Written by Alex Patt
About a year ago, the History Channel released its world-wide hit mini-series “The Bible” on television. The series was broken down into episodes, each which told an important chunk from the Bible. The last episodes were all sections from the New Testament; the story of Jesus Christ.
Now, scenes from the television show, along with never before seen on TV scenes and footage with the same cast and crew have been put together to make a feature length film about the life of Jesus Christ.
Directed by Christopher Spencer, the epic tale of Christ is told from the eyes of the exiled apostle, John (Sebastian Knapp). The film itself has some very good qualities to it and does a good job of presenting historical aspects of first century Judea. However, it also misses on some important qualities from the Bible and has some parts which can be a bit slow in the middle of the film.
One of the most notable elements of the film to point out is the nature of Jesus (Diogo Morgado) himself. The film shows that though he is the Messiah and the Son of God, his soul is put into the limited human body while on Earth. He is shown with emotions of nervousness when he foresees his crucifixion, emotions of sadness when seeing a dead Lazarus, and of course the human torture and mortality of the crucifixion. Nevertheless, he is shown bringing Lazarus back to life, feeding the thousands with five loaves of bread and 2 fish, forgiving the prostitute when about to be stoned, walking on water, healing a man who cannot walk and of course recruiting his notable followers (12 disciples).
Despite seeing those things, the film leaves out most of the famous Sermon on the Mount (though it does include the Lord’s Prayer). It also does not include the healing of the man with leprosy, or Jesus talking to Zacheaus in the tree. Of course it is difficult to bring the entire story of Jesus together in one film, one which is already 138 minutes long.
There were some slow scenes in the middle, which could be replaced with some more of these better known stories from the scriptures. The ending of the film is also a bit rushed, Jesus’s resurrection lacks an Angel of the Lord telling Mary Magdalene (Amber Rose Revah) and Mary the Mother of God (Roma Downey) Jesus was not in the tomb, instead it is rushed to see that he is still alive.
However the strongest and emotional scenes in the film which will make many viewers shed a tear or two is the crucifixion. It was filmed very well, and the musical score during the scene adds to the dramatic effect. It has most of what the bible said what happened: beaten severely, crown of thorns, “King of the Jews” sign above on the cross and Jesus’s struggle to carry the cross through a crowd of spectators.
The film also did a great job of presenting an element of the story which seems to be over looked; the politics of first century Judea. The film showed the ongoing tension between the High Priest Caiaphas (Adrian Schiller) and the Roman authority of Pontius Pilate (Greg Hicks). It showed that though the temple is in the center of Jerusalem, the ultimate authority and decision making lies in the hands of Rome, and it took great convincing from Caiaphas to make Pilate try Jesus to have him crucified.
Also seen was the Temple only letting people into the Roman court yard who would vote to set Barabbas (Fraser Ayres) free and Jesus to death. Not to mention that a lot was put into the famous betrayal of Judas (Joe Wredden) in the film, which showed the eagerness of the Temple to convict Jesus of blasphemy and being a false Messiah. All these elements are very important in understanding why Jesus was crucified, and they made it clear in the film.
Overall, this film, though it has its flaws, is very enjoyable. I would say it is not as educational from a Christian teaching standpoint, but from a historical event standpoint based on scripture and Roman history. There are a lot of religious films coming out now, and I would recommend putting this one on the “must see” list.
