Cinema

Biblical and Christian Films

Hollywood's early films included biblical epics—that is, films that took their stories from the Old and New Testaments. For many people, these films shaped their knowledge of the texts and created images of the prophets and others that became standard, while their use of spectacle in miracles was astounding. God himself rarely appeared in Old Testament films—and then, as nothing more than a voice—although the image of Jesus was portrayed. These films shared generic features with [Page 221]the great historical epics—major stars, exotic locations and costumes, and casts of thousands, such as in The Ten Commandments (directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1923 and 1956) and the later epic Ben Hur, directed by William Wyler in 1956, whose subtitle is A Tale of the Christ, where the Christian message is more subdued.

European cinema also made many religious films, with the Italian neorealists creating powerful images of Jesus, in the Gospel According to Saint Matthew (directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1967), and of saints, notably Francis of Assisi, and popularized as well in melodramas such as The Song of Bernadette (directed by Henry King, 1943) to the very British satire on Anglicanism, Monty Python's Life of Brian (directed by Terry Jones, 1979).

At the beginning of the 21st century, it seemed that films in the West were focusing on new forms of religion and angels and individual spirituality rather than traditional theological topics. However, the success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (2004), with its overtly Roman Catholic view of the crucifixion, suggests that there remains a huge and enduring market for narratives based on traditional theological forms and approaches.

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