Jesus (1999)

The Worst Film Ever

Sadly Over-hyped

Fantastic!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Couldn't watch more like about ten minutes of this. Jesus walks by Mary (Martha's sister) and she eyes him and obviously has a crush on him and he gives her a suave look. Latter someone asks Jesus to marry Mary. Then Mary eyes him again and Jesus looks but tries to avoid looking at her. It was just insane. Then Jesus makes a joke about Joseph not helping him... Too humanistic. Jesus was like a model off a catwalk! Yes Jesus was human but he was also our LORD and saviour and the Son Of GOD. Not a man from 1999 from America. The bible series did a much better job with their other films. It's a shame this so bad. I understand they wanted a "human Jesus" but they made him far too human from what I saw. This is not the nature of GOD. The 'Gospel of John" with Selva Rasalingham and Robert Powell's "Jesus of Nazareth" (not seen this fully yet) are more my cup of tea. The more "human" Jesus i felt was portrayed better in "Gospel of John" with Henry Ian Cusack. I loved that film! He was not portrayed as a joker or giving the "Oh yeah I have the life" type of vibe Made me feel sick. Total blasphemy.

Needless to say, I was somewhat wary of going through yet another 3-hour visualization of Christ's life (which had been partly shot in Malta, by the way!), especially as the other efforts I had previously watched from this "Bible-In-Pictures" TV series were hardly inspiring! That said, this emerged a somewhat more successful venture with some unexpected and rather interesting touches (but more on that later) to complement an authentic sense of time and place (actually a common trait throughout the series).To begin with, this presents an over-age Joseph (Armin Mueller-Stahl, who is oddly shown to die – presumably of a stroke or heart-attack – when his hope of the Jews' deliverance are quashed by his laid-back and apparently indecisive son!) and Mary (Jacqueline Bisset – who, for no very good reason, follows Christ through most of his exploits) to Jeremy Sisto's boyish (and, frankly, too human) Jesus. In fact, the latter seems just as ready to engage in a dance and games-playing as he is in healing or generally spreading the Word of God (he is also involved in a romance – which, of course, he has to suppress – though not with Mary Magdalene but rather with Mary, sister of Lazarus)! Incidentally, the first half of the film does seem like merely a succession of miracles with little concerning what Christ was really all about!; of course, this aspect is adequately addressed in Part II – but I think that His 'mission statement', so to speak, should have been upfront rather than feeling like an afterthought! Thankfully, to liven things up lest the over-familiarity of it all should render events stale and dull, the supporting cast is an eclectic bunch of actors. The more notable were Gary Oldman (as a rather depraved Pilate), Luca Barbareschi (yes, he of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST {1980}, as Herod Antipas!), G.W. Bailey (whom I basically knew from 5 "Police Academy" movies where he had been a rather memorable foil to the gang, as a fictional and wittily shrewd Roman adviser to both rulers – to the court's delight, he even turns Jesus' outburst at the temple into a mini-play!) and Jeroen Krabbe' (as a flamboyant Satan, appearing to Jesus intermittently throughout – sometimes replaced by a sultry-looking female! - in modern dress and leading him through pages from future history to make a case that Mankind would prove ungrateful for His ultimate sacrifice).The apostles, of course, get their due (notably Peter, Thomas and Judas – it is intriguing that his betrayal is depicted here as having been an attempt to provoke the Jews into a collective uprising against the oppressive Roman forces!) though, typically, a few of them emerge as mere ciphers. The passion and death sequences are par for the course, though this particular Jesus does seem to externalize the bodily harm somewhat more vociferously (again, perhaps as a sign that he was not merely divine).For the record, director Young also tackled the lives of Joseph – the one who was sold to Egypt by his brothers, that is, not Jesus' adoptive father – and Moses (both in 1995), Solomon (in 1997) and Saint Paul (in 2000). Incidentally, the series also individually tackled the characters of Saint Joseph and Mary Magdalene (both in 2000) as well as Judas and Thomas (both in 2001)! In the end, while many of these historical figures have been revived in TV mini-serieses over the last two decades, hardly any have left a lasting impact (unlike the admittedly less realistic and usually more naïve examples from the Golden Age of Epic movie-making!)...

I enjoyed this film immensely I loved Jesus of Nazareth too, but this Jesus laughs,cries, but most importantly.....HE BLINKS HIS EYES!!!!! Seeing G.W. Bailey as Livio it kept reminding me of the "Police Academy" movies. Gary Oldman's Pilate, was very accurate to the description by Josephus, of Pilate's cruelty. I'm probably going to be offending a lot of catholics here, but the storyline was way too Catholicized for my taste. The baptism for example, John the Baptizer puts a cupped handful of water while Jesus is kneeling in the Jordan "Puddle" on Jesus' head the Greek word for baptize is BAPTIZO which means to IMMERSE in the crucifixion scene it looks like a Jew is doing the nailing, The Romans were the ones who did the nailing. and why could they not use the entire Greek Latin and Hebrew on the Title instead of just INRI?? Jaqueline Bisset I believe is too much of a sex symbol to play the Virgin Mary.

This film is very good. Optimum of the sort that already attended. Wonderful! Wonderful! The interpretations of the actors had been excellent The photograph direction was excellent The clothes and scenes very good They forgive but my English is very bad Already I attended one ten times I also use to study Really wonderful congratulations for that they had been part of the production Clip would like to ask for permission for to show one created by min with scenes of this film. For a Christian group in Brazil Jesus Debtor blesses here. Tanks. Debtor to all my friends also have the same opinion I really want to show mine clip with scenes of this film therefore it is the best reference that I have