The Easter Experience & Kings - Stories from the Bible Told in New Ways

Richard Ramsey linked to an interesting looking series entitled The Easter Experience.  While I initially thought it was some kind of interactive passion play, it turns out to be a series of 6 20-minute episodes about the Passion of Jesus.  The twist is that this series frames the events as lessons for life application, not unlike the way that the Stations of the Cross puts symbolic and metaphorical meaning on the events of Jesus' Passion. This film reminds me of Son of Man, which we talked about a long time ago and I'd still like to see, as well as NBC's Kings, the modern re-telling of the book of Samuel(ironically not the book of Kings).  Kings premieres this Sunday, and I'm really looking forward to it.  Done right, The Book of Samuel could be a better family crime drama than The Sopranos, with easily twice as much violence and sex.  Lets hope they go all out, at least to hold us over until HBO produces a piece directly based on the Bible.  Plus it has Wes Studi, always awesome as a villian, as the Bible's #1 S.O.B., Joab.

(source- Richard Ramsey)
The Easter Experience Trailer



Kings Trailer

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Jesus, the Spirit of God

Here's a film that a lot of other websites are already up in arms about.

Jesus, The Spirit of God, is an Iranian film about the Islamic version of the life of Christ. Partly funded by Iranian State Broadcasting, the film follows the Gospels for the most part, the divergers when, as recounted in the Koran, (SPOILER WARNING) God saves Jesus from the Cross and He ascends straight to Heaven.

I just listened to a podcast the other day discussing the Islamic view of Jesus. The theory on the podcast was that Muhammed was familiar only with the Gnostic Gospels that were popular in Arabia at the time. This would explain the way that Muhammed felt the Jesus could be integrated with the Koran.

A lot of people are upset about this film, and I can't say that I'm happy with it's theology, but it does raise an interesting point.

How do you think Jewish people feel when there are Christian movies made about Moses, Abraham and David?



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The Most Historical Post of All Time

Another slow news week. Nothing really to report, at least nothing I'm interested in reporting. Yet another Noah's Ark movie(apart from Evan Almighty, Darren Aronofsky's proposed sci-fi take and the other animated one from the people making that awful looking Ten Commandments CGI). This one is told from the point of view of the animals. Blah. Who cares? This has been done before(Fantasia 2000, Madagascar was similar as was The Wild). Unless it features dragons biting the heads off mermaids(Robot Chicken) then I'm not interested in more talking animals.

Uh, what else? Two movies about the adolescent years of Jesus. One is a supremely boring looking documentary called Jesus: The Lost Years. It traces the "most historical journey of all time"(WTF does that even mean?) from Palestine to Egypt. The preview talks of Jesus doing miracles in Egypt and founding churches, you know, all the stuff that was cut out of the Bible by the council of Nicaea in order to cover up the evidence of alien landings in New Mombassa. Or something.

The other is called The Aquarian Gospel, about Jesus's years from 13-30. A lot of the same territory that Ann Rice covered in her no-longer-going-to-be-a-film Christ The Lord. I've heard Rice's book is good literature and not bad theology, so I guess there is some potential here. However, it should be noted that The Aquarian Gospel is directed by the guy who directed The Secret movie, which is one of the most anti-Christian and anti-intelligence projects to be shoved into popularity through Oprah and good marketing.

There is a part of me that wants the "lost" years of Jesus to be some kind of Kung Fu meets Highlander, where Jesus wanders the earth, learns martial arts, fights bad guys and the occasional dragon. Basically Samurai Jack with a few people raised from the dead. Or something close in tone to Xena, with Jesus meeting everyone from Abraham to Emperor Caligula(Xena actually did all that).

Or we could go the modern route like Mark Millar's Chosen(source of the picture), except that has a killer twist at the end, which, for me, brought the whole sacrilegious nature of the project full circle and it actually made sense.

I have a podcast to recommend, but I'll save that for tomorrow.

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Walk the Line down the Gospel Road!

This week we're reviewing a movie I've been looking forward to for a while, Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus. Directed by Robert Elfstrom, and starring Elfstrom as Jesus and Johnny Cash as the narrator who guides you through the life of Jesus, this film is one of the most unusual films about Jesus I've ever seen. It also features the incomparable music of Johnny Cash, with help from June Carter Cash and Kris Kristofferson. Tune in to see how it measured up to our (high) expectations, and to hear a bit about what's coming up for the Super Candid Podcast!

Show Notes:

The San Antionio Christian Independant Film Festival(which we mentioned once before, here)

Across The Universe Official Website -Best Film I (Jon) have seen this year!

Delicious Monster - organize and catalog your books, music, movies, etc.

Halo 3 Theatre Information

Wes Anderson's Hotel Chevalier is free on !

The Game I mentioned playing with Don is the great Ticket to Ride.

Intro:"God's Gonna Cut You Down" By DJ Schmolli and the Johnny Cash AllStar Band Outro:"Must I Wait" by Phil Wickham from 'Cannons'

Subscribe to our podcast by clicking the link at the right (or click here for iTunes) or download it directly here.

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It may not star Monicca Bellucci, but...

Sure, I'm a bit dissapointed that Monica Bellucci hasn't chosen to follow up her excellent work in The Passion with a sequel, but that doesn't mean the gap is being left unfilled.

Matt Page over at The Bible Films Blog reported on a new film called Magdalena: Released from Shame. It tells the story of Mary Magdalena, post crucifixition, as she spreads the word of Jesus. According to the offical website's synopsis, she tells the story of Jesus life to a group of women who have a hard time believing that God could care about any human, let alone such lowly women as themselves. Mary responds by telling the various stories of Jesus literally going out of His way to help women.

What makes this film really interesting is that it uses footage from older Jesus films, specifically the 1979 film Jesus starring Brian Deacon, and weaves it in with new footage. I'm always interested in projects that use older films this way. For those of you who don't know, I'm a film student and filmmaker myself, and using archival footage is one of my personal passions.

Anyway, the film stars Rebecca Ritz as Mary Magdalane, Gigi Orsillo as Salmone(described as "Mary's friend"), Brian Deacon as Jesus("archival footage" as the IMDB would put it) and Shira Lane as Rivka.

Matt mentions on his blog entry that the film seems to be unique among Jesus films in that it specifically references the man who is not proseucted for adultery along with the woman that Jesus saves. But I would also like to point out that the film seems to be making a distinction between Mary Magdalane and the adulterous woman, which is also highly unusual for a film about Jesus. Maybe this film can help Mary overcome some of Pope Gregory I's slander.

The official website for this film stinks of typical movie websites, with too much reliance upon animation and forcing you to navigate through a bizarre image intensive interface. But, it does have a trailer(click "Multimedia") and several clips from the film(after watching the trailer click the small "X" and then click on the women in the background to view clips).

I'm really interested in seeing how this film turns out, since Jesus spent a lot of time helping women and that is rarely highlighted in films. Hopefully we'll be able to review it on DVD when it is released.

Even though it, in my opinion, wrongfully identifies Mary as the adulterous woman, this clip from The Passion features Monica Bellucci as Mary, so that trumps historical accuracy. Come to think of it, invoking Monica Bellucci pretty much trumps anything...what was this post about again?

(story from The Bible Films Blog)

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A Quick word...

Hey, Jon here from the great state of Louisana, where I'm duitfully doing my duty in the national guard. It's actually not so bad, considering that I was laid off from my day job at the end of June, so even being away from home beats being unemployed. I'll only be here for another week or so, but I'm enjoying it so far. I just listened to the latest episode of the SuperCandid Podcast and I have to say that I was impressed. Justin did a great job as a fill in for me, especially considering the size of the shoes he had to fill. Seriously, he was excellent and insightful. I have a few thoughts, but I left my notes in my hotel room so I'll save that for another post. I thought I'd just offer some Christian cinema updates for those who are interested: Farenheit: Council of the 12!-A new documentary about Mormons, that pseudo-Christian group that is trying to get into the White House(Jon's opinon only, -ed.), draws strong parallels between Mormon founder Joseph Smith and Presidental cannidate and Massacheutes Govenor Mitt Romney. The film, titled Mormon President, details Smith's own run for President in the 19th century. I'd never heard about Smith running for President, and Romney seems to be the Republican front runner, IMO, so this might be an interesting film. Lionsgate will distribute the as yet untitled documentary on religion from Borat director Larry Charles. The film, starring Bill Maher as the host and narrator, examines religion from the Vatican to trailer chruches in the American South. Sounds to me like Maher and Charles are doing a cross between Michael Moore and Sascha Cohen, but I love this quote from the director: "Nietzsche said God is dead, but he didn't see the grosses for 'Passion of the Christ,' " Charles said." Beyond the Sun-a tale of Darfur. Art Ayris, a pastor from Florida, has signed a deal with Future Films(Bend it like Beckham) and Sixth Sense Productions(Hotel Rwanda) to produce his screenplay about a farmer trying to resuce his daughter from slave traders. Sounds like a great premise. I'll have more info on this as it develops. Finally, Jesus, the movie produced by Campus Crusade for Christ, has been translated into its 1000th language. The producers say they are planning to translate it into at least 500 more. You can click this link to watch the film, for free, in North American English. It is a testament to the translation effort that there are 3 versions just in English, and you can watch it in any language you choose here. There are 800 versions online now, with more to come. You know, I saw Jesus a long time ago, and I still remember the film, for one important aspect. I think that Brian Deacon, who played Jesus, brought a humanity to Jesus that almost every other filmed version lacks. This Jesus laughs a lot, smiles a lot, enjoys being with people. I highly recommend the film. Save This Page