Jesus Movies-A Brief Introduction

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…

Movies-Post Modern Art Par Excellence

 

“The Enlightenment and the challenges it posed to biblical faith; the encounter of theology with modern philosophy; the introduction of technology into art with photography and then moving pictures, and the subsequent rethinking of meaning of art itself—all of these had profound consequences for the Christian imagining of Christ’s passion and its relation to salvation. These demand the opening not merely of a new chapter but of a new volume”
- Richard Viladesau, The Beauty of the Cross

We live in an ever changing world. The enlightenment, modern philosophy, and new developments in technology have radically transformed our society, culture and world. The impact each of these has had on faith is immense; although some aspects more so than others. Some of effects have been fleeting, whereas others have been long lasting. I’m not sure if Viladesau’s analogy of needing a new volume versed a new chapter is all that useful. Especially with the advancement of technology we may be in need of an entirely new medium.

The enlightenment and modern philosophy have each run their course. Because they have had their impact on the way we understand the world, to the postmodern, Locke, Hume and Kant have all earned their places on the book shelf along with Plato and Aristotle. But their influence is now waning in light of a postmodern philosophy that recognized and put to bed the follies of the infallibility of human reason just as Kant previously demolished the house of metaphysics.

The impact of the enlightenment on theology is most dramatically played out in the world of biblical studies and the multiple quests searching for the holy grail of the “historical Jesus.” Although finding its roots in an anti-Christian movement, the enlightenment has opened Christianity to a critical interpretation of the bible that has deepened our understanding of not only scripture, but of the way God interacts with in human history and allowed us to further mine the depths of the person of Jesus of Nazareth in ways never contemplated before. Our limits and challenges with this undertaking have been prophetically pointed out by Albert Schweitzer warning us that doing work on the historical Jesus can easily turn into autobiographical work, but nonetheless the historical critical method still dominates much of biblical studies today.

Which now allows us to turn our attention to how new technologies have transformed art. Beyond photography and film, the internet is also a new medium for artistic experience. Not only does is allow artists to easily express their work to a worldwide audience, but seeing and hearing great masterpieces is not an experience confined to cathedrals and galleries cotenants away but can be viewed or heard instantaneously on the smart phone we keep in our pocket. We are in a mass media culture where ideas and images can be shared en masse tout de suite  . There is no telling how long post modern philosophy will hold cultural dominance, but technology is going to keep expanding paradoxically causing the world to get smaller and smaller.

What impact does all this have on “the Christian imagining of Christ’s passion and its relation to salvation?” Imagination is one of the most powerful tools the Church is armed with in this postmodern world. Scholarship grants us the ability to re-imagine the person of Christ in new ways that we can share with others. Art can and does effect the religious imagination of the populous. The question we should be asking is, “How can the Church empower the Christian imagination to think about Christ’s passion and its relationship to salvation?” The answer is, it will take a lot of creativity and capital which the church has not been willing, as of yet, to invest (with rare exception).

Enter Hollywood. As the Church is doing a poor job of informing people’s religious imagination around the passion of our Lord, Hollywood has been able to “pick up the slack.”  The cinema is the new media par excellence of post modernity.  The reasons for this is because it combines many of the previous types of art into one form.  From literature, we get powerful story lines.  From music, we get moving scores.  From the visual arts with get breathtaking cinematography.  From theater we get emotional driven acting.  The list could go on and on.  (Ironically all these art forms can and should come together at liturgy as well, but that is a subject for a book not my blog.)  It has gotten to the point where art cannot be truly successful until it is in the form of a film. 

How do we judge the success of a book?  It’s got nothing to do with the New York Times Bestseller List, but rather whether or not it has been made into a movie yet. Need another example?  As I mentioned in an earlier post, when many Americans people think about the death of Jesus, they do not think of the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, but the Gospel according to Mel. The Passion of the Christ has so greatly informed people’s religious meditation that it has found its place in many church’s Lenten devotions right next to the Stations of the Cross.

Then for the less churchy we have the alternative of The Da Vinci Code which offers the populous a revamping of the Pascal mystery that includes Jesus being elevated to divinity centuries after the crucifixion and the institutional church suppressing the deification of Mary Magdalene, which was there from the start. (Please note I never made any claims as to abilities surrounding logic of the post modern.)

Both these examples have had a strong following within USAmerican culture and demonstrate some ways the story of Christ is being re-imagined.  Unless the Church is willing to devote the time, energy, creativity and finances needed to engage our post-modern culture with powerful images imbued with deeper meaning that Mel Gibson’s or Dan Brown’s then we are just going to be writing in the same book to a world that demands a multimedia experiences.  Rather than wait for that to happens, I am going to have some fun exploring Jesus of the Cinema in my blog. Enjoy!