Give me suggestions for Biblical movies to watch!

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There seem to be so many movies that are Biblical but I don’t know which to watch. My requirement is that the movie be wholly family-friendly. If they are Old Testament that would be nice, if New that would do too. So far I’ve watched:

Ten Commandments; Passion of the Christ; Visual Bible: Acts; Gospel of John; Gospel According to St Matthew. I refuse to watch Jesus of Nazareth because of the ridiculous liberties taken in that film. I’m looking forward to watch any delightful movies from Genesis or any part of the Bible, really.
 
The Greatest Miracle
A powerful Catholic animated movie about the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Let us with Mary Immaculate adore, thank, supplicate and console the most sacred and beloved Eucharistic Heart of Jesus!

THE WORLD NEEDS MARY.
 
The Robe, Barbaras, The Shoes of the Fisherman are a few older titles.
 
For the Old Testament, you can’t go wrong with “The Prince of Egypt”. The songs are excellent, as is the animation, and it is a very compelling story of Moses’s life. There are some very minor changes from the Biblical story (for example, being a family movie, Moses doesn’t murder an Egyptian and hide his body, rather they have softened it to an accidental death).There is a good review of it here, which goes into all of these changes. The reviewer gave it a perfect score:

decentfilms.com/reviews/princeofegypt

Another one I suggest which is perhaps lesser known is “The Miracle Maker” (2000). It’s a stop-motion animation made by the BBC, and covers Jesus’s life from His baptism to His ascension into heaven (with flashbacks of other events). The voice cast is excellent, with a lot of well-known celebrities: Ralph Fiennes, Julie Christie, Alfred Molina, Richard E. Grant, David Thewlis, Miranda Richardson etc. I particularly enjoyed Ralph Fiennes’s portrayal of Jesus. The film is very true to the Biblical account, and the animation style is lovely to look at. Again, this movie got a perfect score on the same Christian review site:

decentfilms.com/reviews/miraclemaker

I hope these are helpful suggestions!
 
“The Bible…In the beginning” from 1966. One of my all time faves!
 
The Living Bible: The Gospel of John

A word-for-word reenactment of the Good News Bible translation of the Gospel of John, it’s narrated by Christopher Plummer and features Henry Ian Cusick (fans of Lost will recognize him as Desmond) as the most human portrayal of Christ I’ve seen. He’s lively, upbeat, commanding…he’s a person whom people would find intriguing as opposed to the many mellow portrayals of Jesus that I’ve seen.

Alas, as impressive and spiritually up-lifting as it is, there are a few problems, especially the filmmakers’ raising of the role of Mary Magdalene such as including her in the last supper and thereon. Steven Greydanus noticed more issues than I did: decentfilms.com/reviews/gospelofjohn
 
total_Catholic said:
“The Bible…In the beginning” from 1966. One of my all time faves!
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Yes, this looks good too. The description on Amazon says it is a retelling of the first 22 chapters of Genesis. Also, I noticed it also has Richard Harris in it (playing Cain this time), the same actor who played Abraham in the movie I suggested earlier in the thread.
 
7_Sorrows said:
The Robe, Barbaras, The Shoes of the Fisherman are a few older titles.
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Isn’t “The Shoes of the Fisherman” a near-future (at the time it was made) political thriller?

Always liked “The Robe”.

One that I’ve heard good things about but haven’t seen yet is “Peter and Paul,” with Anthony Hopkins as St. Paul and Robert Foxworth as St. Peter. It’s a recounting of Acts, with a great supporting cast - Raymond Burr, Eddie Albert, Jon Finch, Jose Ferrer, Herbert Lom. It was originally a 2-part made for TV miniseries. Anyone else seen it that cares to comment?
 
Arizona_Mike said:
Isn’t “The Shoes of the Fisherman” a near-future (at the time it was made) political thriller?

Always liked “The Robe”.

One that I’ve heard good things about but haven’t seen yet is “Peter and Paul,” with Anthony Hopkins as St. Paul and Robert Foxworth as St. Peter. It’s a recounting of Acts, with a great supporting cast - Raymond Burr, Eddie Albert, Jon Finch, Jose Ferrer, Herbert Lom. It was originally a 2-part made for TV miniseries. Anyone else seen it that cares to comment?
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I didn’t see it as a political thriller. It was a drama. It wasn’t about the Bible. About a new Pope being elected. It is fiction.

The movie on Peter and Paul sounds good.
 
Ben Hur (1959) From the book written by Gen. Lew Wallace, published in 1880, and blessed by Pope Leo XIII. A very rare occurrence for a fictional work.
 
I admit, I haven’t watched any Biblical movies, with the exception of The Passion of the Christ, which I did indeed like very much. What keeps me away? Two things:
  1. Those movies that radically change the story. (I understand the need to possibly change some aspects in order to fit a movie into an acceptable length). Someone in this thread. referred to a movie in which Mary Magdalene was at the Last Supper for instance.
  2. I remember as a kid some of those movies were the afternoon movie on TV during Holy Week. I didn’t watch them, in part because they were the “good for you” type movies when I really wanted to watch Lost in Space reruns. 😃 But also, what little I did see of them, they portrayed every single character as a Shakespearean role. (If you’ve seen “Singin’ in the Rain”, think “Round Tones! Round Tones!”)
Which ones evade those two issues?
 
Can someone confirm if the Bible… In the Beginning movie is family friendly or not? I wonder how the Adam and Eve scenes are portrayed? And also the David movie… is the Bathsheba incidents rendered in a family friendly way? I don’t want to watch the movie if there is nude art or anything.
 
Rocks_91 said:
Can someone confirm if the Bible… In the Beginning movie is family friendly or not? I wonder how the Adam and Eve scenes are portrayed? And also the David movie… is the Bathsheba incidents rendered in a family friendly way? I don’t want to watch the movie if there is nude art or anything.
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I haven’t actually watched it yet, but The Bible (In The Beginning) was rated G in 1966 so I would not think you’re going to have any problems with unacceptable nudity or sexuality.
 
Rocks_91 said:
Can someone confirm if the Bible… In the Beginning movie is family friendly or not? I wonder how the Adam and Eve scenes are portrayed? And also the David movie… is the Bathsheba incidents rendered in a family friendly way? I don’t want to watch the movie if there is nude art or anything.
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I’m actually streaming it on Amazon now, and there is some brief nudity in the Adam and Eve creation scenes in the Garden. I guess you might have to watch it yourself first before you show it to your family to see if you have a problem with it. I don’t think it’s bad, I think it is appropriately done, but you have to judge for yourself I guess if you are offended by it or not.
 
Rocks_91 said:
Can someone confirm if the Bible… In the Beginning movie is family friendly or not? I wonder how the Adam and Eve scenes are portrayed? And also the David movie… is the Bathsheba incidents rendered in a family friendly way? I don’t want to watch the movie if there is nude art or anything.
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watched the Bathsheba incident from the David film. The scene of her getting out of the bath/pool is shot from a distance so you can’t really see if there is nudity or not.
 
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