Following in the footsteps of The Passion of the Christ almost exactly ten years ago, another major motion picture about Jesus Christ is opening up in theaters in Madison and across the country this weekend. Like Mel Gibson’s Passion, The Son of God has a full-scale Hollywood promotion blitz behind it. Only this time there’s also a social media campaign.
In a promotional video for the movie, movie producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett state, “This is the first major motion picture on the complete life of Jesus Christ from birth to resurrection since The Greatest Story Ever Told, which was released nearly 50 years ago.” Well, maybe.
Obviously The Passion of the Christ only told the the story of Jesus’ final days. But that same spring of 2004 another movie was showing in theaters, called The Gospel of John, starring Harry Ian Cusick (Desmond Hume in Lost) as Jesus. It was a three-hour epic based entirely on the fourth gospel, with narration by Christopher Plummer. I liked The Gospel of John more than The Passion of the Christ but not nearly as many people saw it.
In 1979 The Jesus Film was produced, based entirely on the Gospel of Luke. The acting wasn’t quite as good as the later Gospel of John but it was shot in Israel, released to theaters, and then in the ensuing years translated into more than 1,200 different languages. Campus Crusade for Christ, now known as Cru, shows The Jesus Film to more than three million people every year.
So maybe Downey and Burnett are stretching things a little bit, or using their own interpretation of “major motion picture” in their promotion of their movie. “We’re so excited that we’re once again able to see the life-changing story of Jesus on the big screen,” they said.
And that’s probably the main point. For 2,000 years the story of Jesus has been changing lives. That fact is why Campus Crusade has spent millions of dollars taking The Jesus Film to remote villages which will never have a movie theater, showing it to people in their own language, many of whom have never seen a motion picture before.
More than 100-million people reportedly tuned in to watch The Bible mini-series on television, also produced by Downey and Burnett. The script took some liberties with the biblical narrative. I haven’t seen The Son of God, so I don’t know if it follows the biblical narrative as closely as The Gospel of John and The Jesus Film.
But if you do go see it, why not make up your mind ahead of time to talk about how Jesus has changed your life, as much as how you liked or disliked the latest Hollywood version of His life.