Living All In

From The Record (Ont, CAN):

Adele Reinhartz is vice-president (research) at the University of Ottawa. A Conservative Jew, she worked as an adviser to film producers in the mid-1990s and on Garth Drabinsky’s 2003 production, The Gospel of John.Her book Jesus of Hollywood (Oxford University Press) has just been released. It’s an academic study of the depiction of Jesus in popular movies.  She makes observations from these Jesus-themed movies (among others):

THE KING OF KINGS (1961)

The King of Kings was produced less than two decades after the horrors of the Holocaust.

At the beginning of the film, a narrator tells the audience that in the year 63 BC the Romans invaded Jerusalem. The wording evokes memories of the Second World War.

"It’s clearly reflecting on the history of the Jewish people and on the creation of the State of Israel," Reinhartz said in a telephone interview before her lecture.

The wording is evidence of society’s growing sensitivity to Jewish issues after the Holocaust, she said.

Michael says: Never saw it.  It’s already clear to me that this book is ‘clearly’ written through a Jewish filter, something I can’t relate to nor can I assume I’d draw the same conclusions.

JESUS CHRIST SUPER STAR (1973)

While most movies depict Jesus in a reverential fashion, some don’t.

Jesus Christ Superstar, the campy 1973 musical that was directed by Norman Jewison, shows Jesus as a whiny celebrity, Reinhartz says.

In the scene of the Last Supper, Jesus complains that His disciples won’t even remember Him when He’s gone.

Instead of dramatizing a highly theological moment, Jewison depicts Jesus as a whiny celebrity who wants to be remembered.

In a sense, Reinhartz said, the movie is a mirror of our times.

"It’s really a critique of the cult of celebrity. It reflects our own pre-occupation with celebrity."

But it’s one of only a few films that challenge traditionally reverential depictions of Jesus, she said.

Michael says: Saw the play (not the movie.)  I’d agree with the author’s observations here.

LIFE OF BRIAN (1979)

The Monty Python comedic film Life of Brian is also a critique.

"It’s a spoof of the genre itself," Reinhartz said.

"It mocks, makes fun of all of the stereotypes that we normally associate with Jesus in the media and in popular piety."

The movie depicts a fictional character named Brian, a mindless stooge who gets caught up in plots to rebel against the hated Romans.

In one scene, Brian comes home to find a Roman soldier waiting to be sexually satisfied by his mother. She tells Brian that his father isn’t really Mr. Cohen. Rather, dad is a Roman soldier.

At this news, Brian takes a tantrum and spews anti-Jewish stereotypes.

"I’m not a Roman! I’m a kike! A yid! A heebie! A hook nose. I’m kosher, mum. I’m a Red Sea pedestrian and proud of it," he exclaims before storming off to his bedroom.

Jesus, on the other hand, is shown only at a distance in this movie and is treated with traditional reverence, Reinhartz observed.

Michael says: Saw this movie when I was 20.  It made me extremely uncomfortable unlike the MP Holy Grail movie (which I can come close to quoting verbatim.)  Once again, this observation is Jewish-centric while the movie’s central theme revolved around Brian being misidentified as the Christ.  As a Christian, I could easily put forth the main offense of this movie was the gullibility of anyone that looked for the Son of God and its comical bashing of people of faith.

JESUS OF MONTREAL (1989)

The 1989 Canadian production Jesus of Montreal is her favourite Jesus film, Reinhartz said.

In it, she said, filmmaker Denys Arcand used the Gospel stories to criticize the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec during the late 20th century.

The story is about a Catholic priest who enlists an underemployed actor and his band of similarly unemployed actor friends to spruce up his church’s annual Christmas nativity play.

Instead of creating a reverential interpretation of the Gospel, the director of the play departs from Scripture.

He challenges Christian belief in the Virgin Birth.

He also reinterprets the Gospel of Matthew, which repeatedly calls the Jewish Pharisees hypocrites.

"It’s one of the key passages that’s been used in anti-Semitic rhetoric since the first century," Reinhartz said.

Instead of showing the Pharisees as hypocrites, Jesus of Montreal casts the Roman Catholic Church leaders of Quebec as the hypocrites.

It’s another example of a post-Holocaust filmmaker being sensitive to the role of Christian Scripture in anti-Semitism, Reinhartz said.

Michel says: Didn’t see it.  A regionalized retelling casting the RCC of Quebec as pharisees?  Makes sense.  Still, if Jesus called a group of men whitewashed tombs full of dead men’s bones, should we really whitewash over those statements?  Besides, his twelve disciples were Jews.  Was that anti-Semitic?

THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (1988)

Controversy surrounded the 1988 release of Martin Scorsese’s film, The Last Temptation of Christ.

Some Christians were outraged by a dream sequence in which Jesus and Mary Magdalene had sex.

But few people picked up on Jesus’ physically close relationship with Judas, said Reinhartz.

"It’s a homo-erotic relationship . . . Not one that’s consummated sexually. But they have a much closer physical relationship than Jesus does with Mary Magdalene."

In one scene, Jesus sleeps cuddled up with Judas, Reinhartz points out.

"They love each other. There’s no question."

Reinhartz said the physical closeness can’t be explained as just a non-erotic relationship between two men — a relationship that could have been culturally appropriate in Israel at the time.

The movie plays with contemporary issues and doesn’t try to be historically accurate, she said.

"Here you have a Jesus and a Judas with New York accents."

The role of Pilate is played by David Bowie and Pilate’s patrician accent lords over Jesus and His New World, New York accent.

The scene plays on the contemporary cultural relationship between Britain and the United States, Reinhartz said.

Michael says:  Saw parts.  Same feeling as The Life of Brian.  Made me queezy.   All the observations made by the author created disconnects for me: New York accents, David Bowie, and ‘liberal’ ‘artistic’ license.  Bleh.

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (2004)

Filmmakers have used different approaches when depicting Gospel accounts of Jewish mobs who demanded that Pilate crucify Jesus.

In Germany, the silent film Der Galilaer (The Galilean, made about 1921) embellished the Scriptural condemnation of Jews.

The Jewish mob accepts Jesus’ blood on their hands, and on the hands of their children, not only once — as in the Gospel of Matthew — but twice.

Films produced after the Holocaust have downplayed the chanting mob.

In Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, Jesus is alone with Pilate when they speak. There simply is no Jewish mob calling for the crucifixion.

So some viewers may think that the sensitivity of filmmakers to Jews has increased as time has passed.

But that’s not the case, Reinhartz said.

In Mel Gibson’s blockbuster movie The Passion of the Christ (2004), the mob repeatedly calls for Jesus to be crucified.

All of the movie’s dialogue is spoken in Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin, which is translated in the English subtitles.

There are no subtitles on screen during the mob scene, but they are not necessary for viewers to understand what’s taking place, Reinhartz said.

"The visuals say it all. You don’t need the translation."

Michael says: Saw parts.  Can you believe it?  My wife Hayley and I decided not to see it in mini-protest to a church we were visiting not only actively promoting it, but the pastor recommending taking children over eight to see it.  Knowing my wife, she would have been seriously messed up for who knows how long if I took her to that movie.  I couldn’t imagine if she was eight years-old and saw the film.  Side note:  I know Jim Caviezel’s brother Tim pretty well (tho we haven’t seen each other since I moved from the West Coast to Nashville.)

Reinhartz said she can’t predict what future Jesus films will look like.

But she was willing to speculate.

Gibson’s movie doesn’t challenge established theology — and it was highly successful at the box office, she said.

So in the near future, other filmmakers might follow Gibson’s approach.

The evangelical Christian community in the United States is large and influential, Reinhartz noted.

"I think we have a climate now where it could be quite difficult for filmmakers to get production money for a mainstream iconoclastic film."

So, Reinhartz supposes, future Jesus movies will likely lean toward mainstream evangelical Christianity.

"Probably most of the films that will come out won’t be as challenging as Scorsese’s or Jesus of Montreal."

Michael says: Oh darn.  I think I’ll survive.