I have always been interested in mythology. My parents would read me mythological stories when I was little, and many of the books I chose to read myself were either collections of mythological stories or influenced by world myths. When I was older, I discovered Joseph Campbell and other scholars, and actively studied stories from …
Ben-Hur (2016): Ruining a classic So now that we know what "message films" are and their purpose, we can come back to where we started -- with Jesus and Ben-Hur. In 2016, a new version of Ben-Hur was released by Paramount Pictures. I actually paid to see this remake in theaters, not because I generally …
So as we have seen, the filmmaker who attempts to tell the story of Jesus has more to deal with than other directors whose films remain in the realm of the secular. Even films that feature overt “Christ-figures” are usually able to avoid angering religious communities because they don’t deal with Christ directly, no matter …
The Historical Problem Third, Tatum argues filmmakers must deal with the historical aspect of Jesus. How historical does the director want his Jesus to be? Since the first films about Jesus of Nazareth were made, directors have attempted to portray Jesus and his historical surroundings as accurately as possible to preserve the sanctity of the …
Continue reading Jesus at the Movies, Part IV: The Historical and Theological Problems
Now that we've examined the Promises of Jesus being portrayed in film, let's look at what Tatum identifies as the Problems for filmmakers. The Artistic Problem First, Tatum argues that filmmakers must decide how to approach their project from an artistic perspective (in this case, in the context of cinematography). As we've seen, artistic mediums …
Continue reading Jesus at the Movies, Part III: The Artistic and Literary Problems
A Quick Note Before we dive in, I feel I should address a few things. First, I'm going to be rating films featuring Jesus as successful or not based on the number of awards they have received or for which they have been nominated. I understand that one of these films may represent the “truth” …
Some of the many faces of Jesus on the silver screen Introduction: Why do Jesus movies suck? During my graduate program at the Vanderbilt Divinity School, my goal was to study mythology rather than contemporary religion, and I was fortunate enough to take numerous courses on all sorts of different mythological topics. But the institution …
Continue reading Jesus at the Movies, Part I: Can Jesus Films Be Redeemed?
Culturally Opinionated 