He is a Cross Maker, not just a carpenter. Voices seize his mind and he falls down with those seizures, but it is God talking to him. Judas is his pal, sent to kill him for traitor behavior but who comes along to check out what is going on.
Granted, there is a disclaimer that this Jesus story is not from the gospel, but based on a novel. And Willem Dafoe is not as good as I remember him from the last time I watched the movie.
The theology of the movie denies the diety of Christ. He is a man chosen, forced by God to preach. It doesn't end well.
Back in the day, it was the condemnation of the movie by Christian leaders that gave the movie greater press and publicity than I think it deserves.
I don't know, I just can't spend a lot of time on this one.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Good Friday: The Musical
"Jesus Christ Superstar", the 1973 version, not the remake of 2000. That one might be worthy of its own consideration. Judas Iscariot is an understandable figure. Jesus the man is growing in his own ego. His preaching and teaching are going to challenge the political order. Those teachings will bring on the wrath of the Romans. He must be stopped.
Jesus, preacher, teacher, frowning as he considers where the trail he leads must end. He is wrestling with the reality that he is going to become a political liability. Two scenes about him strike me. One is when the infirmed and the ill gather around him, all in rags, more like a zombie scene out of "Night of the Living Dead", surrounding Jesus, pressing in on him, until he disappears beneath their weight. Not the Jesus the Bible teaches me about.
The second is the endpoint. They crucify him, he dies, thus endeth the trouble. Judas kills himself out of guilt, Pilate has washed his hands of the matter-he was rather wimpy for the Roman governor of a troublesome province, Caiphas can mark off one more political reason for the Romans to crack down. It is like the ending of Mark without the verses 'added later'. It stops at Good Friday, it stops at the death of Jesus, then a shot of an empty cross...just in case we Christians got it right.
Then Mary Magdalene, falling into the prostitute tradition. She is not someone the 'movement' should be associated with according to Judas, bad PR. The girlfriend of, the lover of, comforter of Jesus, a foreshadowing of the married Jesus Dan Brown touts in The Da Vinci Code.
Then the disciples, bunch of dummies, "What's the buzz, tell me what's a happening..."
And yet I liked it. The music I grew up with-one of the few albums not classical in the house. It was a phenomenon in the Philippines, where I was living when it was released. Then again, every Good Friday is a phenomenon in the Philippines. It was like how I enjoyed the Da Vinci Code, a nice piece of fiction, divorced from my Lord of the Scriptures.
And they played it like that. At the opening, the bus pulls up, the actors and crew pile out, at the end, they strike the set and leave. It was just a story, not the Truth, not the witness, not the gospel.
Jesus, preacher, teacher, frowning as he considers where the trail he leads must end. He is wrestling with the reality that he is going to become a political liability. Two scenes about him strike me. One is when the infirmed and the ill gather around him, all in rags, more like a zombie scene out of "Night of the Living Dead", surrounding Jesus, pressing in on him, until he disappears beneath their weight. Not the Jesus the Bible teaches me about.
The second is the endpoint. They crucify him, he dies, thus endeth the trouble. Judas kills himself out of guilt, Pilate has washed his hands of the matter-he was rather wimpy for the Roman governor of a troublesome province, Caiphas can mark off one more political reason for the Romans to crack down. It is like the ending of Mark without the verses 'added later'. It stops at Good Friday, it stops at the death of Jesus, then a shot of an empty cross...just in case we Christians got it right.
Then Mary Magdalene, falling into the prostitute tradition. She is not someone the 'movement' should be associated with according to Judas, bad PR. The girlfriend of, the lover of, comforter of Jesus, a foreshadowing of the married Jesus Dan Brown touts in The Da Vinci Code.
Then the disciples, bunch of dummies, "What's the buzz, tell me what's a happening..."
And yet I liked it. The music I grew up with-one of the few albums not classical in the house. It was a phenomenon in the Philippines, where I was living when it was released. Then again, every Good Friday is a phenomenon in the Philippines. It was like how I enjoyed the Da Vinci Code, a nice piece of fiction, divorced from my Lord of the Scriptures.
And they played it like that. At the opening, the bus pulls up, the actors and crew pile out, at the end, they strike the set and leave. It was just a story, not the Truth, not the witness, not the gospel.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Movies about Holy Week: Easter as Epic
"The Greatest Story Ever Told" is representative of the epic bible movie. Charlton Heston seems to show up in every one, in this as John the Baptist-looking more like a wrestling star. We are looking at movies that depict the crucifixion of Jesus throughout this Lenten Season, asking several questions along the way.
First, how do these movies stack up against the biblical witness? Deriving from that, how does Hollywood, and by extension the culture surrounding it, consider the Easter message? Finally, we hope to look at where our faith may have been unduly influenced by the culture, and reground it in Scripture.
The Epic is the Big Show. Much of Scripture is used, the quotes tend to be generally accurate, there is a sense of grandeur to it all. The American Southwest is bigger and more majestic in scale than the Holy Land, adding to the bigness of the entire plot.
Stacked against the biblical witness, "The Greatest Story Ever Told" does pretty well, all things considered. Not too much is created out of nothing, there is not excessive character development-turning Judas into something Scripture does not give a foundation for. John the Baptist was a little more tough guy, but it is Charlton Heston.
It was released in 1965, during what might be called the "epic" period of the church. I think we were past the Golden Age of the 1950's. I think the death of JFK ended that Golden Age. While the death of Martin Luther King Jr. was several years in the future, and Woodstock after that, the movie was released barely a week before the assassination of Malcolm X. The Civil Rights movement was in full swing, President Johnson began full scale bombing of North Vietnam, we were in a dangerous time.
"The Greatest Story Ever Told" was from the end of the Golden Age, in the midst of new struggles that hadn't yet plunged America into deep crisis. The story of Jesus was still powerful-if overblown-in the minds and hearts of the popular culture.
First, how do these movies stack up against the biblical witness? Deriving from that, how does Hollywood, and by extension the culture surrounding it, consider the Easter message? Finally, we hope to look at where our faith may have been unduly influenced by the culture, and reground it in Scripture.
The Epic is the Big Show. Much of Scripture is used, the quotes tend to be generally accurate, there is a sense of grandeur to it all. The American Southwest is bigger and more majestic in scale than the Holy Land, adding to the bigness of the entire plot.
Stacked against the biblical witness, "The Greatest Story Ever Told" does pretty well, all things considered. Not too much is created out of nothing, there is not excessive character development-turning Judas into something Scripture does not give a foundation for. John the Baptist was a little more tough guy, but it is Charlton Heston.
It was released in 1965, during what might be called the "epic" period of the church. I think we were past the Golden Age of the 1950's. I think the death of JFK ended that Golden Age. While the death of Martin Luther King Jr. was several years in the future, and Woodstock after that, the movie was released barely a week before the assassination of Malcolm X. The Civil Rights movement was in full swing, President Johnson began full scale bombing of North Vietnam, we were in a dangerous time.
"The Greatest Story Ever Told" was from the end of the Golden Age, in the midst of new struggles that hadn't yet plunged America into deep crisis. The story of Jesus was still powerful-if overblown-in the minds and hearts of the popular culture.
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