Today, class is cancelled, but you'll be doing a Camino assignment analyzing some video clips that interpret the Jesus story through the medium of film. We'll use two classic "Jesus films" to analyze the affordances of film over written texts and the sorts of artistic choices that directors make when rendering the stories of Jesus into film.
Our primary texts today are the film clips themselves, and our secondary text by Jeffrey Mahan will highlight some of the issues we might consider as we analyze the films.
The Camino assignment walks you through the video clips and questions to answer from the reading and your film analysis. Please complete the assignment and turn it in online by midnight Friday.
Assigned Readings
Secondary: Jeffrey H. Mahan, “Celluloid Savior: Jesus in the Movies,” Journal of Religion and Film 6:1 (2002) Article 2, 20 p; online class prep
Primary: Watch the following clips from significant Jesus films, and fill out this worksheet on the reading and your analysis. To enlarge the clips, click the play button and then the square graphic in the lower right corner.
Beginning the Story
The King of Kings (1927) - This clip is the beginning of the movie. Note where director Cecil B. DeMille chose to begin his story—with a characterization of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute, which won't find anywhere in the Bible! This clip is also an interesting case of the problem of representing the "divinity" of Christ; note the lighting choices, and the contrast of the street scenes compared to the relative calm and intimacy of the interior scene where we first meet him.
25.19
Infancy Narrative
The Gospel according to Saint Matthew (1964) - The infancy narrative in Pier Paolo Pasolini's film (watch from 3.01 to 22.47), shot almost entirely in the poor countryside of Italy with non-professional actors. Our reading quotes Pasolini as saying "It is against my nature to desacralize things and people." How does he make things and people sacred in this clip?
2.17.38
Baptism of Jesus
Jesus (1979) - Open up Luke 3:1-22 before you watch it so you see how the director interprets the passage. Would you make the same choices that British director John Krish and Australian director Peter Sykes did?
3.47
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) - Contrast the evangelical baptism above to this scene from a more controversial film adaptation of Níkos Kazantzákis' book The Last Temptation of Christ, by director Martin Scorsese.
3.01
Sermon on the Mount
Jesus of Nazareth (1977) - Franco Zeffirelli's epic film, made for TV so running at almost 6 ½ hours in length, is one of the most well-known Jesus films, as it is often replayed at Easter every year (when Christians celebrate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus). Take note of camera angle, characterization, and lighting, as well as cast placement, in this clip, and contrast to Pasolini's film below.
3.25
The Gospel according to Saint Matthew (1964) - Analyze field of view, motion of characters and camera, use of zoom, lighting, and the deployment of other cast members. Pasolini rejected a "reverential style" for his film—that "applied to a sacred text [such techniques] were ridiculous." Do you "read" his techniques as less reverential? It's interesting to note that this film by a gay Marxist was embraced by the Catholic Church and is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful and compelling Jesus films of all time.
10.25
Agony in the Garden
Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) - Director Norman Jewison took the musical by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice from Broadway to the big screen. This is their interpretation of the scene in Gethsemane, when Jesus (Ted Neeley) prays that "this cup pass from him" as he faces certain death. Why do Pearson and Moyise list this among the controversial films?
6.09
Today's Authors
Jeffrey H. Mahan is the Ralph E. & Norma E. Peck Professor of Religion and Communication at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. He studies the mediation of religion in material and digital cultures, religion as a sensual and bodily experience, and the implications of media change for the practice of ministry and religious leadership. He is interested in aesthetic and theological engagements with both fine and popular film, literature and television, which has led to appointments to ecumenical juries at the Montreal, Cannes’ and Berlin film festivals.
Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959) was an American filmmaker responsibly for seventy feature films, some silent and some sound. One of the most commercially successful filmmakers of all time, he tackled religious subjects frequently, including The King of Kings (1927), The Sign of the Cross (1932), silent and sound versions of The Ten Commandments (1923, 1956) and Samson and Delilah (1949).
John Krish (1923–2016) was a British film director and screenwriter. In addition to many secular films, he co-directed the most widely disseminated Jesus film of all time, the Christian film Jesus (1979).
Norman Jewison (1926– ) is a Canadian film director, producer and actor. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for three films (In the Heat of the Night, 1967; Fiddler on the Roof, 1971; Moonstruck, 1987), he directed the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Weber's Broadway musical, Jesus Christ Superstar (1973).
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) was an Italian film director, poet, writer and intellectual. An openly gay leftist and supporter of first the Communists and later the left-libertarian Radical Party, Pasolini felt that consumerism was destroying Italian culture. His films frequently reflect his concern for the poorest of the poor, such as in The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (1964), in which the poor of Basilicata, Italy are featured as actors. Many people consider his film among the best of the Jesus films.
Martin Scorsese (1942– &nbs; ) is an Italian and American filmmaker whose films frequently tackle Roman Catholic concepts of guilt, redemption and faith, as well as crime and gange violence. He has won several Academy Awards, including for best picture and best director (The Departed, 2006), and best screenplay (Goodfellas, 1990), and has been nominated for many more. His 1988 film adaptation of Níkos Katzantzákis' book, The Last Temptation of Christ, probed questions of Jesus' humanity.
Peter Sykes (1939–2006) was an Australian and then British film director who directed several documentaries and feature films including the Jesus film (1979, with John Krish).
Franco Zeffirelli (1923– ) is an Italian cirector and producer of operas, films and television. Best known for his 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet and his 1967 film The Taming of the Shrew(with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton), he figures in our work today because of his epic TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth.
Links
Noncanonical Literature - Gospels - The Wesley Center Online has older translations of all the apocryphal and pseudepigraphic literature of Tanakh and the New Testament, including this page linking out to all the apocryphal gospels.
Virgin Birth and What It Means - Scholar Mary Foskett of Wake Forest University discusses a significant detail in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.
The Jesus Film Project - web site for one of the more popular Jesus films of all time, promoted by the Christian evangelical group Campus Crusade for Christ.
Further Reading
Infancy Gospels and Jesus' Teaching
Brown, Raymond E. The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1999; original, 1977.
Greenman, Jeffrey P., Timothy Larsen and Stephen R. Spencer, eds. The Sermon on the Mount through the Centuries: From the Early Church to John Paul II. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Brazos, 2007.
Hock, Ronald F. The Infancy Gospels of James and Thomas: With Introduction, Notes, and Original Text Featuring the New Scholars Version Translation, Scholars Bible. Sonoma, California: Polebridge, 1996.
Pelikan, Jaroslav Jan. Divine Rhetoric: The Sermon on the Mount As Message and As Model in Augustine, Chrysostom, and Luther. Yonkers, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2000.
Talbert, Charles H. Reading the Sermon on the Mount: Character Formation and Decision Making in Matthew 5–7. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2006.
Jesus in Film
Click here for a complete bibliography and list of Jesus films
Kinnard, Roy and Tim Daly. Divine Images: A History
of Jesus on the Screen. New York: Carol, 1992.
Mahan,
Jeffrey. "Celluloid Savior: Jesus in the Movies." The
Journal of Film and Religion 6 (1 2002). Online, https://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/celluloid.htm,
27 August 2002.
Reinhartz, Adele. Jesus of Hollywood. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Soukup,
Paul A. "Imaging the Divine: Jesus and Christ Figures in Film." Theological
Studies 59 (1998) 58-64.
Staley, Jeffrey L. and Richard Walsh. Jesus, the Gospels, and Cinematic Imagination: A Handbook to Jesus on DVD. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007.
Stern, Richard C. Savior on the Silver Screen. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist, 1999.
Thompson, John O. "Jesus
as Moving Image: The Question of Movement." In Images of Christ:
Ancient and Modern (ed. Stanley E. Porter, Michael A. Hayes and David Tombs;
Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997) 290-304.
Image adapted photograph posted by Viv Wilby on her blogpost, "The Gospel According to Pasolini," Mostly Film Blog (5 April 2012), online, http://mostlyfilm.com/2012/04/05/4680/, accessed 18 August 2015.
Today, class is cancelled, but you'll be doing a Camino assignment analyzing some video clips that interpret the Jesus story through the medium of film. We'll use two classic "Jesus films" to analyze the affordances of film over written texts and the sorts of artistic choices that directors make when rendering the stories of Jesus into film.
