what are some good Biblical movies?

[Crossdive]

i am trying to find some accurate and well-done Bible-related movies. I have already seen:

the passion of the Christ
the prince of egypt
joseph: king of dreams

but that's about it... what should I see? (i'd also appreciate a list of "what not to see" Bible movies, just for reference)

[Jeikobu]

Unfortunately, I wouldn't call The Passion that accurate... >_<

[Crossdive]

i know, i just mentioned which ones i had seen overall, not regarding any rating of it, it just don't want to be reccomended things I have already seen.

[Yojimbo]

The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston.

[Crossdive]

thanks, i'll see that if netflix ever gets the single-disc version in for rent, they have it on save with an unknown release date. what are your opinions of some of these things i found on netflix?

(resolved) ben-hur
(resolved) ben-hur (animated)
(resolved) King of kings
the greatest story ever told
Jesus
Jesus Christ superstar
Jesus of nazareth
life with Jesus
the Jesus film
Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible: The Miracles of Jesus

[Maverick]

Ben-Hur.. its a cool old-school movie. I think it came out in the fifties or something. Anyways, yeah the way they depict Jesus I thought was pretty cool... plus the chariot scene is amazing too. Well, think about the time they made the movie and what they had to deal with. Its long though, so be prepared...

[Crossdive]

gotcha thanks a bunch

[Ashley]

While I haven't seen it (so please no one come at me with rollerskates on or hippie knives of doom) Jesus Christ Superstar! is not exactly a film I think you'd want to see. For example, I remember hearing they portray Christ as not a virgin, which more than picqued my eyebrows, and some other "liberal" aspects to the story. It's a musical of the passion week told through Judas' eyes.

An alternative might be Godspell; I remember my school putting this play on and while it was a little funky sometimes (just 70s style, not my thing) it stayed true to portraying Christ as perfect and everyone else as not.

Other titles that sound Christian but probably would disappoint are Saved and Dogma. A Walk To Remember though has a GREAT Christian character (they even played Christian music in the film) and definately worth seeing--one of my favorites.

[Crossdive]

yeah, i got info on dogma from a different board i go to, not interested to say the very least. saved is ditto. thanks

[greyscale42]

Saved.......
Ben-Hur......
And this may suprise you but Bruce Almighty actually has a really good meaning behind it.

[bigsleepj]

• Jesus of Nazareth is a 10 hour miniseries which originally was the Gospel Adaptation to End all Gospel Adaptations. Didn't exactly but it is a good depiction of Christ's life. The director (Opera director Franco Zeferelli) took a lot of time to give Christ's life a lot of context so that a person who knows nothing about Christ could walk out at the end and know more than they would from a more "normal" adaptation.

• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ: It's ending is badly written in some parts to a degree but the visuals and story is brilliant. One of my favourite movies, the 1958 version that is.

• The Passion of the Christ: Doesn't give a lot of context but very visceral film-making.

And now a Bible-adaptation I dislike:

The Ten Commandments: Impressive, rousing film-making, but made by Cecil B DeMille, the most shamelessly manipulative filmmaker since Leni Riefenstahl. DeMille pretended to be a good, Christian man but in fact was a very bad man.

Prince of Egypt: Visually and musically impressive with great voice-acting. But it does not really understand the character of Moses entirely or as much as it thinks it does. Still it isn't that bad a movie. I just expected more.

I'd list more but I haven't seen that many.

[Crossdive]

saw Bruce Almighty already and LOVED it, a couple unneeded jokes, but a great theme(s) and a very truthful and moving film.

thanks all, i guess that does help some

[Jeikobu]

• The Passion of the Christ: Doesn't give a lot of context but very visceral film-making.

And now a Bible-adaptation I dislike:

Prince of Egypt: Visually and musically impressive with great voice-acting. But it does not really understand the character of Moses entirely or as much as it thinks it does. Still it isn't that bad a movie. I just expected more.

I think The Passion could've been the greatest film ever. It had tremendous potential. Most of the crucifiction scene was excellent, and I'm sure the film was made with the right intentions, but there was just too much false junk thrown in. Too much false Catholic stuff (no offense to Catholics). I think Mary was given too much focus, and there's this whole bit with Satan. Never does the Bible say that Jesus and Satan had that discussion before He was delivered to be crucified. And what's with this thing about Judas being chased all over the place by demon possessed kids? The toture scene was also too drawn out. There are other things, but it would take a while to go over it all.

I really loved Prince of Egypt, especially the burning bush scene. And there was stuff that should've been done differently, but I thought it was a great film overall. But I do think they should've shown Moses aging in the film. I mean even in the very end when he caries the Ten Commandments he looks the same as before.

[Crossdive]

i agree with almost if not all of what you just said, but nonetheless, the Crucifixtion scene made it worth seeing if you know what is and isn't true. it's important to see, not fun. prince of egypt is one of my favorite Bible movies, both this and King of Dreams had a couple tiny flaws, but i really liked em.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

False Catholic stuff? I was suprised that there was so little since Mel Gibson is a devout Catholic. It seemed to be quite factual to me, compared to what they could have done. The whole scene with Satan and Jesus in the garden was to illustrate the point that the temptation to not die for everyone's sins was almost unbearable but thankfully Jesus was pure and everyone can experience salvation if they follow Him.
Luther isn't a Biblical movie but it is a great Christian movie. See it, now!

[Crossdive]

Luther w/ Alfred Molina? (Doc Ock in Spidey 2) I've been getting that reccomended on netflix alot and almost added to my queue several times, maybe I will. Thanks.

yeah, I know, it's just, there was stuff in there i disagreed with, despite that though, i think the intent Mel had in making it was good and the crucifixtion scene was probably my nominee for most moving and important scene of ALL TIME in a movie.

[GhostontheNet]

While I haven't seen it (so please no one come at me with rollerskates on or hippie knives of doom) Jesus Christ Superstar! is not exactly a film I think you'd want to see. For example, I remember hearing they portray Christ as not a virgin, which more than picqued my eyebrows, and some other "liberal" aspects to the story.

I do not recall anything of the sort in the film, the closest you got, unless I am incredibly niave, is that Mary Magdalene seemed to be in love with Him but refused to act on it in the slightest, although her singing "he's just a man" raises problems of its own.

It's a musical of the passion week told through Judas' eyes.

Not always.

[quote]An alternative might be Godspell] The thing that ticks me off about both those movies though is that they're content to leave it at the crucifiction with not even a hint of the resurrection.

Myself, I'm somewhat fond of The Miracle Maker: The Story of Jesus, and from what I saw of the recently re-released The Gospel of John I also liked that.

[Crossdive]

is miracle maker that one that is in clay-mation or something?

[shooraijin]

Too much false Catholic stuff (no offense to Catholics).

Let's not get on that topic, please. That falls under the interdenominational rule.

[GhostontheNet]

is miracle maker that one that is in clay-mation or something?

Yes, that's the one. One thing that amused me was simply from watching the film I was able to correctly determine before watching the credits that New Testament scholar N.T. Wright was one of the film's theological advisors.

[Crossdive]

i don't think i fully understood what you said just now X_X' sorry, i'm pretty slow on the uptake sometimes.

[wilson1112000]

Lets see...(whips out a collection of old movies in VHS and DVD.)

There is the Judus Project. It is a modern day interpritation of Jesus's life.

Joshua is the same way.

The Robe is one of my personal favorites. It is about a Roman officer that watched Christ die and touched Jesus' robe and was hit with a terrible nightmare that would not go away until, as he thought, he found the robe and distroys it.

If you want to count things like The Exorcist, then that would be alright.

Plus, there is the Left behind series.

Just ask me if you were looking for something else.

[Crossdive]

i don't plan on seeing the excorcist, because it, from what i've been told, makes it seem like demons have the power and God doesn't. it looks over-the-edge dark spiritually to me anyway...

the robe sounds like one i should try, and i recently found out about the left behind films, so i'll be seeing those too.

[Bobtheduck]

Ones I would say are good:

Passion of the Christ (I didnt' like a couple points, but most of the additions didn't, in my opinion, distract from the point, and it didnt' change any of the important details, except for the being whipped 5 billion times and a couple minor points)

Miracle Maker

Superbook (ok, so that's a TV show, not a movie)

Adventures in Oddyssey (imagination station episodes... ok, so that's not a movie or TV show)

The Joeseph story by Turner... Yeah, a hardcore militant atheist makeing a good biblical movie, what obvious and uninteresting irony... Hahahaha

Ones I don't like

Godspell (no resurrection)

The CBS Jesus Miniseries (gag)

The CBS (or was it NBC?) Noah's Ark Miniseries

One I can't give an opinion of:

Last Temptation of the Christ - I haven't seen it. I've only heard bad, but the thing everyone freaks out about is that, in the movie, he's tempted to have sex... An alternate view is presented as his "Last Temptation" in which he is tempted to not die for our sins and just live a normal life with a wife and kids and bla bla bla... I see no problem with that. Jesus WAS tempted in every way we are tempted, and I'm sure he was tempted to give up too... Of course, if it portrays Jesus as a wishy washy pantywaist and doesn't have the resurrection, it is garbage, but I can't say whether that's what it does or not... I haven't been able to see the movie since I'm always around people who would be offended by it... *sigh*

[Crossdive]

thanks, i think that does help me

[Bobtheduck]

BTW, Left Behind isn't really a Biblical movie... It's a fiction story based on loose interpretations of prophecies in the Bible...

Exorcist isn't even remotely a biblical movie... I don't think you can consider a movie biblical just because it quotes scripture as a device... If that were the case, you could consider "Lawnmower Man" and "The Blob" biblical movies...

[Crossdive]

lol, i find alot of movies Biblically approvable or even supportive, but unless they are Biblically story-based, I don't think they can be called Biblical films. In that case, Hellboy would be a Biblical film, while I found it Christianity-supportive, it isn't directly about the Bible or something. I guess Left Behind could count, depending how you view it.

[eva-boy7985]

One thing to note concerning Passion's Mary "issue" is whether or not she's actually being "deified" (given god-like status). In the case of the Passion, she was in no way deified. She was given focus however because hey, she was Christ's mother and if anything was the closest to him (well closest human being). I find that alot of people that felt weird about how much attention she was given are not parents themselves, and I myself am not. As the Bible says, she had favor in God's eyes, so she was still very important in the scheme of things. An interesting thing I read in a mag was that because of Christians' sometimes negative responses to Mary and her relation to Catholic issues, Christians sometimes don't give her ENOUGH credit, and almost dismiss her as unimportant which is rather dishonoring. I know that there would be no words to describe how I'd feel knowing my child had to undergo anything remotely close to what Christ did. The movie was just portraying her and her mother's heart. Just something that could use clarity I thought. Not trying to stir anything up, just offer some clarity...

[Maverick]

One thing to note concerning Passion's Mary "issue" is whether or not she's actually being "deified" (given god-like status). In the case of the Passion, she was in no way deified. She was given focus however because hey, she was Christ's mother and if anything was the closest to him (well closest human being). I find that alot of people that felt weird about how much attention she was given are not parents themselves, and I myself am not. As the Bible says, she had favor in God's eyes, so she was still very important in the scheme of things. An interesting thing I read in a mag was that because of Christians' sometimes negative responses to Mary and her relation to Catholic issues, Christians sometimes don't give her ENOUGH credit, and almost dismiss her as unimportant which is rather dishonoring. I know that there would be no words to describe how I'd feel knowing my child had to undergo anything remotely close to what Christ did. The movie was just portraying her and her mother's heart. Just something that could use clarity I thought. Not trying to stir anything up, just offer some clarity...

Eva-Boy, seriously, I couldn't agree with you more. Great post.

[Arnobius]

Last Temptation of the Christ - I haven't seen it. I've only heard bad, but the thing everyone freaks out about is that, in the movie, he's tempted to have sex... An alternate view is presented as his "Last Temptation" in which he is tempted to not die for our sins and just live a normal life with a wife and kids and bla bla bla... I see no problem with that. Jesus WAS tempted in every way we are tempted, and I'm sure he was tempted to give up too... Of course, if it portrays Jesus as a wishy washy pantywaist and doesn't have the resurrection, it is garbage, but I can't say whether that's what it does or not... I haven't been able to see the movie since I'm always around people who would be offended by it... *sigh*

I've seen it, and if it was as you describe, it wouldn't be so bad. However the movie is blasphemous in more ways than that. In it, Jesus knows he's chosen by God (but he's only a normal man, not Christ) but doesn't want to be, so he works as a carpenter to make crosses to kill the prophets that God sends, he is wishy washy, and Judas is more of the driving force of their vision of Christianity (which is an "everybody be nice to each other" drivel). I don't recommend it...