Thursday, July 1, 2004

The Gospel of John

THE GOSPEL AND THE MOVIE
Our learned Deacon Ken is doing a Bible study of the Gospel of John that features watching part of the movie after we discuss the chapters. DK knows his stuff and its all very illuminating. Of course, its not really fair to judge a movie that you watch in pieces but it seems like a typical "Bible" movie to me ... in other words, not the best "movie" I've ever seen although an interesting accompaniment to studying the gospel.

It does have a lot of great stuff though. So far my favorite is John the Baptist. Now this guy really looks like he's been living on locusts and honey in the desert, dressed in a skin ... the stuff crazy prophets are made of. When the Pharisees asked why he was baptizing, he jumped up and started waving his arms around and wailing about being the voice in the wilderness. You could just see the Pharisees edging away, not daring to turn their backs on this nut in case he jumped them. Perfect.

As for the other actors, they all are about what you'd expect. Except Mary. She looks like a dowager duchess who is slumming without her diamond necklace and formal gown. I could handle an old Mary who looks like she might have ever set foot in the Middle East but what were they thinking to cast this woman? She looks as if she's about to call Jeeves over to discuss the wine list. I can't wait to see how she handles the crucifixion scene.

Jesus is ok although I understood what Tom meant when he said that Jesus was a little too "groovy" for him. Well, Jim Caviezel set that bar pretty high in "The Passion of the Christ" so I can live with a "groovy" Jesus even if he does have the obligatory English accent. As Hannah says, doesn't everyone know that Jesus spoke with an American accent?

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