04/26/2004: "The Gospel of John movie"

I had rented via netflix "The Gospel of John". It was a movie that was supposed to be released straight to DVD, but because of all the controversy surrounding "The Passion" they decided to release to the theatres for a short while first. It was released to DVD a couple weeks ago. I got to seeing the 3 hour movie on Saturday morning at home. Here is my review:

Overall it is worth seeing. It is a 'B' quality movie, which for a Christian movie is something to be proud of. While the acting wasn't compelling, it wasn't distractingly bad either. The sets, camera work, music, and other factors that go into making a movie great, were similarly good enough to be reasonable but not so great as to lift it up above being a 'B' movie.

The movie is a word-for-word re-telling of The Gospel of John using a translation (Good News Bible -from the American Bible Society) that I wasn't particulary happy with. The translation is an odd mixture of modern language and traditional phrasing. In this translation "Amen, Amen" is changed into "I tell you the truth", which isn't a horrible translation to bring to light what "Amen, Amen" means, but there were a few instances where it was distracting and not in the proper context. On the other extreme, there were also instances (I wish I could remember a specific one right now) where their insistence on sticking to a particular phrasing hindered the ability to communicate the point. Some of this can of course is because the translators weren't translating to put it on screen, but I think the movie would have been better served using the NIV (or NAB for us Catholics!).

What I found most interesting was that even though it was straight from scripture is just how much interpretation one can put into a passage on the screen. The clensing of the temple of the moneychangers was horribly done in my opinion. It showed Christ as a maniac without purpose who had just flipped his lid. It was a strong diversion from the Christ of the rest of the Gospel of John (including His dipiction in the movie) that was confident, bold and in control.

What I liked best about the movie was how it showed how controversial Christ's teaching was to the Jewish people. Unlike "The Passion" (which wasn't trying to accomplish this anyway) this movie makes it very apparent that Christ and the Jewish Authorities were in bitter conflict. It even makes it seem that Christ was provoking them to some degree. Although the Pharases were still the villans, they were villans that had a justification for their position. They were a people who's hearts were closed to Christ's message, not a people who were just out to get Him.

Overall it is worth renting. If nothing else it is an opportunity to take in the entire Gospel of John which is particularly valuable if you don't have the discipline to sit down and read the entire Gospel. I recommend taking out your favorite translation of the Bible and following along. It made it all that much more interesting to watch.