally, at the foot of the cross, Livio’s malice is complete: on hearing Jesus say that they know not what they do, he retorts, “We know exactly what we’re doing, Messiah. We’re killing you.”

With the creation of Livio as well as Caiaphas’ assistant, Jared, writer Suzette Couture takes a leaf out of the screenplay of Jesus of Nazareth, benefiting by introducing fact-based fictitious characters who can provide necessary information for the audience and heighten the conflict and drama.

Jesus’ Humanity

The striking feature of this Jesus is his humanity. Jeremy Sisto (only twenty-four during filming) plays Jesus as a genial, very charmingly genial, man prone to emotions including anger, but someone who is able to joke, to laugh heartily (and splash his companions at the fountain), to dance at the wedding feast of Cana, and to be good company as well as a charismatic leader. His version of the Sermon on the Mount is an interactive lesson—Jesus offers a beatitude idea and individuals in the crowd ask questions or make suggestions. Some of them are jokey and Jesus seems to be enjoying himself, laughing and responding, a little in the vein of a stand-up comic who is a good teacher. This Jesus is able to gauge people’s reactions very well and can move seamlessly from humor to serious instruction or exhortation.

This is a breakthrough from presentations of Jesus that seem afraid to let him be seen smiling, let alone laughing. This film also works on the premise that Jesus is consciously aware of his divinity. Jesus is seen to pray, to refer matters to his Father. This is presented solemnly in the raising of Lazarus (where, unfortunately, the dialogue attributed to Martha and Mary in John 11 is reversed; in fact it is to Martha, not Mary, to whom Jesus reveals he is the Resurrection and the life). The screenplay’s overall ability to combine humanity with divinity should please theologians.

The television style uses plenty of close-ups of Jesus. Sisto adopts a quiet tone, almost underplayed at times, as in the scene where he is left alone with the woman taken in adultery. Mary Magdalene has witnessed Jesus’ behavior and is stunned. Jesus sees her and invites her to follow him. She protests that she is free. Jesus casually and quietly says, “You’re not free.” And then in a comfortably conversational way adds, “But, you could be.” Later, Mary says that his father would be proud of him. “Which one?” asks Jesus. “Both.”

The celibacy issue is nicely handled. Mary of Bethany is in love with Jesus. Martha and Lazarus act as matchmakers. Jesus’ dialogue explaining that his call in life must be without Mary is brief, compassionate toward her, but quite convincing.

Many episodes are omitted, including miracles and parables. Some that are included are unexpected. The calming of the storm after the walking on water is a bit literal visually but the point is made about little faith and Jesus puts his arm around Peter as they return to the boat. Also included is the encounter with the Syrophoenician woman. After Jesus agrees to heal her daughter, the disciples question whether he should be healing foreigners. Jesus remarks, “If I can learn, so can you.”

A Credible Jesus

The selection of episodes means that the makers of this Sisto Jesus have read the potential audience correctly. For believers, this is not only a credible Jesus; it is a pleasing Jesus that they can relate to. For the devout, it is a nicely effective shock to appreciate this “real” Jesus. Robert Powell charmed audiences with his presence, his down-to-earth dignity. Jeremy Sisto makes his audience more comfortable in the presence of Jesus and able to make the transition to his “godliness” more readily.

The film also gives a great deal of attention to Mary, the mother of Jesus, played with dignity and calm by Jacqueline Bisset, a beautiful and mature woman. We see her at Nazareth with Joseph, who is kind with a touch of the crusty, as when he wonders why of all women Mary was chosen and keeps muttering “angel?” We see Mary waking Jesus up and then giving him the gifts of the Magi. She goes with him in his mission, reassuring him when he has moments of anxiety or doubt. She also befriends Mary Magdalene (whose conversion experience and discipleship are accurately but unobtrusively developed). Mary accompanies Jesus in his Passion, and we see her in Pietà tableau (with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem on the soundtrack).

Passion and Resurrection

A lot of running time is given to the final week of Jesus’ life, the triumphant entry into Jerusalem and Caiaphas consulting the Sanhedrin, reminding those who witnessed the raising of Lazarus, that it could be a fraud, that the dead do not rise (as a Sadducee, he did not believe in resurrection). Caiaphas also discusses the issue with Pilate and with his close assistant, agreeing that it is better for one man to die for the whole nation. Meantime, there is a powerful scene in which Judas makes his case in the upper room for Jesus to lead the revolution. Jesus’ failure is the trigger for his betrayal, though he tells Peter after Jesus is arrested that he hoped Jesus would be stirred to anger and help the people rise up against the Romans.

The Last Supper sequence is quiet by comparison, very reverent with a touch of the da Vinci seating. It is in the Agony in the Garden and the return of Satan that the drama picks up intensity. Jesus says that he must face his death as a man, and falls on his face on the ground: “I am afraid I can’t endure this.” Satan tells Jesus that this is the final act, that there will be no reprieve from the Father. Satan also relishes his sadistic description of crucifixion and the slow suffocation. Jesus’ answer is that in his death, “through me God will reveal his love for mankind.” While Satan condemns God as “heartless,” asking Jesus what kind of God would allow such poverty and war, Jesus offers him the answer about God giving us choice, the gift of free will, that God is not a dictator. “So this is what they choose,” Satan retorts.

Finally, Jesus tells Satan that he will not die alone. He will be with his Father and “those who want to will find in me the strength to love to the end.”

While the Passion narratives are dealt with in a familiar enough way, some of the visuals of the blood-spattered and crowned Jesus anticipate The Passion of the Christ. The same is true of the hammering of the nails, where Jesus really screams in pain; the pulling of the ropes to raise the cross; and the icon of Jesus on the cross.

The end of the film has delighted many audiences with its unexpectedness. The apostles dispute the death and Resurrection, with Thomas particularly vocal. He tells Mary, the mother of Jesus, that he wants to believe but “my mind won’t let me.” He needs to see. Mary Magdalene has seen Jesus in the garden and hugs him; as a consequence, instead of saying “Do not touch me,” Jesus says, “You must let me go,” a more telling and layered translation. Jesus acknowledges them all, quietly says that he will be with them, and walks out of the room.

And, here is the delight. Jesus walks out into the contemporary world. He is wearing casual clothes, his long hair cut in a more modern style. He strides out and greets the children who come running to be with him. And off he goes, carrying one, the others playfully clinging, with a gentle rock song over the scene and the final credits. It makes quite an impact.

Jesus (France, 1999)

Another Jesus film was released in 1999 but was not widely seen outside of French-language territories. It was simply called Jesus. It opens with Jesus’ baptism and follows through his public life until the Passion and Crucifixion. The screenplay is based on a book by Jacques Duquesne, Jesus: An Unconventional Biography. In the film, directed by Serge Moati, which runs for 106 minutes, Jesus experiences doubts and struggles about his identity and his sense of mission. He is played by Arnaud Giovaninetti.

I Giardini dell’Eden

There has always been interest in Jesus’ hidden life, from age twelve and the episode in the Temple until his baptism. Hindu writers speculate that he went to India. The Glastonbury myth (as explained in Julien Temple’s elaborate documentary Glastonbury [2006]) has him traveling to Britain with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, with the Holy Grail eventually coming to Glastonbury to be associated with Arthurian legends.

Alessandro D’Alatri’s 1998 film I Giardini dell’Eden focuses completely on this period, and has Jesus traveling east rather than west. The following is the description in the movies2.nytimes website:

Alessandro D’Alatri directed this Italian drama about Jesus Christ, covering his childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, an 18-year span not chronicled in the Bible. The film uses names of the period instead of names given in the Bible. The adult Jeoshua (Kim Rossi Stuart) reflects on past events—his journey into the desert, baptism, acceptance into the Essenes’ community, Jewish life in Galilee, his yeshiva studies, education from his father Josef, and his spiritual growth. After seeing slavery, crucifixions, the stoning of an adulteress, and brutal Roman soldiers, Jeoshua turns to God for answers, leaves the village, and is betrayed by his friend Aziz (Said Taghmaoui), who leaves him to die in the desert. Issues such as carnality bring Jeoshua in conflict with the Essenes, yet he speaks out on behalf of the Essene David (popular Italian singer Lorenzo Cherubini). Journeying forth once more, Jeoshua rejoins his cousin Jochannan, later known as John the Baptist, who recognizes Jeoshua’s link to God. Shot in the Moroccan desert by lenser Federico Masiero, the film combines chants, vocals, and Middle Eastern–styled music by Pivio and Aldo De Scalzi.1

D’Alatri actually published a book on Jesus’ hidden years which amplified his views on his choice of this period for making a Jesus film. He argued that Jesus was a literate man, familiar with Aramaic (his spoken language) and Hebrew (the language of the scriptures) as well as indications that he was familiar with Greek and could speak to Pilate in Latin. His role in reading in the synagogues and his familiarity with the scriptures confirms for D’Alatri that Jesus was a rabbi. He also suggests that this was a family tradition and that Joseph was also a rabbi—and rabbis had trades so Joseph was a rabbi carpenter.

D’Alatri also argues for Jesus traveling during those years. After all, he had been in Egypt as a baby and in Jerusalem at twelve. The main routes from through Galilee went south as well as going to the east. With the traditions of Jesus traveling to India, he points out that Jesus had ample time for a journey which took a few months to arrive in India and the same to return.

When D’Alatri considers Jesus’ spoken words—after all in 4 BC there was no mass communication, so Jesus continued the oral tradition in teaching—reflect that range of people and situations that Jesus had seen at first hand: prodigals in exiles, kings with wedding feasts, laborers, vineyards, and fields of wheat. D’Alatri would claim that all his speculations in the film are grounded on Gospel texts.

The Miracle Maker

The Miracle Maker is a different kind of development for the Jesus film. After the “realism” of the 1960s and 1970s, the “stylization” of the rock operas, and the issues of the ’80s like Last Temptation comes a puppet film with animated flashbacks, a more simple presentation of the Gospel stories, and with visual art flair.

With technical developments in the field of animation, especially with computer graphics, animated biblical films with both Old Testament and New Testament stories are proliferating. Prior to The Miracle Maker, some animated films had some success. The 1982 U.S./Japanese coproduction Time kuoshitsu: Tondera House no dai boken (The Flying House) was a series in which children encountering a scientist are transported to the lands of the Bible and experience the stories, including that of Jesus. Yesu is a 1998 animation version of St. Matthew’s Gospel from Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan.

The puppet sequences, the major part of The Miracle Maker, were produced in Russia. The two-dimensional sequences were drawn in Wales by companies that had worked on animated short films of Shakespearian plays. The voices, with the exception of William Hurt as Jairus, are British. The puppets combine touches of realism with a sense of performance. They look Semitic, except for Pilate and the centurion. The settings are quite lavish and give a feel for the period and the land of Jesus.

A group of expert advisers from many churches contributed to the film, including Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, who was bishop of Monmouth at the time.

The two-dimensional animation via the flashbacks (the Nativity, finding Jesus in the Temple) as well as the use of some symbols (the temptations in the desert, the raising of Lazarus, the Agony in the Garden, and the Emmaus journey) and stylized parables (especially the houses built on sand and rock and the Good Samaritan) make a significant contrast to the three-dimensional puppetry. Jesus’ words are spoken by Ralph Fiennes, who presents him as a strong-minded, genial young man with more than a touch of humor. He speaks the parables and teachings beautifully and clearly and brings powerfully anguished emotion to such scenes as the Agony in the Garden.

This is a very accessible and credible Jesus. Its particular appeal is to children, but most adults would appreciate and enjoy this telling of the story. Tamar, the daughter of Jairus and Rachael, is ill and cannot be cured. The decision to put Tamar and her parents to the fore as disciples and recipients of the miracle where she is raised to life means that this is a child’s view of Jesus and his message. The audience sees Jesus through Tamar’s eyes throughout the whole film. This device pays off dramatically.

Tamar sees a carpenter at work in the city of Sepphoris and is fascinated by him, especially in his defense of Mary Magdalene, a wild-eyed mad woman who haunts the town. When the foreman tries to lash her, Jesus intervenes. When Jesus begins his public ministry, Tamar sees him again. The doctors give her no hope but her mother trusts that Jesus will heal her. Jairus is more cautious. He and his friend Cleopas go to the banquet hosted by Simon the Pharisee, and Jairus is overwhelmed by Jesus’ kindness in receiving Mary. He calls Jesus to his daughter. From then on, Tamar is always at Jesus’ side. She and the family are at the Last Supper (at an adjoining table). It is to Tamar that Jesus reveals that there are many mansions in his father’s house—something she confides to another little girl on the mountain just after Jesus ascends to heaven. She is shocked when Jesus is arrested. Then, she and her parents follow Jesus to Calvary and are at the foot of the cross. Tamar even helps with placing Jesus in the shroud. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus are Cleopas and Jairus (who have sent Tamar and her mother on ahead for safety), so Tamar is the first to recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread. And, she is there at the Ascension. The Miracle Maker is Tamar’s view of Jesus.

The outline of the story is the familiar one. After his work in Sepphoris, Jesus leaves his work in the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth, explains to his mother (who remembers his loss in the Temple as well as his birth and the visit of the Magi) that he must be about his Father’s work.

He is baptized by John and is tempted in the desert. This is creatively shown in two-dimensional animation with an ordinary looking man as the devil who reappears at the Agony in the Garden, taunting Jesus to escape, opening up a path through the trees for him to pass through; the devil’s voice is even heard briefly taunting Jesus on the cross. Stronger from the resistance to temptation, Jesus encounters Andrew and preaches the parable of the house built on the rock from Peter’s boat. There is a huge haul of fish when Peter and Andrew go out to work.

Jesus has also healed Mary of Magdala and defended her when she came to Simon the Pharisee’s house. The Pharisees are hostile as is Herod, whom the religious leaders consult. Pilate rules in the name of Caesar. Barabbas is a rebel but his friend, Judas, goes with great hopes to join Jesus.

Jesus has friends like Mary and Martha and enjoys visiting them (and later raises Lazarus from the dead). He heals the paralytic when people take away the roof. He comes to heal Tamar at Jairus’ request (healing the woman with the hemorrhage on the way). Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly, clears the Temple, tells the story of the Good Samaritan, and urges his disciples that to be great they have to be like children.

Disappointed that Jesus will not rise up against the Romans, Judas betrays him. After his Last Supper, Jesus agonizes in the garden. Judas betrays him with a kiss—the scene has Jesus come alone through the apostles. It is only after the kiss that the troops appear. Peter, who has proclaimed his loyalty to Jesus, draws his sword quite violently but Jesus heals the wounded servant. Jesus is brought before the high priest and before Herod and Pilate, who finds no cause to condemn him. However, the people plead for Barabbas’ release and Jesus is crucified.

After he dies, his body is taken down and buried but Mary Magdalene, who is shown wandering the streets grieving, finds him in the garden. Though it is not in the Gospels, Peter sees Jesus as do Jairus and Cleopas on the road to Emmaus. Thomas is presented as a forthright doubter but then a devout believer. Jesus promises to be with his disciples until the end of time. He then ascends to heaven.

While The Miracle Maker shows the whole public life of Jesus, a substantial amount, up to a quarter of the film, is given to the Passion of Jesus. The response of the disciples means that the entry into Jerusalem is a culmination of Jesus’ ministry. Judas interprets it wrongly, that it is the beginning of the rebellion, and so betrays Jesus in disillusionment.

The Last Supper is also portrayed well, with the apostles at a table with Jesus, a bit da Vinci–like (where Jesus can walk to the end to talk with Judas and advise him to go to do what he must), but with other disciples at other tables. The Agony in the Garden is very effectively drawn in two dimensions with the symbol of the chalice appearing to Jesus, and Satan taunting Jesus in his torment about God’s will.

Jesus could not be apprehended in public because of the reactions of the people (this is well dramatized in the discussion about the tribute to Caesar, which also dismays Judas), so, Judas has to identify him in the dark.

Though brief, the film shows us the response of the high priests and their question about the Messiah, the spurning of Jesus by Herod, and the previously supercilious Pilate coming around to see Jesus as no menace. But he is threatened as being disloyal to Caesar, and he washes his hands of everything.

One of the distinctive features of The Miracle Maker is the inclusion at some length of the walk to Emmaus. The screenplay uses the full text, which brings home to the audience the meaning of the Resurrection rather than simply presenting the fact of the Resurrection.

The Miracle Maker had more impact with its television screenings, with over eighteen million viewers watching it on network television in the United States on Easter Sunday in 2001.

Gli Amici di Gesu

Called Close to Jesus in the United States and The Friends of Jesus internationally, this is a series of four films for television, directed by Raffaele Mertes, the cinematographer of the series of films of Old Testament characters, distributed by Time-Life. Mertes also directed the Esther film as well as The Apocalypse (with Richard Harris), which he also wrote.

There are four films in the series of friends of Jesus: Joseph of Nazareth, Thomas, Judas, and Mary Magdalene. Several of the cast carry over into the other films, like Mathieu Carriere as Pilate. Jesus in played by Danny Quinn, son of actor Anthony Quinn. The films are speculative dramas based on the Gospel narratives.

The Mary Magdalene film invents a great deal: that Mary was divorced by a wealthy husband from Magdala; that she took up with a Roman centurion who then rejected her; and that when she is welcomed at Herod Antipas’ court by Herodias, she becomes the companion of another commander and engineers the death of her former lover.

Jesus has a few appearances. Mary attempts to drown herself but is rescued by Jesus and the apostles on the lake. She later glimpses him healing. However, she had seen John the Baptist at the Jordan and is distressed at his imprisonment. John sends her to Jesus to ask whether he is the one to come (Luke 7), and she brings back Jesus’ reply to John. She engineers an attack on Magdala in which the young son of the slave Joanna dies. Grief stricken, she gives up hope, but Jesus arrives and saves the boy. The main scene with Jesus is Simon’s banquet, where Mary weeps and wipes Jesus’ feet with her hair. What follows is a very, very brief distant glimpse of Calvary and Mary’s comment about Jesus’ death and Resurrection.

Jesus is quite conventional in appearance and action, very American sounding with a somewhat reedy voice (as has the Baptist). There is a genial compassion in the close-ups of Jesus at Simon’s house.

Kristo

With the 1990s offering the technology for local industries and local groups to produce their Jesus films, the Philippines made the 1996 Kristo, directed by Ben Yalung.

This is an “indigenized” Jesus. He fits into the life and customs of Filipinos in the north of Luzon. While there is great fidelity to the Gospel texts, some of the familiar stories are adapted to the experience of the local people.

For instance, during the staging of the wedding feast at Cana, it is not water into wine that is the center of the miracle. Rather, the drink that the wedding guests enjoy is the local tuba, which derives from coconuts. The costumes of the bride and groom, of the master of the feast, and of the guests are what locals would wear to such a ceremony. The dancing is also local. (However, in something of a nod to the historical narrative, the Roman soldiers seemingly standing guard at the wedding are wearing recognizably Roman costumes.) In keeping with piety, Mary looks younger than Jesus himself. For the rest, the details of John 2 are dramatized in both word and action, with Jesus played by popular actor Mat Ranillo III and looking a commanding figure with strong screen presence, eminently loved by the camera.

This is also evident in the beatitudes sequence. It does not take place on a mountain. Rather, Jesus walks about like a teacher instructing and inspiring a rather smaller group of disciples and followers. Again, there is fidelity to the text. However, Jesus and the apostles have changed costume and are wearing the simple daily garb of the locals, with Jesus and the disciples all dressed the same. The temptations sequence is also quite striking, in a Filipino sand-and-hills setting.

This Jesus film screened in Philippine cinemas and appears on television. It is easily recognizable as part of the tradition of the Jesus film of the West but is distinctively Filipino to make the Gospel relevant to its intended audience.

In an interview with Walden Sadiri (the Manila Bulletin Online), Ben Yalung gives some background to his approach to religious filmmaking:

This kind of film has been his life’s mission ever since he became a more devout follower of the Roman Catholic life. According to him, when he converted from being a man of the world to a man who keeps up with God’s teachings, he has decided to use his talent in retelling through film the messages of God. To his credit were other religious films like Ama Namin, Kristo and Divine Mercy.

For Ben Yalung, his vision of doing religious films began after he graduated as a member of Oasis of Love Batch 6 in 1989. He was then the Head Servant of Oasis. From doing action films he decided that it was time to praise God by doing religious films. “Making money was far from my mind when I made this film. Even with my other religious films I never thought about money. I just wanted to preach through these movies and I have a better medium through film. Making these films is my commitment to the Lord. If ever it makes money then why not so I can produce more. My target is to make a film on the Acts of the Apostles which will be the sequel to Kristo. I just hope to be able to make a film for Holy Week every year.”2

In fact, Yalung made some religious films, including one on the Divine Mercy. His 2005 film Birhen ng Manaoag focussed on the Virgin Mary and miracles and included scenes with Jesus.

Notes

1. Bhob Stewart, “The Garden of Eden (1998): Review Summary,” New York Times, movies.nytimes.com/movie/173732/The-Garden-of-Eden/overview.

2. Walden Sadiri, “‘Birhen ng Manaoag,’ a Mission for Filmmaker Ben Yalung,” Manila Bulletin Online, telebisyon.net/balita/Birhen-ng-Manaoag-a-mission-for-filmmaker-Ben-Yalung/artikulo/85930/.