Whatever happened to the Gospel of Mark film?

Over on The Golden Rule, Mike Koke blogs on The Gospel of Mark - A Good Hollywood Script? and embeds the teaser trailer of Visual Bible International's proposed Gospel of Mark film:



I have often blogged about this in the past (see Gospel of Mark film) and from time to time I receive emails asking if I know any more about it. The teaser trailer first came out in March 2005 and as far as I can tell, filming never began on this project, as Visual Bible International fell into every greater financial problems. It is my impression that the teaser trailer was released to encourage interest in making the film, and that it was not released after any actual filming had been done. (The video does feature Henry Ian Cusick's eyes, but this and the other images were probably gleaned from the Gospel of John filming).

There does appear to be one new piece of information, though, among comments on the Youtube upload of the teaser trailer above, as follows:

I just received a reply to my email question from Philip Saville the director himself of the Gospel of John and He replied, I quote

" Many many thanks for your enquiry about The Gospel of Mark.
Regrettably we haven't as yet been able to put it together.
Sorry to disappoint........Maybe next year?
Meanwhile I wish you and all your youtube-rs well over Thanksgiving.

Stay well
Philip Saville "

This comment is dated to November 2009. It's interesting that Saville does not declare the project dead, and the reference to "put it together" is intriguing since that expression might be more appropriate to editing rather than filming. But he may, of course, simply mean put together the funding and so on. So it is not promising.

I agree with Mike that the Gospel of Mark would be fantastic for film treatment. It ought to be more amenable than Matthew, which was the Visual Bible's first film, or John, which was their second.

Jesus Never Laughed?

The latest Bible Study Magazine from Logos features a nice little piece called Jesus Never Laughed? by Samuel Lamerson. One of the passages Lamerson mentions is one I have always found funny, Matt. 7.3-5 // Luke 6.41-42, the Log and Speck:

The gas that really fuels the fire of Greek comedy is exaggeration: Take a simple gag and blow it out of all proportion. Re-read some of Jesus’ sayings with this in mind and you might find a chuckle or two yourself: Your neighbor may have a speck in his eye, but you’ve got a log.

The difficulty, of course, with reading humour in the Gospels is that, like any ancient text, it is impossible to know what the audience reaction might be. Unfortunately, the narrator never chips in with a little "And the crowd were amused by his teaching, for he taught them with humour, not like their comedians." If only.

It is worth asking, though, how lines like the above have been depicted in our own time. I have been interested to see a shift in Jesus films in this respect. Up until recently, the "Log and Speck" logion was never told as a funny story in the films. But The Miracle Maker (1999) turns it into a comic parable, and Matthew (Visual Bible, 1996) has Jesus narrating it as a funny story, with a staff raised to his eye, and the crowd laughing:



Incidentally, the Thomas version (Logion 26) loses much of the comic absurdity in its omission of the middle of the Synoptic version, where the man tries to remove the speck from his brother's eye while he still has the plank in his own (see in Synopsis here). This is one of those occasions where Thomas is less memorable and works less well orally than do the Synoptics.

Chattaway on Gospel of Mark teaser

I've been enjoying Peter Chattaway's Film Chat blog since it began almost a month ago (announced here). Peter has been posting regularly since its inception and if, like me, you enjoy Bible-related films, it's one to add to your aggregator.

Yesterday, he comments on the Gospel of Mark teaser trailer, which Mark Cannon pointed out to me, as follows:

The Gospels are now complete

. . . . Interestingly, as Matt notes, the filmmakers appear to be going back to actor Henry Cusick and narrator Christopher Plummer, who both worked on The Gospel of John, and if so, this would appear to mark the first time since the 1950s that an actor has played Jesus twice (assuming we don't count Bruce Marchiano's cameo in the Visual Bible's Acts, following his starring role in their Gospel according to Matthew) (my reviews). It's a shame, in a way, because each gospel has its own character, and it might be good to heighten the differences in emphasis between the gospels by casting different actors and using different voices.

The Matt referred to here is Matt Page who makes similar useful comments here yesterday. We need to ask someone in the know like Alan Segal on this, but my guess is that the use of Plummer and Cusick in the teaser trailer is something gleaned simply from the filming of the Gospel of John. What I mean is that it would not have been difficult to ask Plummer to record a little of Mark ready for such a trailer at that point. They were already planning to move to Mark next at that stage. And the shot of Cusick is just the one shot of the eyes. So I doubt that the teaser trailer means a lot on that front. But I may be wrong.

Chattaway also makes the following interesting remark:

Another interesting question is how this film will deal with the multiple endings of Mark -- which manuscript will it run with? Of course, word-for-word adaptations of any biblical text have to deal with these issues, when there are variations in words here or there; it's just rare that you find variations in entire passages.

Wouldn't it be great if they dare to go for an ending at 16.8? It'd have that Jesus Christ Superstar, Passion of the Christ feel. I argued in my article on the latter that Gibson's resurrection scene resembled the abrupt ending of Mark, though it was played out differently. With the big band of scholarly advisors, there is a serious chance that they might go with the scholar-friendly ending too. (Note that Gospel of John does include the Woman Taken in Adultery, but the film is no worse for that).

Chattaway's "complete" of the title relates to the notion that a film of The Gospel of Mark would complement Visual Bible International's Matthew and Gospel of John alongside Jesus for Luke. Nice point.

And to add one thing to Matt Page's comments about the possibility of Cusick playing Jesus for a second time, it's worth noting that Richard Kiley is the narrator of two of the above films, appearing too as older Matthew in Matthew, and narrating as Luke in Jesus.

More Visual Bible International problems

Visual Bible International is the group that produced Matthew, Acts and, most recently, The Gospel of John. I recently reported on the Gospel of Mark teaser trailer now available. But the group has consistently run into financial problems (Gospel of Mark runs into problems, Visual Bible International Struggles; Visual Bible International Update; Visual Bible Intertnational Latest) and now comes the following article today on CBC News:

Visual Bible International placed in receivership, put up for sale

TORONTO (CP) - Visual Bible International Inc., a "faith-based" media company that released a film version of the Gospel of John produced by Garth Drabinsky, was placed in receivership Wednesday and put up for sale.

"It is the intention that VBI will continue to operate throughout the receivership process, during which time the interim receiver intends to actively search for a buyer for the company," the privately held company stated.

It said its principal secured lender supports the process . . . .

. . . . The company says it recently concluded an agreement with Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment Inc., which will distribute the film of the New Testament Gospel of John and an upcoming film based on the Gospel of Mark's account of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ . . . .

The Buena Vista deal is the one that has produced the following website, to which I have referred before: The Gospel of John: The Official Website, and which also includes the Gospel of Mark teaser trailer I mentioned above.

Update (Friday, 02.05): The Globe and Mail has more and it is not looking good:

Court appoints Visual Bible receiver
by Paul Waldie

. . . .Despite those setbacks, Visual Bible planned to make a film this year, based on the Book of Mark, with Mr. Drabinsky as producer. It even signed a new contract with him in April, 2004, for $25,000 (U.S.) a month.

However, losses continued to pile up. The company's last financial statements show a loss of $10.3-million for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2004. That compares with a loss of $4.4-million in the same period a year earlier. Sales were $7.2-million.

Documents filed in court yesterday allege Visual Bible had defaulted on several debentures, could not meet payroll on April 1, 2005, and had a negative cash flow of $170,000 a month.

"The marketing of the [Book of John] film has been a commercial failure," Ed Rosenblat, an adviser to a group of debt holders, alleged in an affidavit. Visual Bible "has been unable to generate sufficient revenue from the film to meet its operating costs and debt obligations," he said. The company "has no reasonable prospect for improving its financial performance." . . . .

. . . .Peter Farkas, managing partner at RSM Richter Inc., which was appointed receiver, said the company will continue operating, but the Book of Mark film is on hold "until they get refinanced."

He added that he has been told by company employees that Mr. Drabinsky and Mr. Gottlieb have not been active in the company for several months.

So it looks like we are not going to see Gospel of Mark any time soon.

Gospel of Mark teaser trailer

Many thanks to Mark Cannon for this -- there is a teaser trailer available for the Visual Bible International's next venture, the Gospel of Mark. Essentially it is Christopher Plummer (who narrated Gospel of John) reading Mark 13.24-26, with a lion's face emerging and morphing into Jesus (Henry Ian Cusick). Here is where to go to find it:

The Gospel of John - the Official Web Site

And then click on "Video Clips" (top) and choose Gospel of Mark preview. Does this mean that Henry Ian Cusick will be playing Jesus again? That Christopher Plummer will be narrating? Though I loved Cusick in Gospel of John, I'd like to see another actor play Jesus in this to maintain the idea of different actors taking on each Gospel, with Bruce Marciano having taken on Jesus in Matthew. And likewise, I'd like to see another narrator, again to give the film an utterly different feel from the others. I'll keep on the look out and add things here as soon as I see them.

By the way, the reason that there's been no NTGateway blogging for several days now is the usual one, that I've been very, very busy; until today, which has been a lovely day off for my birthday, walking in the Malverns.

Visual Bible International Update

More on the Visual Bible International. First, they apparently have a new distribution deal with Buena Vista which should give a bit more exposure to The Gospel of John, and there is further mention of The Gospel of Mark, which has to be good news:

Visual Bible International, Inc. Announces Distribution of The Gospel of John and The Gospel of Mark

Eberts said "I am pleased to announce release plans of the DVD/VHS for two of VBI's exciting titles. There couldn't be a better distributor than Buena Vista Home Entertainment for The Gospel of John and The Gospel of Mark. No distributor in the industry comes to the table with a greater reputation for marketing and outreach strategies and that was what I valued the most in aligning these films with BVHE."

As previously announced by VBI, it is the intention of VBI to pursue additional equity financing to fund the production and marketing costs for The Gospel of Mark.

Also, an anonymous commenter on a previous Visual Bible Update pointed out to me that The Gospel of John is now available in the UK and here is the site:

The Visual Bible

The site has details of the various Visual Bible DVDs and Videos including Matthew and Acts and The Gospel of John. There's also a link to a major website of Bruce Marchiano, who played Jesus in Matthew, and it is called Marchiano Ministries.

Visual Bible International Latest

A regular feature here is the Jesus film watch. For a while it looked like the next proposed venture of Visual Bible International, who produced both Matthew and The Gospel of John, was under threat. But the news in this article is much more promising; I've extracted the parts on The Gospel of Mark film, which are what interest me:

Visual Bible International Inc. Press Release

. . . . In addition to his appointment as Chairman, Maurice J. Colson, CEO of VBI, announced that Mr. Eberts will serve as executive producer of the next three motion pictures expected to be produced by VBI beginning with The Gospel of Mark, the screenplay for which has been completed . . .

. . . . VBI is exclusively licensed by the American Bible Society to produce word-for-word film adaptations based on the Books of the Old and New Testaments. VBI released The Gospel of John in 2003 to critical acclaim.

Garth H. Drabinsky, who produced The Gospel of John, will continue his creative role as producer for the forthcoming production of The Gospel of Mark, currently scheduled for commencement of principal photography in the spring of 2005.

Eberts said "'The Gospel of John' and Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' each showed that there is an enormous market for the distribution of movies based on the Bible. I was impressed with the artistic quality and integrity of VBI's production of 'The Gospel of John.'"

Visual Bible International Update

Regular readers may know that I keep an eye on news about Visual Bible International, the producers of the word-for-word films of Biblical books, the most recent among which was The Gospel of John (dir. Philip Saville, 2003). What little news there is continues to be discouraging; this piece from USNews.com is on Garth Dabrinsky, the man behing the revamped organisation:

Garth Dabrinsky

But in recent months, Visual Bible International, the Florida company for which Drabinsky coproduced his $10 million film, the Gospel of John, has been embroiled in headline-grabbing lawsuits by former officers amid reports of sagging sales and mounting debts. Drabinsky, 54, dismisses a recent lawsuit as "a joke" and blames Mel Gibson for stealing his thunder. "Obviously we were the flavor of the moment till The Passion took over," he says. "And it was kind of overwhelming."

Now Drabinsky is negotiating a new video deal for his film. But in SEC filings last June, Visual Bible --formerly known as American Uranium--declared that if income didn't materialize, the company could be forced to close up shop. Still, Drabinsky shrugs off any suggestion of impending disaster. "In business careers, there are moments of soaring highs and deep lows," he says. "^You can't lose yourself over either. You have to stay the course."

For a film with a British director and a British lead, I find it remarkable that it has still not been released in this country, either in cinemas or on video and DVD. There are ways of marketing these things! I'm not sure about the claim that The Passion had an adverse effect on this film. One could argue that the interest in that film generated a lot extra publicity at the time, and its release several months before The Passion gave it the chance for enthusiasts to get out and see it while ancipating the bigger film.

Visual Bible International Struggles

I am sorry to see that the Visual Bible International company, who made Matthew and the recent Gospel of John, are still in difficulties. This is from the Globe and Mail:

Drabinsky, Gottlieb roles in firm probed by RCMP
By PAUL WALDIE

The RCMP are looking into the roles of Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb in a Toronto-based film company to determine whether they have violated the conditions of their bail.

Mr. Drabinsky and Mr. Gottlieb have been involved since 2002 in Visual Bible International Inc., whose shares trade in Canada and the United States. Both men were hired as consultants to produce the film The Gospel of John, which made its debut last year.

Mr. Drabinsky and Mr. Gottlieb were released on bail in 2002 after each was charged with 19 counts of fraud related to their involvement in defunct theatre company Livent Inc. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

One of the conditions of their bail was that they could not serve as a director or officer in any public company.

In a lawsuit filed last month, Visual Bible's former chief financial officer, Harold Kramer, alleges that Mr. Drabinsky and Mr. Gottlieb are in "de facto control over the business and affairs of [Visual Bible]" and exercise "power and authority as if they were directors or officers." Mr. Kramer also alleges their role has not been fully disclosed to securities regulators . . .

The news is not good for the projected Gospel of Mark film, something I'd have very much liked to see:

Visual Bible has struggled recently with poor sales, mass resignations and a flurry of lawsuits, including one from a former company chairman.

The company once boasted a high-profile board that included former Ontario premier Mike Harris, former broadcaster Pamela Wallin, architect Moshe Safdie and media mogul Moses Znaimer. All have since left the board, along with several others.

The company planned to sell videos and DVDs of The Gospel of John and produce another film based on the Gospel of Mark. But sales have been sluggish and the second film is on hold. Last week, the company reported it lost $5.8-million in the second quarter of 2004, compared with a loss of $2.2-million a year earlier. Total sales were $2.5-million.

It needs to be added that videos and DVDs of The Gospel of John are available (official web site; Amazon marketplace), though at the moment only in North America. I've not seen any sign of a British release, either theatrical or on DVD / Video.

Gospel of Mark runs into problems

As I have commented before (e.g. here), Visual Bible International's next planned project has been The Gospel of Mark. VBI are the group who produced Matthew and The Gospel of John. But now it seems that The Gospel of Mark may be running into trouble. This is from the Globe and Mail

Drabinsky sequel a question Mark
By JAMES ADAMS

Cash-flow difficulties at Visual Bible International appear to have halted plans by former theatre impresario Garth Drabinsky to produce a "sequel" to The Gospel of John . . .

. . . . Yesterday, however, a spokesperson for Visual Bible International said that a decision hasn't been made as to what VBI's next production will be. It "may or may not be The Gospel of Mark," she said . . . .

A call earlier this week to the Los Angeles agent of Henry Ian Cusick, the actor who starred as Jesus in The Gospel of John and was touted to play him again in Mark, revealed that its client has "received no offer. " A spokesperson for Toronto Film Studios, where many of the interiors of The Gospel of John were shot, said "we haven't been contacted yet" by VBI about booking space this summer or fall. Moreover, an advisory committee of scholars used to comment on the accuracy and authenticity of VBI scripts has yet to discuss or approve a third draft of the Mark script prepared by John Goldsmith, the British screenwriter of The Gospel of John.

Visual Bible has been rocked in recent months by en masse resignations of its board of directors and poorer-than-anticipated sales of the three-disc DVD and three-tape VHS sets of The Gospel of John that went into retail outlets across North America April 6. In a filing made April 23 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, VBI said that unless sales of its John DVD/video set improve considerably -- as of last month, it had "generated in excess of $5-million in sales"-- and additional capital is raised, it "will certainly be in default [on its debts] and may be forced to cease its operations." . . . .

I'll keep a look out for news on this. As a fan of The Gospel of John, I'd be sorry to see the plans for Mark dropped.

There are more on Visual Bible International's problems in this article, also from the Globe and Mail:

Falling sales, criticism dog Drabinsky venture
Visual Bible left with only one director as company admits it's in trouble
By PAUL WALDIE

As sales stalled, the company's board has been embroiled in controversy. In February, Toronto businessman Steven Small quit as chairman and sent a letter, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, strongly criticizing the company. A few weeks later, four other directors quit -- including former Ontario Premier Mike Harris and Elly Reisman, a Toronto developer whose group is owed about $14-million (U.S.). Only one director remains.

This report also reveals that the chief academic consultant on The Gospel of John, Peter Richardson, has resigned from the board:

Among the many advisers on the project were Peter Richardson, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto's Department of Religious Studies. At the film's opening, he said the film's producers "caught the atmosphere better than I would ever have dreamed that they could do."

Prof. Richardson resigned from the board in March. He was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Gospel of John Passion on-line

The American Bible Society has made available a lengthy segment of the Visual Bible's The Gospel of John on-line:

The Gospel of John: View the Video

It's a thirteen minute clip of part of the Passion Narrative in John, from about 19.13--20.17 (breaks off rather abruptly). You can view for broadband or dial-up; it is a very good quality clip, not quite DVD quality, but nof far off. The scene includes several features of interest that have been discussed here (e.g. here and here) Note in particular the way that Jesus' crucifixion is depicted, with nails through the wrists and through the ankles, in the style explicated by Joe Zias. And in relation to recent discussions about the titulus, you can see the full titulus here, in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, very clearly.

Something I noticed when looking at this clip is that the film provides an apparent explanation for Mary Magdalene thinking that Jesus was the gardener. It's because he is apparently doing some gardening!

Richard Kiley as Matthew and as Luke

Here's something I'd never noticed before. Richard Kiley, who plays the "old Matthew", the narrator of the Gospel, in the Visual Bible's Matthew (Reghardt van den Bergh, 1996), also voices "Luke" the narrator in Jesus (Krish and Sykes, 1979), my least favourite Jesus film.

What next?

I'm still here. I've just hit one of those periods where work is so ovewhelming that I've not had time to blog. Where I did manage to get some time at the weekend, you may have noticed that I added some more reflections on The Passion of the Christ. This is not because I had nothing else to blog about or nothing else to say but because I have been working on an article on this with a tight deadline, now past. Now that I'm all Passion-ed out, what next? One thing to look forward to is the Visual Bible International's Gospel of Mark film. I have mentioned this before (Three Other Jesus films), but here is a little more news from a Globe and Mail article by James Adams called The Gospel's second coming:

In the meantime, Drabinsky is continuing with plans to start shooting The Gospel of Mark in late August or early September, using Toronto and Spain as locations. Jeff Sackman said he's "open to the idea of Mark in theatres for 2005," but "it will depend on what transpires in the market between now and then. I assume there are dozens of Christian-themed movies in various stages of production and there could be a glut." At the same time, "I think this experience proved there is a theatrical market" for high-calibre Christian fare.

No more news yet on Regardt van den Bergh's The Lamb.

Three other Jesus films

The beliefnet article previously noted mentions some films which may be of interest. One already completed and shown in selected cinemas in the UK is Man Dancin', directed by Norman Stone. This appears to be in the tradition of Jesus of Montreal and the like -- the modern day Passion play is re-staged (this time in Glasgow) and the hero's destiny begins to mirror Jesus's. There is an official web site here and a pretty lengthy, seven to eight minute trailer:

Man Dancin'

See also the IMDb entry.

The next mentioned is Regardt van den Bergh's The Lamb. The most informative piece I can find on this is in Variety from September 2003:

$20M leap of faith
Christelle De Jager

"The Lamb," a $20 million biblical epic, is scheduled to start shooting in South Africa in December, exec produced by former Paramount Pictures president Frank Yablans and directed by Regardt van den Bergh ("The Messiah," "The Nativity").

"The Lamb" portrays a journey of faith by Mattias and his son Joel, intertwined with encounters with Jesus. It will be shot in Israel, Tunisia and South Africa and will be one of the biggest projects to come out of South Africa.

You may recognise the director's name from the Visual Bible's 1996 outing, Matthew.

And speaking of the Visual Bible, producers also of the recent Gospel of John, the next project is the Gospel of Mark. There is not a lot available on this film at the moment. Reports usually simply say "in development". The beliefnet article says that it will start filming in "a couple of months". So keep watching this space.

Review of The Gospel of John

There's far too much around about The Passion of the Christ at the moment, especially for a film that hasn't been released yet, so it's nice to see a really glowing review of The Gospel of John on the National Review Online:

The Word, According to John
A Gospel on the silver screen.
By S. T. Karnick

The article has a useful run-through various Biblical epics and then talks about The Gospel of John which the author clearly loved:

Given the amount of talk involved, even for a three-hour film, one might expect The Gospel of John to come off as somewhat static and preachy, but it is not so at all. Saville uses a wide variety of cinematic techniques to keep things interesting. The camera moves about constantly, prowling through streets and passages, panning about, and shifting from one character to another, to give the viewer something interesting to look at while Plummer narrates. The visual tableaux are often quite beautiful, especially in the use of contrasts between light and shadow, but never in a way that distracts the audience from the story. In addition, the producers took great care to make the settings and costumes look as true to the time as possible, giving the film a new and interesting look. Even the soundtrack reflects this care, as the arranger included authentic recreations of instruments of the time.

In addition, Saville evoked an excellent performance from Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus Christ. Cusick presents the Christ as significantly more cheerful and self-assured than most such depictions have been. He smiles easily and often, and has a pleasant but strong demeanor and can be quite determined when that is appropriate. This makes his Christ rather less enigmatic than is usual for a screen depiction of Jesus, and it does not in any way decrease our reverence for him — the main point of John's Gospel, after all, is Christ's divinity. Given that emphasis, Cusick's and Saville's choice to show Jesus as a person who enjoys life and particularly enjoys serving God, his Father, in addition to being supernaturally wise, temperate, loving, and courageous, is exactly right . . . . .

. . . . . the film takes on the style of an A&E biographical documentary: A narrator tells the story, and actors clad in period costume reenact the events in settings as realistic as the producers can afford (which in this case, as mentioned earlier, are very persuasive indeed). The camera moves about the settings while Plummer articulates the Gospel text, just as the shot in a TV documentary pans across a still photo to create some sense of movement while the narrator describes the events it shows. Black-and-white flashbacks are also used to good effect here, tying the narrative strands together visually as Plummer recites the text.

Good analogy -- it does have that feel. I haven't finished watching yet, but at this stage I'm a little less enthusiastic about Christopher Plummer's narration which is surprisingly wooden and sometimes intrusive. I'd have liked to have seen more imaginative use sometimes of the ambiguities over narration / dialogue / monologue in the film, e.g. as soon as the narrative reaches John 3.16, Christopher Plummer's narration comes muscling in with "For God so loved the world . . ." And elsewhere Plummer gives us the crowd's thoughts rather than the words being put in the mouths of members of the crowd. But these are niggles; it's a joyous outing so far (I'm up to Chapter 8 now). I agree with Karnick about the flow of the narrative, the use of black-and-white flash backs and so on.

Karnick comments that in Cecil B. de Mille's The King of Kings (1927), one can actually see what Jesus writes in the ground in the story of the woman taken in adultery in John 8. Since I don't have a copy of the film (I should get one), I don't know what he writes. Does anyone happen to know? Are there any other Jesus films where we can see what Jesus writes? I can't think of any. He doesn't write at all in this scene in Last Temptation. In The Gospel of John it's not easy to see what he is writing -- it looks like some kind of symbol.

Another review from a week ago from The Wichita Eagle:

'Gospel' brings the Bible to life
BY LAWRENCE TOPPMAN

Interesting conclusion -- something I'd been thinking about:

The film is fortunate in its casting, which borrows mostly from British television and theater. Daniel Kash is an impetuous Simon Peter, Stuart Bunce an observant John, Scott Handy a wild-eyed yet tender John the Baptist.

Yet this lily-white casting is also the main awkward element. Brown, black and olive-skinned extras abound, yet all Christ's close friends are Caucasians. In a movie that strives for fidelity to the story from which it springs, couldn't we have more honesty about the people who lived 2,000 years ago in the Middle East?

Gospel of John (Visual Bible) -- First Reflections

My DVDs of the new Visual Bible Gospel of John film arrived today. Unfortunately I have too much marking, teaching preparation and admin. to do to find time to watch it all so I'm taking it in segments. I've enjoyed it very much so far. It's nice to have a Jesus film in which Jesus appears from pretty early on. As Christopher Plummer narrates the Prologue, there are nature scenes, sunsets etc., John the Baptist comes in and gradually you see Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus walking -- but his face only finally revealed at the end of the Prologue. Cusick has a warm smile and seems rather engaging.

The film does have that typical Bible-film look about it. John the Baptist looks like an actor with a false beard and lanky long hair. Nothing has ever quite got the blood and dirt in the way that The Last Temptation of Christ managed, though I suppose The Passion of the Christ looks like it is going to be far more graphic in its violence than anything we've seen before.

I was intrigued to see how they would depict John the Baptist's speech about the dove descending on Jesus -- would they make it a baptism scene, i.e. would they allow themselves to be influenced by the Synoptic context? In fact they don't show Jesus getting baptized by John but they do show him arising up out of the water -- in flashback -- as John tells the crowd about Jesus.

The Wedding at Cana has Jesus' mother dressed in traditional blue so that she is instantly recognisable. In some ways this is a bold decision given that so few Jesus films do dress her in icon blue. The words of the Good News Bible, "Madam . . .", along with Jesus' smile, tend to make his words to her less harsh than they might otherwise have been.

The Temple scene is pretty interesting -- Jesus is quite animated -- far more so than in the older films like The Greatest Story Ever Told (Max von Sydow as Jesus making a carefully choreographed token effort at causing a scene) but it does not compare to the Scorsese (Last Temptation of Christ) temple scene -- one of the finest moments in Jesus film history. The scene did remind me of the Scorsese temple scene, though; the way that the Jewish leaders come down the steps to see what is causing the commotion and find themselves confronting Jesus directly -- this was very similar to Last Temptation even if it looked like a rather pale reflection of it.

Though I'm only up to the end of John 2, it's already clear to me that the production values are a bit higher than they were with the previous Visual Bible outing, Matthew, but it is only a bit. It does have a very similar feel to it, Christopher Plummer's narration relentlessly marching on just as Richard Kiley's did in Matthew. A nice feature of that film is missing in the new one. In Matthew, we sometimes see the aged apostle dictating to his scribe and it created a feeling of distance between the text and the events being narrated. But in Gospel of John the narrator is unseen. One improvement with Gospel of John is that we don't have the Bible verse ticking away in the corner as we did with Matthew. More reflections as I watch my way through it.

Incidentally, getting hold of it is not easy if you are outside the U.S.A. or Canada. It's not been shown in any British cinemas to my knowledge and there is no video or DVD release here. You can't order it from the official site because it will not ship to the UK or elsewhere. But there is a way round it if, like me, you are desperate to see it -- new copies are appearing every day or two on ebay. And if you are lucky (I was), you can even get it just a touch cheaper than it is on the official site, though the price gets pushed right up to the limit and sometimes over it. Also, it's useless if you haven't got a multi-regional DVD player because the ones on sale in the U.S. are all Region 1.

Gospel of John review

Reviews of the Gospel of John are beginning to come in now, this one from the Washington Post:

'The Gospel of John': A Good-Faith Effort

It is particularly critical of the use of the Good News Bible for the translation, "a decidedly unpoetic and unevocative text". There's an error in the article -- "it makes sense that the company [Visual Bible International] would start with John" -- but it's their third departure, already having covered Matthew and Acts.

This review in the Orange County Weekly is more enthusiastic (and it makes the same mistake about this being the first project of Visual Bible International):

The Very Good Word: The Gospel of John converts without moralizing

Enthusiasm for Gospel of John

Still the Visual Bible Gospel of John gets good publicity, though often of the "Before there was Mel, there was Garth" variety you see here from the New York Times:

Appeareth St. John, Quietly, Cautiously

Visual Bible have just put out a press release too:

New Jesus Film Receives Rave Reviews from Top Media

Akenson on the new Jesus films

Donald Akenson, author of Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus has written an article on the two new Jesus films,

Garth, Mel: Of all the sacred texts to bring to the screen, why did you pick the most adversarial Gospel?

The "Garth" of the tile is Garth Drabinsky, the man behind the revamping of the Visual Bible and one of the producers of the new film. This is the first really anti-Gospel of John piece I've seen, though Akenson brings the Gibson film in too. For an example of the flavour of the piece:

"Why would anyone want to be faithful to such a text? It can be redeemed by informed, discriminating and gentle scholarship. But, to film a literal version of the Gospel of John is like filming a faithful version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

So Akenson overstates things rather. His remark that "Drabinsky's literalist version of the Gospel of John, financed by the far-right, evangelical Visual Bible International Corporation", even if it were accurate, does not pay attention to the fact that Drabinsky took care to get an advisory board of scholars together, none of whom -- as far as I could see -- are marked by far right, evangelical credentials. I'd have thought that they'd have good reason to be a bit annoyed with the piece.

Gibson vs. Drabinsky

The release of The Visual Bible: Gospel of John has clearly introduced a new element into the negative reporting about Gibson's The Passion. If you're not heartily sick of reading about it -- and I must admit that I'm not yet -- this article from The Globe and Mail contrasts the two films, with The Gospel of John coming out pretty favourably, though the author clearly hasn't viewed either yet!

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