Great Film: The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John
the truth
This film was surprisingly very good. Unlike Mel Gibson's "The Passion of
Christ" this movie can serve both Christians and non-Christians as a
cohesive educational experience. But this isn't a boring, conservative
Christian movie. All really good dramas are character-driven and the
potrayal/interpretation of Jesus in this movie is so strong that if I were
the crying type I very well might have. Jesus is very genuine,
compassionate, emotional, yet self-controlled. At first I wasn't quite
sold
by Henry Ian Cusick's style, but his sincerity was really consistent
throughout the movie and I was convinced about 20 minutes into the movie
at
most. Other users have commented on how they were surprised by Jesus's
impatience with the discples or loud tone when speaking to the Pharisees
but
I have to say, if you've read the Gospels then you should expect Jesus to
be
demonstrative and uninhibited, as circumstances dictate.
As others have said, this movie is a faithful adaptation of the gospel of
John. I thought that having every single word of the book either spoken by
characters or narrated was a necessary and intelligent decision to make.
To
hear the Word allows you to consider the actors & director's
interpretation
of certain events & verses, and also to simply consider the Word for
yourself in a comprehensive manner. After all, how often does one ever
read
straight through the book of John?
Watching this movie really helps the Christian understand Jesus'
incredibly difficult situation. I'm not talking about the
crucifiction,
but the fact that Jesus as the Son of God is incarnated into a man and has
to tell men who he really is. To put it more clearly, imagine if God
incarnate stood before you as an average looking human being and said "I
am
the Son of God." Unless you saw a miracle it you would not be willing to
suspend disbelief. I empathized with Jesus when he emphatically said, "I
am
telling you the truth!" so many times throughout the movie.
In conclusion, this movie is really worth your time to watch. Although
it
is very long and you may lose focus at times during the
middle portion I would still highly recommend it. It isn't perfect but
overall it's a fantastic piece of work.
Cast
- Narrator (voice) played by Christopher Plummer
- John The Baptist played by Scott Handy
- John played by Stuart Bunce
- Simon Peter played by Daniel Kash
- Jesus Christ played by Henry Ian Cusick
- Pontius Pilate played by Stephen Russell
- Judas Iscariot played by Alan Van Sprang
