Jesus at the Movies

Jesus at the Movies Jesus at the Movies A Guide to the First Hundred Years and Beyond THIRD EDITION W. Barnes Tatum POLEBRIDGE PRESS Salem, Oregon Copyright © 2013 W. Barnes Tatum All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Polebridge Press, Willamette University, 900 State Street, Salem, OR 97301. Design and production by Robaire Ream Third Edition Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tatum, W. Barnes. Jesus at the movies : a guide to the first hundred years and beyond / W. Barnes Tatum. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Includes filmography. ISBN 978-1-59815-116-9 (alk. paper) 1. Jesus Christ--In motion pictures. I. Title. PN1995.9.J4T37 2013 791.43’682--dc23 2012030800 Table of Contents Acknowledgements viii Preface How to Use This Guide xi The Cinematic Jesus Promise and Problem 1 The Cinematic Jesus Jesus-story Films 19 1 Sidney Olcott From the Manger to the Cross 23 2 D. W. Griffith Intolerance 35 3 Cecil B. DeMille The King of Kings 49 4 William Wyler Ben-Hur (1959) and others 63 5 Samuel Bronston King of Kings 79 6 George Stevens The Greatest Story Ever Told 93 7 Pier Paolo Pasolini The Gospel According to St. Matthew 109 8 Norman Jewison Jesus Christ Superstar David Greene Godspell 125 9 Franco Zeffirelli Jesus of Nazareth 143 10 Terry Jones Monty Python’s Life of Brian 157 v vi Table of Contents 11 John Heyman Jesus 175 12 Martin Scorsese The Last Temptation of Christ 189 13 Denys Arcand Jesus of Montreal 207 14 Roger Young Jesus 223 15 Philip Saville The Gospel of John 237 16 Mel Gibson The Passion of the Christ 255 17 Mark Dornford-May Son of Man 275 The Cinematic Jesus Retrospect and Prospect 295 Appendix A Checklist of Jesus-story Films 311 Appendix B Jesus-story Films and Christ-figure Films 315 Notes 322 Selected Bibliography 340 Appreciations and Credits 351 Filmography 356 Index 360 Cameo Essays The Tradition of Jesus-story Films 17 Two Gospel Portrayals of Jesus 20 Cecil B. DeMille and Who Wrote the Gospels? 60 Flavius Josephus Does Hollywood 82 Vatican Council II on the Jews 145 The Politics of Roman Palestine 173 The Fourteen Stations of the Cross 205 The Seven Last Words of Jesus 253 Table of Contents vii Photos & Illustrations Map of Palestine in the Time of Jesus xvi Jesus of Nazareth 18 From the Manger to the Cross 22 Intolerance 34 The King of Kings 48 Cecil B. DeMille 51 Ben-Hur 64 King of Kings 80 King of Kings 86 The Greatest Story Ever Told 94 The Gospel According to St. Matthew 110 Jesus Christ Superstar 124 Godspell 127 Jesus of Nazareth 142 Monty Python’s Life of Brian 158 Monty Python’s Life of Brian 163 Jesus 176 The Last Temptation of Christ 188 Jesus of Montreal 206 Jesus of Montreal 211 Jesus 222 The Gospel of John 238 The Passion of the Christ 254 Son of Man 274 Son of Man 279 Carl Th. Dreyer 294 Paul Verhoeven 307 Acknowledgements esus at the Movies: A Guide to the First Hundred Years first ap- J peared in print sixteen years ago, in 1997. That initial edition also provided a chronological overview of how the gospel-based Jesus story and the person of Jesus in that story had been portrayed on the screen within the context of twentieth century history and culture. That first edition, with appropriate introductory and concluding matter, had twelve chapters—each of which focused on one or more Jesus films for presentation and analysis. Chapter one considered Sidney Olcott’s silent From the Manger to the Cross (1912). Chapter twelve closed out the chronological survey by highlighting Deny Arcand’s French language, with English subtitles, Jésus de Montréal that appeared in Canada in 1989, and was released in the United States in 1990. The occasion for the second edition of Jesus at the Movies, in 2004, was the appearance earlier that year of Mel Gibson’s much ballyhooed and controversial The Passion of the Christ. In addition to adding a concluding chapter on the Gibson film, I also added a chapter featuring Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979). A forum featuring the first edition of this book at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, in November, 2000, had convinced me that the Monty Python “spoof” was indeed a Jesus film and should be included. This third edition of Jesus at the Movies, 2013, has expanded the number of chapters from fourteen to seventeen. I selected, for chapter length treatments, two films that had been viewed publicly prior to the theatrical releases and mega-box-office receipts of Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004). These additional films were: Roger Young’s Lux Vide made-for-television miniseries called Jesus (1999, 2000) and the Anglo-Canadian produced Visual Bible movie, di- rected by Philip Saville, The Gospel of John (2003). Young’s miniseries Jesus is an important continuation of the trajectory of Jesus films that harmonizes all four gospels into a single narrative. Saville’s movie viii Acknowledgements ix adopts the Good News Bible translation of the gospel of John as its script and becomes another Jesus film based on the text of only one of the four gospels. But a more immediate occasion for a third edition of Jesus was my having seen the South African film, Son of Man, at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) in Atlanta, Georgia, in November, 2010. This showing of the film and subsequent presenta- tions about the film at the conference were under the auspices of the SBL Bible and Film Consultation. Mark Dornford-May’s Son of Man (2006), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah a few years earlier, represents the movie that has become chapter seventeen. I am grateful to fellow SBL members for this initial viewing and their subsequent conversations about it: Adele Reinhartz, Richard Walsh, Jeff Staley, Lloyd Baugh, and Reinhold Zwick. By education and practice, I have been a teacher and scholar of the Bible, its language and ideas, its literature and history—particu- larly of the gospels and Jesus of Nazareth, and their reception. I joined the religion faculty of Greensboro College in 1973 and will forever be indebted to Henry Black Ingram of the music faculty for enabling me to join together my interests with his expertise in music and cin- ema. We began co-teaching a course in 1974 that we called “The Cinematic Quest for Jesus.” We projected and discussed a film a week, both Christ-figure films and Jesus-story films—the latter being the principal concern of this volume. In later years, I continued teaching periodically a similar course with other members of the Greensboro College faculty. Among them has been Rhonda Burnette-Bletsch also of our religion faculty, who currently serves as the film editor for the emerging thirty volume Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009). I have also taught with Sheila J. Nayar, a member of our English and communications faculty. I appreciate her knowledge about whatever subject has captured her attention, whether Bollywood, Hollywood, or otherwise, but preferably over a cup of coffee at a shop on Tate Street. Throughout my years at Greensboro College, I have re- ceived encouragement and support for my scholarly endeavors. This has continued from Larry D. Czarda, the President of the College, and Paul L. Leslie, VPAA and Dean of the Faculty. As with most writing projects, a knowing, diligent, and effective library staff is a must. I am grateful for the varied gestures extended by Christine Whittington, Michael Simmons, Tony Wyatt, and Rachel x Acknowledgements Wahesh. But there are no greater keepers of the mysteries than those responsible for the electronic universe. So I applaud Pamela McKirdy and, especially, Daniel Chambers. On multiple occasions, he has possessed the patience and the expertise to restore my san- ity. I am also grateful to Lex Alexander and to Cathy Vail of the GC community for their on-going helpfulness whenever requested. Professionally, my life at Greensboro College has also been in- vigorated through the Westar Institute, the sponsoring organization for the Jesus Seminar, established by Robert W. Funk. Here too I have enjoyed collegial relationships and learned much since 1988, when my life-long personal and academic interest in Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ prompted me to become a Fellow of the Jesus Seminar. These friendships have included filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, who associated himself with the Seminar about the same time I did. His participation immediately and coincidentally provided support for my interest in Jesus as a historical figure as well his reception in and through film, the defining story telling and entertainment medium of the twentieth century. However, the greatest appreciation I can express for support in yet another writing venture goes to Linda, my wife and partner. On December 28, 1995, she and I visited New York City for a special occasion. On that day, a hundred years earlier, in Paris, France, in the basement of the Grand Café, August and Louis Lumière used their Cinématographe to project a series of ten brief films for a paying audi- ence—the first time such had been done.

Load more