There were no pictures painted of Jesus until the 6th century and there is no record of his appearance, but ever since Louis Lumiere's La Vie et la Passion de Jesus Christ in 1898, filmmakers have been giving the son of God a face. Here's a few notables.
One of the most viewed movies of all time was Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings (1921), which featured a traditional Jesus (H. B. Warner) and drew inspiration from Victorian engravings and Renaissance art. The remake in 1961 was directed by Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause) and starred Jeffrey Hunter as a moody, confused youth figure.
1965 saw Max von Sydow as an otherworldly, mystical Jesus in the epic The Greatest Story Ever Told, who was then twisted four years later by Dennis Potter into a confused, tormented Galilean carpenter (Colin Blakely) in Son of Man.
In the 70s Ted Neely was a hippy messiah in Jesus Christ Superstar, the film of Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical. Disco diva Yvonne Elliman played Mary Magdelene. The musical was resurrected in 2000, with Glenn Carter as Jesus and Rik Mayall as Herod. Do we want to talk about Godspell? I don't think so.
Robert Powell was Franco Zefferelli's droopy-eyed messiah in Jesus of Nazareth (1977). A reverential retelling in epic form of the gospels, with loaves, fishes, miracles and more, it was co-written by Anthony Burgess and the huge cast included Laurence Olivier, Anne Bancroft, Anthony Quinn and Ernest Borgnine.
Things lightened up by 1979, with Life of Brian, featuring Graham Chapman as the best-ever Jesus who was not really Jesus. Okay, the only one. The Monty Python classic about a bloke who was born on the right day, wrong stable is still one of the funniest movies of all time. Great line among many: "He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
Most controversial Christ? Willem Dafoe's tormented Jesus in Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ (1988), which drove Christians on to the streets in protest.
Scorsese said he wanted "to make the life of Jesus immediate and accessible to people who haven't really thought about God in a long time." Which brings us neatly back to the BBC.
Christ on film
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.