The idea of making a movie that tells the story of Jesus is as old as the idea of making a movie. The art of cinema was invented in 1895, and by the turn of the century there had already been at least five attempts to tell the story of Jesus through this medium. Most of these films were rather short, ranging in time from about five minutes to about twenty. Over the next thirty years the Jesus story, as told by motion pictures, would grow and expand until it ultimately climaxed with Cecil B. Demille’s The King of Kings (1927.) This was the definitive work on the subject for the following thirty-year period.
Even though the person of Jesus was not directly dealt with over this period of time, Hollywood did bring the story of Jesus to the screen in an alternative fashion. A series of movies that had Jesus as a cameo role were made. Some examples of what I call “Jesus cameos” would be: Quo Vadas (1951,) The Robe (1953,) or Ben Her (1959.)
In these movies Jesus was a very important character within the film, but his was not the main storyline; rather, the storyline revolved around someone whose life had been touched by Jesus. Besides these exceptions the story of Jesus would rarely grace the silver screen; however, things would change dramatically in the 1960’s…
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