P
patrick457
Guest
Actually, I might sound rather cynical here, but I would say that the film succeeded because it was advertised as being “accurate to the gospels.” In a way, that claim ensured that the film will draw in Christian audiences. (Why wouldn’t it?)
I usually tend to take such claims of ‘accuracy’ with a grain of salt, because, as I sort of implied in the last post, no Jesus film is completely ‘accurate’: every visual depiction of the gospels out is an interpretation. As for TPotC, I’d argue that yes, it’s ‘accurate’, but in a selective sort of way: more often it ‘goes beyond’ the gospels, filling in the gaps. (Now whether that is a good or bad thing, I’ll leave for folks to decide.) When it comes to terms of ‘faithfulness’, the film makes such heavy use of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich’s visions that I actually prefer to see TPotC as a film adaptation of The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ than the gospels per se. TPotC is a film about an event recorded in the gospels filtered through Emmerich’s visions and Catholic iconography.
The last major Hollywood director to make a similar marketing tactic was Cecil B. DeMille for his 1927 The King of Kings (not to be confused with the 1961 Jesus film with a similar title; the only between these two films is the title). Actually, there’s a whole lot of similarities between DeMille and Mel and their respective films. (Guess what? Both films were popular - The King of Kings was the last major Hollywood Jesus film until the 1961 King of Kings - and both happened to be accused of anti-Semitism, for pretty much the same reasons.)
DeMille also claimed his film was ‘accurate’ to the gospels - now, in his case too, the claim of ‘accuracy’ needs to be qualified: yes, the film is based on the gospels, and much of the dialogue - intertitles, of course; this is a silent film - is lifted straight from the text (complete with citations), but at the same time, DeMille handled his source material rather creatively (he grafts dialogues from their original contexts into new ones; he sometimes patches together quotes from different passages - that’s why the scriptural citations provided can be at times inaccurate or misleading
) and added in that original subplot about Judas and Mary Magdalene being ex-lovers.Like Mel, DeMille also made sure to bolster his claim of authenticity: the two guys sought out various religious advisers when making their film. Both directors took on a reverential air during filming (Mel had a priest on board AFAIK, much focus was made on Mel and Jim Caviezel’s devout Catholicism; similarly, Episcopalian DeMille had a priest, a rabbi and a Protestant pastor - he covered all his bases
- and before filming, he cautioned the actors and crew that “we must treat these characters while they are in makeup as if they were the original characters of the Bible;” he even kept the actor playing Jesus, H.B. Warner, at a distance from the other actors), and the production of both films have their own share of sacred lore. (In Mel’s case, the stories about non-Christians in the crew being moved enough to convert to Christianity; Jim Caviezel miraculously surviving a lightning strike.)Both guys were devoutly serious about their work, and the marketing for their films really focused on that, to their advantage. Both men were Christians making their films for us the Christian viewers, and so they’re obviously going to emphasize the things that will sure to perk up our ears when advertising the films. Now I’m not saying their piety is false or that this tactic is wrong or anything; I’m just saying, claiming ‘accuracy’ to the original texts and piety for your film is a very effective marketing tool, especially if you’re targeting a religious audience. I mean, they’re the ones buying the tickets and all the merch.
You have the same thing for other religions: I also like to watch Indian ‘mythologicals’ or ‘devotional’ films (films and TV series based on Hindu mythology and the gods thereof) and it also happens that some of the more famous films are the ones that actively target the faithful Hindu audience.