Year: 2018
Director: Garth Davis
I enjoyed this film released just in time for Easter.
It is a British Australian co-production directed by Garth Davis who made a name for himself with his first movie the highly successful Lion. It stars the elegant and beautiful Rooney Mara as Mary, a dusty dishevelled intense Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus, a strapping Chiwetel Ejiofor as a strapping general like Peter and Algerian actor Tahar Rahim , as a baby faced somewhat naive Judas. Everyone else is fairly peripheral.
MM’s place in life of Jesus has been subject to debate for centuries. From a reformed prostitute as characterised by Pope Gregory in the 16th century and characterised as such from that time on the the alternative view as the 13 th disciple.
This movie focus seeing events through MM’s eyes and clearly positions here as one for whom Jesus holds most affection and she is clearly devoted/ besotted with Jesus. Mary encourages Jesus to talk more to women and address their oppressed situation and at times she interprets his words and actions differently to the 12 disciples. This, of course, rankles especially as they were reluctant to have them join them in the first place. the take on Judas and his motivations is different to the “30 pieces of silver” typically ascribed to him. It’s a slow movie and then whole periods are missed. For example, she is seen to sleep through the entire business with Pilate as next thing we know he is hauling the cross down the road.
The film is beautifully shot in harsh rugged landscapes in Southern Italy and the soundtrack is wonderful. This was the last score of Johann Johannson who died this year, on my birthday offputtingly.
It’s not a popularisation meant to proselytise but is also not a distortion like Last Temptation Of Christ or the blood and guts of Mel Gibson’s movie. Critics have said the line taken by this movie is implausible but I didn’t find it so. What was implausible was how Mary Magdalene kept her clothes and hair so clean while Jesus was so unkempt !
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
Gosh, I dunno but probably wont appeal to you if you have no time for religion in general or Christianity in particular
Jeezus (pun intended),sorry about all the typos – appalling. And I wasn’t even using my phone. Hope you get the gist anyway.
I will almost certainly watch this; I’m always open to someone else’s take on those events. I don’t have faith, but something really strong went down in Galilee that’s for sure, and I find the whole two millenium long thing astonishing. Most weeks I sit in Bristol Cathedral for half an hour at some point in the middle of the day and find it a wonderful experience just being there, soaking up whatever it is that imbues the place with peace. I love churches and church services and wonder if one day I’ll suddenly discover why.
I share that feeling: I love an old church, a cathedral, a basilica, an orthodox, greek or russian, all these buildings. I just hate what they get up to in them.
Witnessed a full on Greek orthodox service in a big church in Geneva some years ago; the hats, the cloaks, the beards, the chanting, the incense, the icons, the lot. Blown away. Utterly compelling experience.
“the hats, the cloaks, the beards, the chanting, the incense, the icons”… mate, you went to see Quintessence by mistake!
I had 6 or so years of regular greek orthodox services, OK in Manchester rather than anywhere fancy. I tell you, after the novelty fades it can, um, go on bit, putting even the papists to shame with the length of their litanies. As well as being all in ancient greek.
The exorcism I witnessed was well creepy tho’…….
I’ve always focussed on the teachings and the good work done rather than Churchianity. Had quite a few encounters with missionaries in Africa and to a person they were wonderful people, devoted and dedicated ,often having lived in austere conditions in remote areas for many many years. That’s the real christianity.
I have no faith – to me, it seems totally lillogical to think there is some higher being looking over us all – all the billions of people here on this speck of a planet in the universe.
However, I was brought up in a broadly Christian world (family, school assemblies, church youth club) which still has an effect. I watch Ben Hur with a tear in my eye to this day – I will lustily sing familiar hymns and feel moved – I will watch a documentary about the star and the three wise men and want it to be convincing, etc.
I will watch this on tv at some stage, as I watched Jesus Of Nazareth and every other similar film….and feel like a real hypocrite.
I watched The Passion starring Joseph Mawle as Jesus a few years back. I was incredibly moved at the end. I’m not any kind of believer, any more than I believe that Kevin Costner heard someone in his field telling him to build a baseball diamond. That’s just good storytelling, as the apostles knew.
Mrs M’s late brother knew Robert Powell circa Jesus and said he was a total arsehole. Rather takes the shine off JoN for me.
Was watching The Greatest Story Ever Told last Monday, and idly wondered, just as David McCallum was about to throw himself into the fire, how different things might have been if he’d been called Fred instead of Judas.
Scene: Manchester Free Trade Hall, 1966…
Heckler: Fred!
Dylan: I don’t believe you!
Reminds me of one of Moriarty’s exclamations, “Sacre Fred!”
The one I use the most is “Sapristi Nabolas!”
Better yet, imagine if Judas had been named Bob…
Scene: Manchester Free Trade Hall, 1966…
Heckler: Bob!
Dylan: What?
Heckler: Bob!!
Dylan: What?
Heckler: B-O-B-B-B!!!
Dylan: Huh?
…and I can well imagine hearing Misty In Roots singing, “Do you remember Bob Iscariot?”
Robert Nesta Marley may well have taken umbrage. Umbrage, I tell you.
Women in Scripture – time for a reappraisal? I rather like the way that Christianity (unlike perhaps some other religions) is prepared to discard some of the dafter elements of its book and review the meaning of others. Women don’t come out of the bible terribly well and perhaps we’ll one day see the theory emerge that one or two of the disciples were women all along. Pretty obvious really; 13 blokes would never have managed to feed 5000 with a dozen haddock and some butties.
And the pope’s abolished hell, which is nice. Wish he’d done it 45 years ago when the local clergy were using it to scare the bejesus into me and the other six year olds.
Amelia Lanyer’s yer man.
Woman, sorry.
I find it difficult to believe in a creator as an entity of some sort or other. All the religions I’ve had a look at seem focussed on a creator, yet where did this creator come from? How did that come about?
Doesn’t make any sense. Yet I do believe there is some kind of spirit within reality as we perceive it. It’s not just random, there is a seed of some kind.
We are here and we know we are here.
Perhaps reality is circular and propels itself and always has done.
Maybe we are nodes of “reality”, along with every vegetable, animal, mineral, whatever and are kept separate because we work better that way. That feeling that we all have had at some point, that we are real and everything else is just in our minds, is not so far-fetched after all.
Otherwise there is no purpose to anything at all, entropy is inevitable and there’s no point in behaving in a civilised manner, because it’s all just going to grind to a halt sometime and then there’ll be nothing. And that’s just really depressing.
Well said Mike.