Jesus

Rating:
Summary: A More Human Side
Review: This video, although from Trimark Home Video, is not part of the Bible series. This is a two-tape video that portrays the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The portrayal is not chronological. Our first meeting with him is at a carpentry job that Joseph and he are working. After this, Joseph will die, and Jesus will leave to be tempted in the desert. All mention of his childhood and birth are through flashbacks. In this movie, Jesus does not understand that he is the Messiah until the temptation.

In this video, the movie producers have included a love interest for Jesus (before the desert). I understand the producers wish to heighten the effect that he must leave everything behind for his mission, but I was a little disappointed that they would add something like this. This is similar to what they did in the "Jeremiah" video. The film makers seem to want Jesus to be more human to the viewer.

Some other characters are altered a bit. Mary Magdelene has a bigger role in this movie than she had in the Gospels. I did not feel that this changed much. John the Baptist, in a talk with Jesus, seems to be a prophet by career choice rather than by divine direction. Pontius Pilate seems a bit more vicious in this film.

Even though parts are added and others are altered, I would still recommend watching the movie. Primarily, I would use it for discussion about the Bible.

Rating:
Summary: The worst tv-movie of Jesus.
Review: To me this CBS network version of Jesus is not the best. Filmed more like a comedy and sciene fiction. The wwriting of the movie is done not straight from the Holy Bible, but written in modern language, filmed in a modern storytelling as if Jesus were here now. This does not start at the beginning, so this film may confuse those that do not know Jesus very well. Debra Messing made this film interesting to want to see, straight from her NBC tv series "Will & Grace" fame. If you can imagine Debra Messing as "Mary Magdeline", she plays the role serious. Jacqueline Bisset fits in as the mother of Jesus, Mary. Jermey Sisto does not play "Jesus" as Robert Powell seriously did in NBC's Jesus Of Nazareth (1977). Jeremy Sisto plays his role like a modern young man in college. But that's the bad writing and direction of the film. The Mount of Olives scenes were very inaccurate. No man in year 2000 clothing appeared to Jesus in real life. Jesus do not "time-travel" to the future like science fiction. They did not manufacter 20th century hand mirrors back then either. I give this tv-movie the lowest rating. For a real emotional,dramatic and accurate telling of Jesus, may I recommend Jesus of Nazareth (1977). Available on VHS and DVD from Amazon.com.

Rating:
Summary: calvanists wouldn't like this one
Review: Wonderful movie about our Lord. Couple of instances veers from scripture but most of it true to scripture. I figure that most Calvinists will take exception as according to their theology you are not allowed to make movies about Jesus, breaks the 2nd commandment they say!! Why they watch it then I don't know. For those interested in evangelism and would rather watch this than some heathen trash then enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Not Bible-based, inaccurate, fabricated facts.
Review: Though the film is well produced and directed, there were horrific inaccuracies, all within the first 20 minutes. The time and place of Joseph's death are NOT known. NOWHERE in the Bible do you find this. It is NOT written in the Bible that Joseph advised Jesus on when to do the things he did. It is NOT in the Bible that Jesus ever said he, "loved," Mary (Mary and Martha, not his mother). It is NOT in the Bible that Jesus demanded of God that Joseph be brought back to life. It is NOT in the Bible that Jesus said, "I cannot do this alone!" This video is as big an inaccurate and fabricated mess as "Noah." Any Christian, or anyone with any knowledge at all of the Bible, would not watch this video or recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: The Absolute Worst!
Review: This movie is the most disappointing adaptation of the story of Jesus Christ I have ever witnessed. Something about Jesus talking in a 21st century, flippant American dialect is disturbing. It had no authentic feel. We could handle the older classics getting away with removing Jesus and the characters in the story from their Jewishness and their native culture, but this one failed miserably. You would fare better with Jesus of Nazareth, King of Kings or The Greatest Story Ever Told. At least the actors, although many guilty of the same lack of cultural authenticity, delivered with passion and reverence....

Rating:
Summary: a flagrant disregard for scripture
Review: Eight people are named in the credits as "Historical and Biblical advisors", and one has to wonder if they came up with the nonsense in this film, or Suzette Couture went her own way when writing the teleplay; whatever the reason, it presents a Jesus who is insecure, indecisive, and unsure of who He is and what He is supposed do.
Here are examples of what takes place just in the first 40 minutes (and the film is nearly 3 hours long):

Mary (sister of Lazarus) is madly in love with Jesus and there is talk of their marriage.
Jesus (unsuccessfully of course) tries to raise Joseph from the dead, but is seen as a young child bringing a bird back to life.
John the Baptist's script and delivery sounds as if it has been culled from "Braveheart", with John shouting in a rich brogue, "Freedom !".
Jesus: "John, will you baptize me"
John: "if you confess your sins and dedicate your life to God"
Jesus: "of course"
John: "I baptize you with water for repentance".

Jesus then spends the 40 days in the desert. In the interest of equal opportunity, Satan appears at times as a seductive woman dressed in red, spouting utter balderdash.
Sultry Satan: "Empty yourself of your divinity, empty yourself of the Father...only in this way can we challenge each other"
Jesus: "I am willing"
Sultry Satan: "welcome to life, Jesus".

Nice epic style score by Patrick Williams, and cinematography by Raffaele Mertes, and the cast does their best, but it is too bad these able actors were wasted in this sham of a film. I believe if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and there is certainly no need to "fix" the Gospels, and make ludicrous "humanizing" additions to the life of Jesus.

Rating:
Summary: The best and the worst, at the same time
Review: This miniseries telling of Jesus' life got a lot of contraversy for not sticking 100 percent to the scriptures. In some ways, it's great for doing that, but in others, this film is ruined.

The most talked about element of this film is the dialect. All the characters speak with a fresh, 21st Century patter that for many was disconserting, but I preferred it to the normally stilted tellings that don't let Jesus say anything that wasn't in at least one of the four Gospels. Here it's more believable that Jesus loved humanity, especially the disciples, because he interacts more with them. The producers of this movie weren't afraid to have Jesus discuss the weather, or just hang out with his buds and laugh a bit. In the end, this Jesus comes across as more real than the Messiah does in most theatrical tellings.

Also there are fictionalized elements included like Mary's crush on Jesus that help to make the other characters more real in this telling, as well.

But there are times that the film makers here took a few too many liberties for my tastes. In one scene, for example, Ciaiphas and Pilate meet in secret, conspiring to eliminate the problem of Jesus; Pilate assures Ciaiphas that he will have Jesus executed, contrary to the Bible where Pilate seems to hardly know Jesus and the only reason he has Jesus executed is to avoid a riot from Ciaiphas' followers. Mind you, for the sake of space I'm relating a popular interpretation of Pilate's motivations, but certainly nowhere is it even hinted at in the Bible that Pilate and Ciaiphas were conspiritors, at least prior to Jesus' trials.

One other element that bothered me was the scenes of Mary Magdelene working as a prostitute, which start early in the film (considerably prior to her even meeting Jesus) and are surprisingly erotic, interspersed in the film for their obvious titilation factor. Never mind the fact that the Bible never mentions Mary Magdelene's profession, only that she's wealthy (although many scholars do believe she earned her wealth through prostitution), this film makes her perceived profession an excuse for a little T&A.

There is also one character in this movie that is completely fictional, yet plays a critical role in bringing about Jesus' execution. Added to that, the seperation of the Father and the Son even in Jesus' mind (he tells Satan "I am not the father, I am only the son" during the temptations in the dessert, but in the Bible, he instructs his disciples "When you look at me, you see the Father").

It also appears in a few places that the Bible was not the source material for this film, but instead the previous miniseries "Jesus of Nazereth", since both films contain the remarkably similar early meeting between Jesus and Barrabas (in the Bible, the only scene with Barrabas is during the trials, when Pilate offers to release Jesus but the crowd demands the release of Barrabas instead).

In the end, it's a fascinating concept, making Jesus feel more real by novilizing his life rather than going for a word-for-word telling from the Scripture. But the producers simply took their liberties too far.

Rating:
Summary: a flagrant disregard for scripture
Review: Eight people are named in the credits as "Historical and Biblical advisors", and one has to wonder if they came up with the nonsense in this film, or Suzette Couture went her own way when writing the teleplay; whatever the reason, it presents a Jesus who is insecure, indecisive, and unsure of who He is and what He is supposed do.
Here are examples of what takes place just in the first 40 minutes (and the film is nearly 3 hours long):

Mary (sister of Lazarus) is madly in love with Jesus and there is talk of their marriage.
Jesus (unsuccessfully of course) tries to raise Joseph from the dead, but is seen as a young child bringing a bird back to life.
John the Baptist's script and delivery sounds as if it has been culled from "Braveheart", with John shouting in a rich brogue, "Freedom !".
Jesus: "John, will you baptize me"
John: "if you confess your sins and dedicate your life to God"
Jesus: "of course"
John: "I baptize you with water for repentance".

Jesus then spends the 40 days in the desert. In the interest of equal opportunity, Satan appears at times as a seductive woman dressed in red, spouting utter balderdash.
Sultry Satan: "Empty yourself of your divinity, empty yourself of the Father...only in this way can we challenge each other"
Jesus: "I am willing"
Sultry Satan: "welcome to life, Jesus".

Nice epic style score by Patrick Williams, and cinematography by Raffaele Mertes, and the cast does their best, but it is too bad these able actors were wasted in this sham of a film. I believe if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and there is certainly no need to "fix" the Gospels, and make ludicrous "humanizing" additions to the life of Jesus.

Rating:
Summary: A refreshing perspective...
Review: From the opening sequences of the film, I knew this would be a "different" movie about Jesus from others I had seen. I am not implying, by any means, that there is anything "faulty" about other renditions, such as "Jesus of Nazareth" and "The Greatest Story Ever Told". Both are quite accurate and reverent accounts of Jesus Christ's life and ministry, and are among my favorite re-tellings of Jesus' story. I also extend praise to "The Last Temptation of Christ", a great production as well, because it proposes a unique, albeit controversial, question on what Christ's significance and impact on humanity would have been if he had not died on the cross. What makes "Jesus" one-of-a-kind is that it takes the main elements of the three aforementioned films and skillfully blends them into a portrait of Christ as a man who was, very much, both human--experiencing temptations and doubts, and having wants and needs such as the desire to lead an average life: working as a carpenter, possibly marrying and raising a family--and divine, performing miracles and healing the sick to support the message of God's love of all humankind. "Jesus" is definitely a fresh, yet dignified and very believable depiction of a man, his life and mission, all of which continue to be somewhat of a mystery to many.

Rating:
Summary: Jesus Christ Never Existed.
Review: 'Jesus' is a famous film that a number of people know about or have seen. Most people fail to realize all of that doesn't matter because Jesus Christ never existed!! Jesus Chirst is a mythological figure the chruch has exploited for hundreds of years and now the film industry has for almost a hundred years. There is absolutely no archeological or historical evidence that he existed. Even if he did exist, it would be highly unlikely he would have received that kind of punishment.
It is a shame that a con artists like these filmmakers are using this mythological figure to make millions of dollars. People have to start swaying away from the chruch and its manipulations and start looking at the hard facts. Jesus Christ and the crucifixion never happened.