hasslein

Inundated with Jesus films on television today, and inspired by the "Hollywood hating Christians" thread, I was wondering what was considered the best film that dealt with "The Crucifixion." I didn't include Zeffirelli's mini-series although it has a great cast.

Supermallet

Easily Last Temptation of Christ. Great film. I can't even watch Ben-Hur because of the ridiculous way Jesus is crammed into the story for no good reason.

Bandoman

Jesus is part of every story.

Supermallet

I'm sorry, I'm too busy worshipping Zoroaster to think about Jesus.

hasslein

I only recently saw Greatest Story (Ross had the 2 disc set for $4.99) its way too long, but the original version ran almost an hour longer than the roadshow version... It was a two disc set, but only had a reedited ending as a deleted scene (I know, I know, this is movie talk, not dvd talk) I don't know why it didn't have some of the additional hour...

I just saw Barabbas for the first time as well, and it is really good...

Philzilla

Exactly, how dare they put Jesus in a movie based on a book called Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

Anyway, I voted for Jesus Christ Superstar

The Infidel

It's a toss-up of Last Temptation and Passion. Both are equally compelling stories of possible truths. Passion was arguably the most honest representation of the real brutality he most likely went through, and Temptation showed us a Jesus who may have just been a real man, with real feelings, thoughts and issues like any other person of his time.

chris_sc77

I voted The Last Temptation of Christ because t portrayed the character of Jesus in the most human and sympathetic way. In the passion he came across as a real dickhead and I was almost rooting against him when he was getting his ass beat.

NoirFan

Nicholas Ray's King of Kings

hasslein

I've never been a fan of The Robe, and now there is all this hoopla over its restoration, I prefer its sequel, Demetrius & the Gladiators...

Groucho

Other: Life of Brian. It's omission is shocking.

Supermallet

First off, the movie isn't called that (at least not the Charlton Heston version which is what I assume we're talking about). Secondly, I haven't read the novel. Perhaps it masterfully intertwines the stories of Ben-Hur and Jesus. But the movie does not. The movie is firmly about Ben-Hur, with Jesus appearing completely at random every so often. It's distracting and annoying and having been raised a Jew I resented the idea that the movie was essentially trying to convince people that Jews should "see the light" and convert to Christianity (now, as an atheist, I resent the idea that anyone should believe in religion, period, but that's another story).

So, yes, I stand by my claim that Ben-Hur's inclusion of Jesus results in bad storytelling.

Zen Peckinpah

Last Temptation, by a country mile, a great existential view and one of the only ones that views him as a man. Willem Dafoe is awesome, as is Harvey Keitel (in spite of his Brooklyn accent) and David Bowie's Anton Chigurh haircut.

Torchur317

The Last Temptation of Christ

Nesbit

Happy Easter Everybody!

DGibFen

I'm surprised no one included the excellent The Gospel of John, with Christopher Plummer and Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond Hume in Lost). A nicely done word-for-word movie that captures both Jesus' divinity and humanity in a balanced manner.

There are parts of Last Temptation I like, but the overall picture is too goofy for my tastes. I think it's the idea that Christ's supposed last temptation is to live and have a family - and it comes off as quite silly. Would have been an OK film except for the last 40 minutes.

DeanoBKN

Ben-Hur (59) is one of my favorite films, so it gets my vote.

The Infidel

Okay, which of these two movies have you not seen?

Supermallet

I don't get why that's so silly. The temptation to lead a normal life would be pretty attractive to someone nailed to a cross.

rw2516

You missed the whole point of the story. It's about a deeply religious, peaceful man who has his life turned upside down. He directs his bitterness towards God who he feels has forsaken him, otherwise all this nasty shit wouldn't be happening to him and his family. He becomes consumed with hatred, revenge and violence. Christ's role in the story is to restore his faith. When he hears Jesus forgive those who are crucifying him, his faith is restored. Ben-Hur says,"I felt his voice lift the sword from my hand." Maybe it's a stretch that a few words would change somebody like that, but that's what happens in the story. Up until the trial the Christ scenes are not essential to the story. As long as the narrative navigates Ben Hur to witness the crucifixtion the result would be the same.
Other films have used the parallel stories that don't seem to have anything to do with each other until the very end. Take Lonely Are The Brave. Every so often there is a short scene with Carroll O'Connor as a truck driver that has nothing whatsoever to do with the story. Then at the end, BAM!, it fits in in a big way.
I can see how Ben-Hur could be interpeted the way you describe, but it's a stretch. He and his family would to have been punished by God for being Jews, or in other words, all the bad things that happened to him would not have happened had he been Christian. I see no evidence of this or that he converts in the end. Through Christ's words he "saw the light" so to speak, but does that mean someone Jewish cannot be influenced by Christ, "yeah, that makes sense" and not remain a Jew?

Trevor

Ben Hur (1959) is perhaps my favorite film ever.

I can sort of see Suprmallet's complaint, the merging of the story could have been done slightly better. But to me, it's a very small complaint in a wonderfully made film.

movielib

I'm an atheist who was raised Jewish also. But first off I think Ben-Hur is the only genuinely good film on the list so it gets my vote. I understand the underlying, parallel Jesus story even though I don't buy it. The film is just being faithful to the book with the theme.

(I loved the book, The Last Temptation of Christ, but I don't get the love for the film. I find it mostly miscast, awkwardly executed and boring as hell. I wonder how many people who have read the book love the film.)

Philzilla

The movie is called Ben Hur A Tale of the Christ
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Kt5C9EruZ94&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Kt5C9EruZ94&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

And William Wyler was also Jewish.

Artman

The Passion of The Christ (correct title btw) Last Temptation has some interesting ideas and I like certain parts but like someone else said it is hard to take seriously... I do enjoy the soundtrack tho.

Charlie Goose

Jesus Christ Superstar is one of my favorite all-time movies.