If you can make a Jesus Film, what would you do?

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Jeffrey Hunter all the way as Jesus, Selena Gomez as Mary. I would shoot it in English and following a blend of all 4 gospels. Golgotha needs to look more bloody, and just like king of kings in 1961, have more crosses than just 3 spread out all over it.
Good suggestion there. Problem is, both of them are dead. And even if Jeffrey is still alive today, he’d probably become one of the oldest actors to play Jesus onscreen (he would have been 86 this November 25th). Well, we can dream. 😛
 
I always thought that Mel Gibson should have immediately followed up The Passion of the Christ with Acts. That movie was HUGE, huge buildup, huge amount of media attention, huge money. He already had the cast lined up!

Special effects could have so much fun - a flash and the Shroud of Turin gets left behind in the tomb. Copy that scene from Terminator II where the cop-villain-robot goes through the bars except it would be Jesus walking through the door to the upper room. Another flash and Paul gets knocked off his horse. For the blood-and-guts fans, what could be better than St Steven getting stoned? Pentecost.

But, alas, Mel’s next project was something else…
Just my opinion, but special effects really have this tendency to become cheesy or hokey when pulled off the wrong way.
 
Just my opinion, but special effects really have this tendency to become cheesy or hokey when pulled off the wrong way.
I agree. The way his appearance have been handled is not to make him seem like a ghost or super human but to appear and disappear in such as way as to leave the disciples totally confused, and acting as if to say, “Did that really happen?’ Am I dreaming or not? “ One of the most effective depiction of his walking on the waters I have ever read would have Peter in the storm tossed boat, and peering out into the storm and seeing Jesus walking toward him across the waters. He then steps out of the boat and takes a step. Suddenly fearful he begins to sink and calls out to Jesus. The suddenly he feels hands pulling him back into the boat, and once in he realizes it is Jesus. H eis befuddled and says, but “did we not leave you behind?” And Jesus looks him in in the eyes, and smiles, ironically, “No. you were mistaken. I am always with you.”
 
Call me Avant-Garde, but I know I would focus more on the Archetypal journey than the history. For Instance I would dress Christ in a Japanese Imperial flag representing that He is The God-Emperor(or King of Kings) as well as the son/sun of the world. I would dress the Romans as Nazi SS. representing the Conquering spirit of the Romans in a modern way anyone can understand just by looking at the uniform. As for the Temptation in the desert I would make the Devil an Androgynous, very beautiful man with wings and red and black robes. I would use music from Bach’s Agnus Dei as well as the Negro Spiritual’s. I would emphasize his more unknown teachings. I might even include scenes from the Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Mary and the garden of Gethsemane with Judas narrative from the Gospel of Judas. I want to make it a universal movie of primal symbols. On the level I understand Jesus. It would probably be denounced by the religious authorities, but oh well.
 
I agree. The way his appearance have been handled is not to make him seem like a ghost or super human but to appear and disappear in such as way as to leave the disciples totally confused, and acting as if to say, “Did that really happen?’ Am I dreaming or not? “
I often say this 😊, but the BBC-HBO 2008 miniseries The Passion has, IMHO, what is the best portrayal of the resurrection appearances of date. The series deals with Jesus not being recognized by Mary Magdalene and the disciples at Emmaus by casting actors (different one in each scene) different from the ‘real’ Jesus (Joseph Mawle). And at the Upper Room, we just suddenly hear Jesus’ voice out of nowhere, cut to the disciples’ reactions; there’s nothing really fancy in all this, just some subtle, nifty camerawork, which actually lets the viewer decide for himself whether Jesus is really there or maybe the disciples were just having some vision/hallucination or something.

The appearance to Mary Magdalene (04:17~08:34)
The road to Emmaus and the appearance at the Upper Room (00:50~04:59)

As for special effects gone awry…probably this. Prepare for lightshows, Force lightnings and fireballs from heaven. 😃
 
I just hope that his Maccabean project gets out of development hell.
Me too. Although a part of me (the naughty part) hopes that this would not turn out to be something like a Braveheart 2. 😃
 
Selena is not dead. She is dating that Bieber kid I think. Anyway, I always wanted to portray Jesus as actually having a sense of humor. Josephus wrote, “Did any man ever see him smile?” And Jesus is the man of sorrows. But I am certain that one cannot be God and be sad ALL the time. I can see it now. A scene from the multiplication of loaves which includes Jesus’ Nazarene accent.

John: Master, they need to be given time to go to the towns and buy food.

Jesus at first looks concerned and with loving, baleful eyes sweeps His gaze across the hungry masses. But His seemingly meloncholy expression turns steadily to an almost wry smile. He reclines against a tree.

Jesus: No, just feed 'em.

John: With what? Lord, all we have are a few loaves of bread and just two fish.

Jesus, looking back at John with an expression that says “Yeah? Watch this.”: Oh, well then, put them in the baskets and pass 'em out.
 
Selena is not dead. She is dating that Bieber kid I think. Anyway, I always wanted to portray Jesus as actually having a sense of humor. Josephus wrote, “Did any man ever see him smile?” And Jesus is the man of sorrows. But I am certain that one cannot be God and be sad ALL the time. I can see it now. A scene from the multiplication of loaves which includes Jesus’ Nazarene accent.

John: Master, they need to be given time to go to the towns and buy food.

Jesus at first looks concerned and with loving, baleful eyes sweeps His gaze across the hungry masses. But His seemingly meloncholy expression turns steadily to an almost wry smile. He reclines against a tree.

Jesus: No, just feed 'em.

John: With what? Lord, all we have are a few loaves of bread and just two fish.

Jesus, looking back at John with an expression that says “Yeah? Watch this.”: Oh, well then, put them in the baskets and pass 'em out.
The disciples, looking extremely confused put the food in baskets and begin to carry it to the nearest people. Matthew and James carry the baskets from their handles but soon find them too heavy. Placing them at the feet of one gathered family the contents are overflowing over the top and onto the family’s son’s feet.

Matthew realizing whats happening now, looks stunned for a moment and then realizes, “Oh yeah, it’s Jesus.” , calls to the other Apostles: Hey! Uh, bring more baskets. The crowd is fed.
Shot of Jesus raising an eyebrow and smiling whimsically at John whoes mouth hangs open.

Jesus holds out a loaf of bread to him: So…ya hungry?
 
If I were to make a film about Jesus, it would be a split scene of Golgotha and the Mass. In particular, I’d show the Corporal as representing the shroud i.e. as Jesus’ body is taken down from the Cross and laid on the shroud, I’d show the utmost reverence of the Priest placing the Holy Eucharist on the Corporal.
 
Selena is not dead. She is dating that Bieber kid I think. Anyway, I always wanted to portray Jesus as actually having a sense of humor. Josephus wrote, “Did any man ever see him smile?” And Jesus is the man of sorrows. But I am certain that one cannot be God and be sad ALL the time. I can see it now. A scene from the multiplication of loaves which includes Jesus’ Nazarene accent.

John: Master, they need to be given time to go to the towns and buy food.

Jesus at first looks concerned and with loving, baleful eyes sweeps His gaze across the hungry masses. But His seemingly meloncholy expression turns steadily to an almost wry smile. He reclines against a tree.

Jesus: No, just feed 'em.

John: With what? Lord, all we have are a few loaves of bread and just two fish.

Jesus, looking back at John with an expression that says “Yeah? Watch this.”: Oh, well then, put them in the baskets and pass 'em out.
Oh, my bad. You meant Selena Gomez, right? I must be thinking of the other Selena (Quintanilla-Perez), the one that got murdered.
 
If I were to make a film about Jesus, it would be a split scene of Golgotha and the Mass. In particular, I’d show the Corporal as representing the shroud i.e. as Jesus’ body is taken down from the Cross and laid on the shroud, I’d show the utmost reverence of the Priest placing the Holy Eucharist on the Corporal.
Golgotha was a mass and the very end was the resurrection. The tomb was the chalice and the stone over the entrance was the paten. The corporal was the folded napkin the shroud was the altar cloth and the priest’s vestments. Because the Jews bury the dead with all collectable blood, Jesus’ body would have been buried with the blood soaked cross and with the blood from the rocks and dirt at the base of the cross. The dirt, stones, and cross would have formed the altar. They also washed the body of dead that had to be done in the tomb so the bloody water stayed in the tomb. Holy fire from God burned up Jesus’ body, wood of cross, dirt, stones and water the same as Elijah’s sacrifice was consumed, but the linen remained, because it is not consumed by holy fire, see Lev 10. In Hebrew SAF the word for chalice or basin is the same as entrance, the empty tomb is like the empty tabernacle.

Many things that were known about Jesus are not recorded in the Gospels. Jesus spent two hour on the road to Emmaus talking about what scripture indicated would happen at the crucifixion and resurrection.
I think a very interesting short movie could be done on what Mary did in that garden between the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Grace and peace,
Bruce
 
It’s been quite some time since I’ve given any ideas myself, but after some time I have had a different idea, partly informed by this fact: the gospels as they are are simply unfilmable. They don’t give us much background or character depth, not to mention that there are four of them, all of which are not easy to reconcile with one another. So there is the issue of which gospel to follow and borrow from.

I’m actually thinking, instead of making a film about Jesus from an objective POV I’m thinking of a different approach, admittedly not too original. Why not make a film about, say, people telling the story of Jesus? I’m envisioning here an adaptation of Mark: the narrators could be Mark dictating to his scribe and different people from different time periods reading his gospel to congregations. In this case, the flashbacks ‘depicting’ the pericopes in question are not meant to be objective portrayals, but rather a listener’s particular mental picture of the event translated into screen: someone from, say, the 2nd century will have a different image of the characters and the events than someone from the 14th or 20th.

Better yet, make a Jesus film with the four evangelists each narrating their particular gospels. There will be no harmonization: each evangelist will give their version of the events, even if (one could say ‘especially if’) the details differ. So for instance in the empty tomb pericope you have Matthew telling of one angel at the entrance and Luke telling of two inside. Again, each evangelist will be accompanied by dramatizations of pericopes, each different from the other (different actors, etc.), even all four relate the same event.
 
…, not to mention that there are four of them, all of which are not easy to reconcile with one another. So there is the issue of which gospel to follow and borrow from.

… Why not make a film about, say, people telling the story of Jesus? I’m envisioning here an adaptation of Mark: the narrators could be Mark dictating to his scribe and different people from different time periods reading his gospel to congregations.
The gospel accounts can be harmonized see my chronological harmony scripturescholar.com/GospelHarmonyDouay.pdf
Two of the gospel accounts Matthew and John were written by eye witnesses. Mark was a scribe and wrote the gospel as told by Peter an eye witness, but after Peter died and not in chronological order. Luke wrote his Gospel after interviewing many eye witnesses after both Matthew and Mark wrote their gospels.

I have discovered that there were about 20 weeks in Jesus’ life that are recorded. I think breaking up His life and ministry into those 20 sections would greatly help people get a handle on the events and timing of Jesus’ life. See scripturescholar.com/ChronologyJesus.pdf
Grace and peace,
Bruce
 
The gospel accounts can be harmonized see my chronological harmony scripturescholar.com/GospelHarmonyDouay.pdf
Two of the gospel accounts Matthew and John were written by eye witnesses. Mark was a scribe and wrote the gospel as told by Peter an eye witness, but after Peter died and not in chronological order. Luke wrote his Gospel after interviewing many eye witnesses after both Matthew and Mark wrote their gospels.

I have discovered that there were about 20 weeks in Jesus’ life that are recorded. I think breaking up His life and ministry into those 20 sections would greatly help people get a handle on the events and timing of Jesus’ life. See scripturescholar.com/ChronologyJesus.pdf
Grace and peace,
Bruce
Yes, I am perfectly aware of all the different attempts at harmonizing the gospels. But my point is this: while throughout most of history more emphasis was given on attempting to harmonize the four accounts, I think that it would not hurt to view them as separate, standalone works, each with different perspectives: for example, reading Matthew as Matthew, without ‘interference’ (I know it’s not the best word to use, but for lack of a better term) from Mark or John. I think that both approaches - seeing them together and as separate - have their merits.
 
Here’s one:
Make an animated movie about it where the style of animation is anime-style. 🙂
 
Okay, first off, ‘anime-style’ is very broad a term. 😃 You gotta have to be more specific.
I mean, have the style used by Kosuke Fujishima when he made the TV anime version of Ah! My Goddess. 🙂
Also, I am unsure on whether or not to use Vocaloids for choir background music.
 
As per the thread title, if you were ever given a chance to make your own film on the life of Jesus, what would you do?
If it was me I would make it from the perspective of the soldier who pierced him in the side.
 
1.) Are we really to expect that the Romans always wore armor 24-7? 😃

No unless they were on guard duty.
2.) Speaking of armor, we often see the Romans in Jesus films almost always wearing legionary armor, though it seems more likely that they were auxiliaries (usually wearing mail armor). Not to mention that all of their helmets seem to be (inspired by) the Imperial helmet-type (in use late 1st century BC - early 2nd to 3rd century AD ) - but this is hardly the only type of helmet at the time of Jesus: there are more plainer (and much older) models such as the Montefortino (4th BC - 1st AD) and the Coolus (3rd BC - ca. AD 79).
There might have been a detachment of legionaries in Judea, considering that there was an uprising led by Barabbas. Probably for the 10th or 12th legions stationed in Syria.​
 
I’m thinking that the relationship HE had with Mary/Martha and Lazarus of Bethany could be developed upon.

We all know about the contrast between Mary and Martha. And the raising of Lazarus (the first time someone who is **indubitably **deceased is raised by HIM) is one of the great timeline points of HIS life (and would be, if done right, quite powerful on film).

While not explicated in Scripture, Bethany is just over the Mount of Olives and Cedron Valley from Jerusalem, so I imagine HE stayed with them (or at least spent time with them) whenever HIS peregrinations led HIM back to the Holy City.

I imagine that while HE was with them, they would hear all about HIS activities in relatively remote places like Sidon, Peraea, Samaria, etc.

It is said that the Mount of Olives was then a pilgrim campground for Jerusalem, so He could easily have met them while staying there.

I’ve wondered about the characterization of Lazarus. Two possibilities come to mind:

A) He was a physically robust individual whose sudden illness caught everybody by surprise (except our LORD, of course:))

B) He was a frail or asthenic being whose illness was not surprising, although it’s sudden fatal course was.

Any thoughts?

ICXC NIKA.
 
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