"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.
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