Thanks for your thoughts on Risen. I will also check it out.
I also like Jesus Christ Superstar. It’s a favorite of mine.
To be honest, there aren’t that many to choose from. Sometimes, there is the odd low-budget film that comes along, but these are not widely available. I have seen some for sale in shops connected to religious communities. Some on YouTube.
I didn’t like
Risen. I thought the portrayal of Mary was insensitively done in front of the Cross. I also thought that various areas weren’t treated with particular attention to Scripture. I thought some of the acting was convincing and there were messages in there that were of note.
Jesus Christ Superstar was very good.
There is a film about St. Francis - the old one - that is quite good. There is a film about St. Pio that is good, but these are not Biblical, of course.
The Robe was good. But I preferred the book.
Typing into Google, there appear to be many; however, a lot of the films are dated and the only modern ones we have, while they are expressions of faith on the part of some, I don’t feel really hold up that well from a Catholic viewpoint.
I have never really found a film that I found to be particularly satisfying. Even
JCS, despite being fun to watch, for me, does not bring everything together in all things Catholic. Though there was strength found in some areas.
The Passion of the Christ, I used to like, but now see problematic areas that do not sync with what I understand of Scripture. There are some good moments, such as Jesus and Mary joking together when He had just finished making a table, when Mary was asking if He was hungry. That scene was delightful. Although I do think that Mary’s holiness is always under-valued when expressed and Jesus is never quite authoritative enough even though He did not grasp equality as a thing to be grasped - He would have been meek and gentle but still had presence. That is not to say that I thought those particular people who played Jesus in these films did a bad job - no way, the performances are often awesome - but rather, the presence wasn’t there to some degree in the scripts and general character writing.
Not running the efforts down - apart from
The Last Temptation of Christ - but merely expressing sadness that there is nothing out there which really grasps all the nuances and subtleties, and meditative value, of The Word of God. Somehow, they always fail to grasp that mystical level to the faith.
There was a Bible series about Jesus called
Son of God that had strong moments.
