Comparison: Good Samaritan

Last week I looked at various Jesus film portrayals of Jesus' Gospel Manifesto from Luke 4, as part of trying to find a suitable clip for a session on Luke I'm taking. I also want to include a clip of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, so I thought I add a few notes here as well (times indicate the point at which the relevant clip begins).

Kings of Kings (1961) - 1:28:20
Whilst Ray's Jesus is one who speaks about "peace, love and the brotherhood of man", the story part of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is missing. All that is left if the question "I'm a camel driver, who can I call my neighbour?" and Jesus' answer "He to whom you show mercy and compassion, whether you know him or not. This is all part of the Sermon on the Mount scene.

Godspell (1973) - 35:08
One of Godspell's strengths is the way it creatively re-tells the parables, reflecting the fact that when Jesus first spoke them there was a freshness and vitality about them. Here the Godspell trope act out the story with their hands. There's a slight change to the characters here, We get a priest, a judge along with the Samaritan, rather than a priest and a Levite. Curiously however there's a suggestion that the Samaritan is drunk.

At the end of the parable, the Samaritan is then hoisted onto someone's shoulders and paraded along until Jesus interjects with Matt 6:2-5 ("So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets...").

Il Messia (1975)
This is the only film to show Jesus telling the parable in standard fashion. In fact it's a fairly unremarkable sequence, in keeping with the off-hand way Rossellini has Jesus deliver much of his teaching. Sorry I didn't note down the starting time for this one.

Jesus (1979) - 60:48This was, for me, the most memorable moment. Initially we see Jesus being questioned as per Luke, but then there's a watery dissolve into a dramatised version of the story. It's wordless, accompanied instead by a incredibly memorable little jingle, before we dissolve back to Jesus and the crowd. A couple of points here. Firstly, all three of those who approach the beaten man do within a very short period of time. This keeps the story brief, but it does rather let the first two off the hook to a small extent. The road looks busy, so the hurrying by looks less like desertion and dereliction of duty than it looks like simply leaving it to someone else. Secondly, here it's a woman who asks Jesus the initial question rather than an expert in the law which makes the scene softer and less confrontational. Likewise it's a young girl, not the original questioner, who answers Jesus' closing question, leading Jesus into "suffer the little children" passage.

Mary, Mother of Jesus (1999)
This version has Mary telling Jesus the story as a boy in keeping with the high view of Mary the film has. Jesus ends by asking "so the Samaritan was good?" to which Mary, rather curiously replies "yes, even though he was a Samaritan". The scene following this one links in, showing Jesus getting beaten up by a group of boys but refusing to fight back.

Miracle Maker (2000) - 45:50
This is one of the sections in this puppet animated film that switches to 2D, hand drawn animation, and it's done in a rather angular spiky style, which might actually be quite scary to younger children. It also explains some of the cultural reference points such as how the priest believed it made him unclean to touch a dead body, the Jewish people's hatred of the Samaritans (even showing one the children shouting out that he hates them). In the context of the film this is probably my favourite portrayal, but for a free-standing clip I don't think it would work so well.

So none of these are ideal really. What I probably will do instead is show the Mitchell and Webb version of the story, which never fails to amuse me, and ties in somewhat with Mary's response in Mary, Mother of Jesus

Podcast: Godspell (1973)

Having postponed last month effort the latest podcast entry is up looking at 1973's Godspell. I'm still quite pushed for time so this one is a little shorter than normal.

For those new to my podcasts there are 16 other entries that are also available to download.

April Podcast (Godspell) Postponed

Just a quick post to let listeners of my podcast know that there's not going to be an entry this month. I had planned to do Godspell (1973), but I've just been too busy this week, and it doesn't look like I'll get the chance next week (or the week after come to that). Hopefully though, I'll get around to it sometime before the end of May. Apologies to anyone that was looking forward to it.

Broadway Resurrects Godspell

Variety has a story about a new version of the musical Godspell scheduled to open in summer 2008. There's no casting news at this point, although it looks like most of the key positions in the crew have been filled.

I've only seen this live once, and even then it was a school play that a teacher-friend of mine was involved in, but it would be great to see a new version of this for the 21st century if it ever made it over here.

Godspell (1973) Scene Guide

In finishing my 30-film scene guide spreadsheet, I recently revisited Godspell (1972). The film calls itself "A Musical Based Upon The Gospel According To St. Matthew", and so I have prioritised referencing Matthew’s gospel rather than Mark’s as I normally do. I've also listed the times, and the song titles are italicised.

[0 min] Prologue - (Gen 1)
[1 min] John the Baptist - (Matt 3:1-12)
Prepare ye the way of the Lord
[9 min] Baptism of Jesus - (Matt 3:13-17)
Save the people
[14 min] Fulfil the Law - (Matt 5:17-20)
[17 min] Pharisee & Publican - (Luke 18:10-14)
[18 min] Settling Disputes - (Matt 5:23-26)
[19 min] Unmerciful Servant - (Matt 18:23-35)
Day by day
[24 min] Eye for Eye - (Matt 5:38-42)
[25 min] Sheep and Goats - (Matt 25:31-46)
[27 min] Lamp for the Body - (Matt 6:23)
[28 min] Two Masters - (Matt 6:24)
Turn Back O Man
[33 min] Good Samaritan - (Luke 10:30-37)
[35 min] Giving Alms - (Matt 6:1-4)
[36 min] Rich Man & Lazarus - (Luke 16:19-31)
Bless the Lord
[42 min] Beatitudes - (Matt 5:3-12)
All for the Best
[49 min] Love your Enemies - (Matt 5:43-48)
[50 min] Parable of the Sower - (Matt 13:3-8, 18-23)
All Good Gifts
[53 min] Consider the Lilies - (Matt 6:28-30)
[56 min] Prodigal Son - (Luke 15:11-32)
[62 min] Ask Seek & Knock - (Matt 7:9-12)
[63 min] You are the Light of the World - (Matt 5:13-16)
Light of the World
[65 min] Question on Authority - (Matt 21:23-27)
[66 min] Taxes to Caesar - (Matt 22:15-22)
[67 min] Greatest Commandment - (Matt 22:34-40)
[67 min] Seven Woes - (Matt 23:1-39)
Alas for You
By my Side
[74 min] Betrayal of Judas - (Matt 26:14-16)
Beautiful City
[78 min] Last Supper - (Matt 26:17-35)
On the Willows
[84 min] Gethsemane - (Matt 26:36-46)
[85 min] Temptation - (Matt 4:1-11)
[86 min] Arrest - (Matt 26:47-56)
[88 min] Death - (Matt 27:45-50)
[92 min] Burial - (Matt 27:57-61)
Long Live God

The first thing that is obvious from the above is that not all of the incidents and quotes come from Matthew’s gospel. In addition to two of the songs being loosely based on Psalms, a number of pieces of teaching that are included are from Luke’s gospel. This has led Richard Walsh to claim that the film is more of a version of Q than of Matthew, as it also contains no birth narratives, miracles or prophetic actions. The argument is a little more complicated than that, but even in this simplified form it’s an interesting observation. Certainly, it's one of the Jesus films with the least amount of "action", and no miracles.

Despite the ongoing popularity of the stage show, the film itself is generally poorly regarded, due to the extent to which it has dated, and the campiness of the film. One other weakness is the way which the script inadvertently breaks the natural narrative arc of the gospel story. Jesus’s confrontation with the religious authorities is depersonalized – his harshest critic is a bizarre robotic creature. The ruling authority is represented by the police, but it is unclear why they wish to see him dead, or how they manage to electrocute someone on a fence (particularly when they are not in contact with the ground). In short Jesus’s death is stripped of its meaning, and is not invested with any new meaning. He appears to die for no other reason than that is what happened in the original story.

That said, the way the burial / resurrection is handled is far more interesting. Whilst it denies the traditional resurrection, it does visualise a more Bultmannian theory on the resurrection. For Bultmann and those who developed his theories, Jesus remained dead, but the stories of his life were carried to the people, and inspired them with his continuing presence. Here we see Jesus remain dead, but his followers literally carry his body onto the deserted streets of New York. Suddenly as they round a corner they merge into a huge crowd that has suddenly appeared. It's not my personal view of the resurrection, but it's one that has a certain degree of theological insight.

This is one of only three films to cover the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, the other two being Il Messiah, and The Revolutionary. It's an interesting parable, not least because many hold it was one Jesus adopted and put a twist into his adaptation, rather than an original. The setting for this parable is one of the high points of the film visually, using a long stair case which extends from an underground room, to the top of a monument. The camera shots up the steps from the rich man's point of view underground are impressive.

This is also the only Jesus film that includes the sayings about the sheep and the goats. It is interesting, however, how the film undermines the harsh nature of the original story in its retelling. Once Jesus completes the story "the goats" to come and join the others.

There are a host of Godspell sites and resources out there, both about the musical and the film. In particular, the full (musical) script (rather than just the song lyrics), and a whole host of photos.

Silverscreen Beats:Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar

I've been continuing to enjoy Silverscreen Beats, although more via BBC online than live. I notice that Mark Goodacre has responded to my question about his role in the series as follows:Well, the clip of me speaking, as well as a lot of the rest of the content, is taken from a BBC Scotland documentary broadcast on Easter Day 2004 and entitled Silverscreen Superstar. I blogged on it briefly at the time (Silverscreen Superstar, 15 April 2004). I didn't know about the new version, so I am interested to see how it pans out and whether they'll be using any more of me in it.In other words it is a new series made by interspersing recycled content from another programme with new comments from Miles Jupp (who the BBC introducers are keen to stress is a theology graduate).

On Tuesday it looked at Godspell which is one of Jesus films that I appreciate less than most. Both of these films have dated significantly in the 33 years since their release, but Godspell possibly more than Jesus Christ Superstar. That said, hearing the music again has given me a new appreciation for the music in the film.

The biggest strength of the film for me is the way it gives creative interpretations of the parables. Most Jesus films tend to produce these in a rather stodgy format, presenting them as the sacred texts they have crystallised into over 2000 years of church history losing the vitality of the dynamic, creative, challenging nature of storytelling. It's also worth pointing out how the parables were very much part of the wider culture in Jesus's time, a little like how the film tries to re-imagine the story into the culture of its time.

The programme made a couple of interesting points. Firstly, one of the interviewees comments on how at the time Godspell was widely accepted by church groups, but has now fallen into disrepute as fundamentalism has risen. This strikes me as an interesting contrast to Jesus Christ Superstar which was considered scandalous in its time for it lack of resurrection amongst other things, but is gradually being rehabilitated. Whilst I don't imagine it's any more popular than Godspell amongst fundamentalists (especially as it also excludes the resurrection), it's curious to see these two films level out in acceptability having come from very different starting points.

The other point that was new to me was the discussion of the movement between sharps and flats in "Day by Day" and how that reflects the back and forth of prayer.

For what it's worth there's a 30 second clip of "All for the Best", one of the songs from Godspell, here. This clip has become infamous now for being shot from the roof of one of the twin towers, and it feels strangely inappropriate post 9/11. I've also just discovered Big Bopper which has music and a number of pictures from the film.

One of the most interesting discussions about Godspell is in Richard Walsh's book "Reading the Gospels in the Dark" which I touched on st the end of this post from last month.

Yesterday (Wednesday) the series looked at Jesus Christ Superstar, which whilst it also isn't one of my favourite Jesus films, is certainly my second favourite musical (behind Sweeney Todd). There's a nice article on this film by Mark Goodacre (who has appeared in all three programmes so far) at the Journal of Religion and Film.

One of the things the programme didn't really talk about is the way Tim Rice harnesses the full potential of the musical to give us a new way of looking at Jesus. The Musical is one of the only dramatic art forms that allows a number of different characters to express their inner feelings whether through the solo (monologue), or songs with a number of the leads (which can either be dialogue or consecutive monologues). Of course, in theory, other dramatic forms can, and indeed do, do this on occasion, but it is perhaps in the musical where this feels most natural. What Rice does is include a high number of solos, giving us the internal monologue of a number of the lead characters. So for the first time we hear the "thoughts" of Judas, Jesus, Mary, Pilate, as well as Herod, Peter and Simon Zealotes to a lesser extent, all within the same piece.

It was interesting to hear how the title "Superstar" got associated with the song, film and album. I must admit that I tend to think of this as a musical first, rather than an album as Rice was suggesting we should. But then since I'm such a big fan of the music in this film it shouldn't be too hard to make that leap.

The series continues today at 3:45 BST with a look at the music from Life of Brian.

Music in Movies about Jesus

Peter Chattaway let me know about a feature taking place this week on BBC Radio 4. Silverscreen Beats is a regular programme, hosted by Miles Jupp, but this week they are looking at the music from 5 films about Jesus as follows:

Monday - King of Kings
King of Kings presents a treasury of tunes and surprising stories from behind the scenes. Composer Miklos Rosza reveals that despite winning an Oscar for the music of Ben Hur, this was the toughest score he ever had to write.

Tuesday - Godspell
Composer Stephen Schwartz reveals that he took five weeks to write the classic songs such as Day By Day. Another song, Beautiful City, became the unofficial anthem of the World Trade Centre disaster, and virtually all the words in Godspell are derived from the New Testament.

Wednesday - Jesus Christ Superstar
Lyricist Tim Rice reveals that the movie only came about because the stage show was such a flop, and how Tom Jones inspired the title to the film.

Thursday - The Life of Brian
Composer Geoffrey Burgon reveals how he wrote a traditional, serious score to counteract the comedy in a controversial film. Director Terry Jones admits that he was surprised that the song Always Look on the Bright Side became such a hit.

Friday - The Last Temptation of Christ
Composers Peter Gabriel and David Bottrill reveal insightful and surprising stories from behind the scenes of this controversial movie. Director Martin Scorsese admits to receiving death threats during production.

The series actually started yesterday, but fortunately you can listen to it online. I'm not sure how long they will be available though - the only Silverscreen Beats programme I can find to listen to is yesterday's King of Kings.

It looks like it will be an interesting series. Certainly today's had a number of pieces of information on King of Kings that was new to me, plus a couple of recording of Rosza himself (speaking not playing). There's also a story about Rosza finding out that not only did the actress playing Salome (Brigid Bazlen) have no dancing experience, but also that the choreographer, who was Nicholas Ray's wife, had no experience either. This fits fairly well with a number of other stories about chaos on the set that I mentioned in my review of this film. That said, I'm currently re-watching this film, for the first time in widescreen, and I find myself liking it more and more each time, even despite its problems.

As for the series as a whole, I suspect it is a repeat. Certainly before Mark Goodacre's brief quote he is introduced as being from Birmingham University which would make it at least a year old! If that is the case, it's a very much welcome one. There's precious little discussion about the music of Jesus films (Godspell, The gospel Road and Jesus Christ Superstar aside), so this is a much needed area of analysis. I'm surprised by some of their choices though. I suppose Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar were obvious, and King of Kings is usually described as the finest piece from Rosza's incredible body of work. But Life of Brian is a (pleasant) surprise - comedy is often not taken seriously enough to be deemed worthy of any kind of analysis, let alone musical analysis. Hopefully it will go beyond simply discussing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". Last Temptation is an interesting choice too. Whilst not as controversial as many aspects of the film, the score still caused something of a stir in some quarters whilst generally gaining critical acclaim. So much so in fact that it clearly influenced John Debney's score for The Passion of the Christ.

Sadly though there is no analysis of Pasolini's amazing score for his Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to St. Matthew), which is easily my favourite of all the Jesus film music.
Silverscreen Beats is playing every day this week at 3:45pm on BBC Radio 4. Programmes can be downloaded after the broadcast from the BBC website.

The Gospel Road (1973)

Johnny Cash's The Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus was recently re-released on DVD. Originally it was released in 1973, strangely one of three musicals based on the life of Christ that was released that same year - although this was the only one to create the feel of a documentary. Cash decided to produce the film a few years after his conversion to Christianity (largely omitted from the recent Cash bio-pic film Walk The Line) in late 1967 / early 1968.¹ He subsequently met Billy Graham in 1970 and they teamed up with director Robert Elfstrom who had filmed Cash's 1969 biopic Johnny Cash! The Man, His World, His Music (1969). Cash co-wrote the script along with Larry Murray, who went on to write for Cash's ABC Television shows.

The filming of the movie was relatively ad hoc. In 1973 Cash was interviewed by Country Music Magazine about the film, and recalled the way the film was made:

When we went to Israel we had two songs that we thought would probably be in the film...We hired an Israeli film crew to supplement our crew that we took over there, and we decided since we'd gone to all the expense to take a bunch of people to Israel that we were gonna shoot the moon, and we were gonna make as good a film and spend whatever it took for the month that we had to spend over there. And that's what we did. We hired extras. We didn't try to make a little big movie. We didn't try to make a Cecil B. DeMille film. We used as few extras as we could, and at the times when there should have been a multitude of people, we didn't use anybody. We used sound effects, to try to make it seem like there was a multitude of people. Well, when we came back and started editing the film and putting it together, we saw the need of a song to help tell the story here and there.

Furthermore, the decision to cast director Robert Elstrom as director was only made the day before filming². It was perhaps a rash decision. All the good work of authentically filming the documentary in the Holy Land, was undone by this ultra-blond Jesus, the lightest-haired Jesus ever committed to celluloid. Elfstrom's acting was weak too, and never really created the empathy that the role usually acquires.

That is not to say it is an entirely poor portrayal. Elfstrom's Jesus is as beatific as they come, and has clearly been very influential. The scenes of him playing with a group of children on the beach to the tune of Joe South's "Children" would set a standard that other smiley Jesus films, notably those made by more conservative Christians, would aspire to. In particular, the 1979 Jesus film, the Visual Bible's Matthew and the 1999 Jesus mini-series all appear to have been influenced (perhaps indirectly) by this film.

Actually the film both draws on older Jesus films as well as influencing later films, although many of these may well be coincidental. Since this film and Jesus Christ Superstar were made at the same time it must be an accident that both films are made in Israel and combine a mixture of historical and contemporary commentary. That said the scene of the woman caught in adultery must surely be influenced b DeMille's 1927 epic - in both films when Jesus writes on the ground he is writing the sins of those standing nearby. The final scene where Jesus is reconciled to his disciples on a beach is reminiscent of the ending of King of Kings (1961). In terms of possible influence, Mary Magdalene (June Carter Cash) is the only character in the film we hear speaking, when she retells her first meeting with Jesus. Another popular female singer, PJ Harvey, would reprise the role in Book of Life (1998) and similarly give an account of her conversion experience.

The role of Carter Cash in this movie is interesting, both given how she was viewed at the time and her role in Walk The Line. As Lesa Bellevie notes

I can understand to some degree why June Carter Cash would have wanted to play Mary Magdalene on film. Judged harshly for her divorces, perhaps she felt some kinship with the haunted Mary Magdalene whose sexuality had become the focus of her entire existence.

There are a number of interesting points in relation to this. Firstly, probably the majority of Jesus films have combined Mary Magdalene with the woman caught in adultery in John 8. By contrast, The Gospel Road shows that incident but uses a different actress, and when it comes to Magdalene's speech stresses the seven demons aspect. Secondly, in light of the Da Vinci Code, it is hard to resist looking whether a particular Jesus films suggest some form of romantic interest between Magdalene and Jesus, and in this case, the casting of the producer's wife in the role is somewhat suggestive. Finally, in Walk The Line she is cast as Johnny's salvation, and so it is interesting that this film is, to an extent, examining her salvation.

Like the other 1973 Jesus Musicals (Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell) the film has dated terribly, and much of it seems twee and bland today. Even in it's own day it was probably the safest of the three films. Godspell was a bold re-contextualisation which dared to show Jesus as a clown. Whilst Superstar was also set primarily in the past, it used Rock music rather than the "safer" country music of Cash.

That said the film has a number of strengths that are often overlooked. The use of natural light, and voiceless characters give the film a naturalistic cine-camera feel which feels less about a performance, or a DeMille-like spectacle, and more about genuine faith. Despite the fact that we generally do not hear the characters speak, we are drawn closer to them, and relate to them more freely. The movie has a "from the heart" feel which is generally lost in Jesus films. It serves as a testament to Christian faith from that era, no doubt due to it being Cash's labour of love.

The natural light effect is emphasised by the low camera angles and inclusion of the rising or setting sun in many scenes. Whilst the deference implied by such low camera work has been discussed elsewhere, these scenes also introduce a simplistic beauty into the film.

Another strength is the space that the movie creates. Given a tiny budget (from Cash's own pocket), the film uses only a few extras who are sparsely distributed around the various locations. In the quote above, Cash notes how at the times where there was a requirement for a multitude they went to the opposite extreme and had no-one present yet used the sounds of a multitude. This creates an eerie effect placing the viewer at the centre of events.

Such budgetary limitations were no doubt also part of the decision to depict the three trials of Jesus all at the same time. Herod, Pilate and Caiaphas stand in adjacent arches and Jesus moves from one to the other. This crystallises the often confusing sequence of events into a single moment. The three stand together, and Cash's narration cleverly draws out how each represents a particular grouping.

Perhaps the film's strongest moment is the crucifixion where the camera first encircles the dying Jesus, before cutting to a number of close ups which gradually pan out to reveal a modern location (see top picture). The focus of these scenes, like the film in general is very much on the "gospel" road of faith, rather than on historical reconstruction or exploration like the majority of other Jesus films. This has infuriated some, whilst inspired many others. One assumes these reactions are more in the past than the present. The years have dulled the impact of the film, and left itself something of a historical artefact - a monument to Johnny Cash's faith.

------

There's another review at Film Brain, plus my earlier comments on the film

1 - Dave Urbanski, "The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash", p.67-73, Lake Mary, Florida, Relevant Books (2003)
2 - ibid p.113

The Gospel Road on DVD

I can't believe I've only just noticed this, but Johnny Cash's 1973 film The Gospel Road was released on DVD two weeks ago. I've actually never seen it. The VHS version went out of circulation a long time ago, and as it's supposedly more of a pseudo-documentary than a dramatic piece, I've never been sufficiently interested to pay what most sellers want for it. Clearly the success of Walk the Line has had an influence here, and the two films would make an interesting double feature as Cash found his faith very shortly after the events of that film.

In addition to narrating the film, Cash also co-wrote it with Larry Murray. Jesus was played by director Robert Elfstrom who played "the real Jesus as he might have been according to the Christianity Today of 1973. The film cuts between location footage of Jerusalem, re-enacted scenes from Jesus's life, often intercut with shots of today's polluted environement. Kinnard and Davies ("Divine Images") consider that this "technique was weakened by constant repetition throughout the film".

At the time Variety called it "an admirable musical documentary filmed in Israel, about the public life of Jesus Christ." Richard Corliss, in a Time article called "Jesus Christ Movie Star", says:

As Cash intones the words, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased," it's easy to imagine that God just must have a Southern accent. The pauper-budgeted simplicity and naivete of "Gospel Road" — its irrefutable good intentions — overwhelm the weirdness of a movie in which the director (blue-eyed, blond-haired Robert Elfstrom) plays Jesus and the star's wife is Mary Magdalene.

There's also a few interesting comments at The Magdalene Review, which discusses this film alongside Jesus Christ Superstar whihc was also 1973 (as was Godspell). Given that my birthday is coming up soon, I think I might have to add this to my birthday list.