'Full' list of Noah and the Ark films

The above still is from Ermanno Olmi's Genesi: La creazione e il diluvio (Genesis: Creation and Flood, 1994) part of The Bible Collection. 

Many years ago I posted a "full list" of Adam and Eve films though it's perhaps not as complete as I thought it was back then. Nevertheless, given I'm looking at Noah films at the moment, I thought it was about time I posted a similar list of films about the flood and Noah. 

I've restricted these to films which either try and tell the story set in the ancient world, or that are offering a direct modernisation. That means I'm excluding films like Peter Weir's The Last Wave (1977) which offer modern parallels, but not explicitly, or Moonrise Kingdom (2012) which draw on the imagery and meaning, but aren't really 'doing the story' so to speak. Due to the short amount of material available I am including films where the Noah segment is only a significant part of a longer movie. I have included a couple of documentaries with dramatised sections, but I'm not sure about those. I might take them out later!

I'll be adding to this as I go along over the next few weeks, but for now, here's the list:

• The Tale of the Ark (dir. Arthur Melbourne Cooper, UK: 1909)
• The Deluge (dir. Richard Strauss, USA: 1911)
• Photoplay of Creation (dir. Charles Taze Russell, USA: 1914)
• La Sacra Bibbia (dir. Armando Vay & Piero Antonio Gariazzo, Italy: 1920)
• The Bible: The Deluge (dir. Rev Harwood Huntington & Edgar J Banks, USA: 1922)
• The Bible: Noah and the Ark (dir. Rev Harwood Huntington & Edgar J Banks, USA: 1922)
• Noah's Ark (dir. Michael Curtiz, USA: 1928)
• Amateur Night on the Ark (dir. Paul Terry, USA: 1923)
• Noah's Lark (Dave Fleischer, USA: 1929)
• Father Noah's Ark (dir. Wilfred Jackson, USA: 1933)
• Deluge (dir. Felix E. Feist, USA: 1933)
• Noah (BBC) (dir. André Obey, UK: 1946)
• The Green Pastures (dir. Marc Connelly & William Keighley, USA: 1936)
• Noah's Ark (dir. Bill Justice, USA: 1959)
• Noah (pr. BBC, UK: 1960)
• Mel-o-Toons: Noah's Ark (dir. unknown, USA: 1960)
• I patriarchi (dir. Marcello Baldi, It: 1963)
• Noah (wr. Joost van den Vondel, Belgian: 1964)
• The Bible : In the Beginning (dir. John Huston, USA/It: 1966)
• Mister Magoo's Noah's Ark (dir. Abe Levitow, USA: 1965)
• Yogi's Ark Lark (dir. Joseph Barbera & William Hanna, USA: 1972)
• In Search of Noah's Ark (dir. James L Conway, USA: 1976)
• Greatest Heroes of the Bible: The Story of Noah (dir. James L Conway, USA: 1978)
• Genesis Project: The Bible: Genesis (Prod: Campus Crusade, US: 1979)
• The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible: Noah's Ark (dir. Don Lusk; Ray Patterson, USA: 1986)
• In the Beginning: The Story of Noah (dir: Osamu Tezuka, Jp/It: 1986)
• Die Arche (dir. Klaus Georgi, E.Germany: 1987)
• Noah (dir. Thomas Stephan, E.Germany: 1990)
• Animaniacs: Noah's Lark (dir. Greg Reyna, USA: 1993)
• Genesis. Creation and the flood (Genesi: La creazione e il diluvio, dir. Ermanno Olmi , It/D/USA: 1994)
• Enchanted Tales: Noah's Ark (dir. Hazel Morgan, USA: 1994)
• Testament: The Bible in Animation: Creation and the Flood (dir. Yuri Kulakov, Russia/UK: 1996)
• Noah's Magic Ark (dir. Laura Shepherd, USA: 1996)
• Prophets Stories: Story of Nuh (dir. unknown, Egypt: 1998)
• Noah (dir. Ken Kwapis, USA: 1998)
• Noah's Ark (dir. John Irvin, D/USA: 1999)
• Fantasia 2000 (dir. James Algar, Gaëtan & Paul Brizzi, USA: 1999)
• Noah: He Walked With God (prod. Jehovah’s Witnesses, USA: 2004)  
• Evan Almighty (dir. Tom Shadyac , USA: 2007)
• Ark (dir. Grzegorz Jonkajtys, Marcin Kobylecki., Poland: 2007)
• El arca (dir. Juan Pablo Buscarini, Argentina/Italy: 2007)
• The God Complex (dir. Mark Pirro, USA: 2008)
• Veggie Tales: Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah's Umbrella (dir. Mike Nawrocki & John Wahba, USA: 2009)
• The Search for Noah's Ark (dir. Matt Bennett, UK: 2012)
• Unogumbe (Noye's Fludde) (dir. Mark Dornford May, South Africa: 2013)
• The Bible (dir. Crispin Reece, US: 2013)
• Noah (dir. Darren Aronofsky , USA: 2014)
• The Ark (dir. Kenneth Glenaan, UK: 2015)
• Veggie Tales: Noah's Ark (dir. Mike Nawrocki, USA: 2015)
• Oops Noah has gone (Two by Two) (dir. Toby Genkel & Sean McCormack, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, USA: 2015)
• Stories of the Prophets: Prophet Nuh (prod.Visagaar Entertainments, 2017)
• Good Omens (dir. Douglas Mackinnon, UK/USA: 2019)
• Noah (dir. Douglas Mackinnon [Sight & Sound], UK/USA: 2019)
• Noah and the Flood (dir. Robert Savo, Bulgaria/Morocco: 2021)
• Days of Noah (dir. Dalton Thomas, Israel: 2022)
• Ark and the Darkness (dir. Ralph Strean, USA: 2024)
• Gênesis (Series) (prod. Record TV, Brazil: 2024)
• Noah's Ark: A Musical Adventure/Arca de Noé (dir. Alois Di Leo, Sergio Machado, Brazil/India/US: 2024)

A few notes

I've gone round and round in circles as to whether to include Amateur Night on the Ark (1923) and/or Noah's Lark (Dave Fleischer, USA: 1929) but ultimately decided to keep them both in, partly due to their proximity to one another both historically and in how they handle the material. Both are early, animated, black and white cartoon from the late silent era which use aspects of the Noah story in a more modern context, with a certain amount of anthropomorphising of the animals. For me, though, aside from the use of the word Ark and the presence of animals and an older man, Amateur Night has little to do with the flood story, other than cultural resonance. Noah's Lark, on the other hand, starts off recognisably as a modern-twist on the biblical tales, even if Fleischer's imagination and artistic freedom spins it off far beyond the expected edges of what that usually entails. They're both available on YouTube so let me know below if you disagree. 

There's a little more about Felix E. Feist's Deluge in this BFI article about disaster movies. It wrongly, in my opinion, calls it the first disaster movie. I think that title belongs to one of the early Last Days of Pompeii films, probably the 1908 one. Based on the description I'm also not entirely sure it merits its place on this list. But I'll leave it in for now.

I patriarchi (dir. Marcello Baldi, It: 1963) is often appended to the start of Giacobbe, l'uomo che lottò con Dio (Jacob: The Man Who Fought with God, 1963).  

Mister Magoo's Noah's Ark was perhaps released as part of a compilation of episodes called Mr Magoo at Sea along with his retelling of "Moby Dick" and Treasure Island (source TV Guide).

As with Amateur Night on the Ark above, Yogi's Ark Lark (Hanna Barbera, 1972), featuring Yogi Bear, Top Cat and a host of other Hanna-Barbera characters from the 1970s, probably falls the wrong side of the line in terms of it's use of the flood story. For one things there is no flood, and the only animals on-board are the anthropomorphised Bear and his friends, most of whom lack life partners. The title and biblical imagery is more of a prop for a round the world trip in search of the "Perfect Place" away from damage to their local environment(s).

One film I might have included but felt it didn't quite meet the criteria is The Noah (1975) written and directed by Daniel Bourla. It's a post-apocalyptic film best known for featuring Robert Strauss's last performance. From what I've read this is more metaphor than adaptation, but I may adjust this once I've actually seen it.

The two East German made short films Die Arche (1987) and Noah (1990) do appear to be different films, the first directed by Klaus Georgi, the latter (also known as Das Volk sind wir, that is we are the people) directed by Thomas Stephan. According to filmportal.de the latter was also part West German funded. 

An earlier version of this list included a title called L'Ancien Testament Tome: Le déluge (2005) cited by Verreth which he seems to have taken from this DVD set as the episode titles are identical. I can't quite read the writing at the bottom, but I did find another French website here which gives a cast list, and all of those actors performed in the 1978 series The Greatest Heroes of the Bible, already listed above. I suppose that could be an incredible coincidence, but that seems a pretty open and shut case. I could possibly have made a whole post about that detective job, and I suppose I still might if only to preserve the screen-grabs (I can't seem to that on archive.org at the moment).

"The Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception" entry on Noah includes The Story of the Prophet Nuh with Zaky (2009), but having watched this on YouTube, I don't think it really merits its place. It's not even an animation, just some narration over still images, with an occasional very basic animated effect.

An earlier version of this list included a title ¡Ups! El arca nos dejó (dir. Ana Medellín, Miguel Valdez-Lopez, 2015), but it turned out that this was an episode of a review show which covered Genkel & McCormack's film Two by Two, which incidentally has a separate IMDb page for a version of it called by another title All Creatures Big And Small (2015).

Gênesis (2024) is a Brazilian telenovella which is running at the time of posting. There's more about it on Record TV's website (the producers) including some footage from each episode, but I couldn't get all the way back to the start to count the episodes and I haven't the time right now to fully research it. Noah definitely features though.

 

Last updated: 21/10/2024

Italian Jesus Films - a List

(Traduzione Italiana sotto)
I'm doing a bit of research into Italian films about Jesus at the moment, so found myself compiling a list. The below is restricted to films which feature Jesus (as an adult or a baby), are at least partially set in the time of the gospels, and at least part of the funding is Italian. I'm grateful to Hervé Dumont's "L'antiquité au cinéma" for many of the titles I did now know about before, as well as the folks at the Peplum Paradise Facebook page for adding a few as well.

I've inevitably missed a few out, so please do let me know in the comments. In particular I've struggled to find anything more recent than 2012, which seems highly unlikely to be accurate, but bizarrely it's harder to keep track of these than older titles. Square brackets are either a translation or an English Language release title, directors names in standard brackets.

Io sono fa i ricerce di Gesu nel cinema italiano et questo e un list comprehensivo. Questi filme feature Gesu (come un adulto o bambino) e accadano nel tempo dei gospels e sono stati fatti con alcuni soldi italiano. Grazie per Hervé Dumont's "L'antiquité au cinéma" per molti titli che non ho saputo e i gente di Peplum Paradise Facebook page.

Credo che dimentico alcuni titli. Se trova alcuni, dimme nei commenti, per favore, recente i filmi da 2012 in particulario. (E piu difficile trovare questi titili).

-Passione di Gesù (Luigi Topi and Ezio Cristofari, 1900)
-Vita, passione, morte et resurrezione di Gesù Cristo (1908)
-Redenta [Redeemed, Episode of Sacra Bibbia](1909)
-La Samaritaine (Henri Desfontaines, 1910)
-Giuda [Judas](Luigi Maggi, 1911)
-Erodidae (Oreste Mentasti, 1912)
-Satan/Il dramma dell’umanità (Luigi Maggi, 1912)
-Quo Vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913)
-Christus (Comte Giulio Antomoro,Ignazio Lupi,Enrico Guazzoni, 1916)*
-Maria di Magdala (Aldo MolinarI, 1918)
-Redenzione (Carmine Gallone & Godofredo Mateldi, 1919)
-Giuda [aka L'ultima cena] (Mari Febo, 1919)
-Mater Dei [Mother of God](Don Emilio Cordero, 1950)
-Il Figlio dell'uomo [Shadow on the Hill](Virgilio Sabel, 1954)
-La spada e la croce [Mary Magdalene](Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, Antonio Petrucci, 1958)
-Erode il grande [Herod the Great](Viktor Tourjansky as Arnaldo Genoino, 1959)
-Barabbas (Richard Fleischer, 1961)
-Mistero della Natività, Passione e Resurrezione di Nostro Signore (Gian Roberto Cavalli, Ghilka, Muzzi Matteuzzi, 1961)
-La Ricotta/RoGoPaG (Pier Paolo Pasolini et al., 1962)
-Ponzio Pilato (G.P. Callegari,Irving Rapper, 1962)
-Processo a Gesù (Sandro Bolchi,1963)
-Il vangelo secondo Matteo [Gospel According to Matthew](Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962)
-Il Mistero della Natività (Orazio Costa Giovangigli, 1966)
-Processo a Gesù (Gianfranco Bettetini, 1968)
-Il Messia (Roberto Rossellini, 1975)
-Povero Cristo (Pier Carpi, 1975)
-Jesus of Nazareth (Franco Zeffirelli, 1977)
-Il ladrone [The Thief](Pasquale Festa Campanile, 1979)
-Cammina, Cammina [Keep Walking](Ermanno Olmi, 1982)
-Quo Vadis? (Franco Rossi, 1984)
-A.D. (Stuart Cooper, 1985)
-Secondo Ponzio Pilato (Luigi Magni, 1987) 
-A Child Called Jesus (Franco Rossi, 1988)
-Il bacio di Giuda (Paolo Benvenuti, 1989)
-Un amore a Betlemme / Per amore, solo per amore (Giovanni Veronesi, 1993)
-Il ventre di Maria (Memè Perlini, 1993)
-I Giardini dell’Eden /The Garden of Eden (Alessandro D’Alatri, 1998)
-Jesus (Roger Young, 1999)
-Joseph of Nazareth (Raffaele Mertes, 2000)
-Mary Magdalene (Roger Young, 2001)
-Thomas (Roger Young, 2001)
-Judas (Raffaele Mertes , 2001)
-Maria, figlia del suo figlio [Mary: Daughter of Her Son] (Fabrizio Costa, 2000)
-Gesù – Un regno senza confine (Jung Soo Yong, 2003)
-San Pietro / St. Peter (Giulio Base, 2005)
-La sacra famiglia [Holy Family](Raffaele Mertes, 2006)
-Jesus. A Kingdom Without Frontiers (Orlando Corradi, 2006)
-La stella dei re [Star of Kings](Fabio Jephcott, 2007)
-7 km da Gerusalemme (Claudio Malaponti, 2007)
-Io sono con te [Let it Be](Guido Chiesa, 2010)
-Su Re [The King](Giovanni Columbu,2012)
-Maria di Nazaret (Giacomo Campiotti, 2012)
-7 Miracles (Rodrigo Cerqueira, Marco Spagnoli, 2018)

*Not to be confused with Giuseppe De Liguoro's 1914 film Christus or La sfinga dello Ionio which is not a Jesus film. I investigate the distinction between the two here.

List of Daniel Films

Whilst most of the stories from the Bible that get made into films tend to be those which are popular in Sunday Schools, one of the main exceptions is the story of Daniel. Popular in the pews; not so  much in Hollywood. Here's the titles of all the Daniel Films I've managed to find over the years:

Les martyrs chretiens: Daniel dans la fosse aux lions (Lucien Nonguet[France], 1905)
Les martyrs chretiens: Le Festin de Balthazar (Lucien Nonguet[France], 1905)
Daniel dans la fosse aux lions (Louis Feuillade[France], 1908)
Le Festin de Balthazar (Louis Feuillade[France], 1910)
Les Sept Péchés Capitaux: L’Orgueil (The Seven Capital Sins: No. 1, Pride (Nebuchadnezzar)) (Louis Feuillade[France], 1910)
Cast into the Flames (Gaumont[France], 1910)
The Fall of Babylon (Theo Frenkel[UK], 1911)
Le Festin de Balthazar (Gaumont[France], 1913)
Daniel (Frederick A. Thomson / Madison C. Peters[USA], 1913)
Slaves of Babylon (William Castle[USA], 1953)
Greatest Heroes of the Bible: Daniel in the Lions Den* (James L Conway[USA], 1978)
Greatest Heroes of the Bible: Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar* (James L. Conway [], 1979)
Nabucco (Henri Ronse[France], 1979)
Nabucco (Renzo Giacchieri[Italy], 1981)
Belshazzar (Harry Kupfer[Italy], 1985)
Nabucco (Robert De Simone[Italy], 1986)
Animated Stories from the Bible: Daniel (Richard Rich [USA], 1993)
Veggie Tales: Rack, Shack & Benny  ( Phil Vischer/Mike Nawrocki,[USA], 1995)
The Beginners Bible: The Story of Daniel in Lions' Den (Gary Selvaggio, [USA], 1996)Testament. The Bible in Animation: Daniel (Lioudmila Koshkina[UK], 1996)
Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible: Daniel and the Lions' Den (William R. Kowalchuk [USA], 1998)
Nabucco (Fabio Sparvoli[It/US/UK/FR/GER/CZ], 1998)
Nabucco (Gianfranco de Bosio[Austria], 2000)
Nabucco (Elijah Moshinsky[USA], 2001)
Veggie Tales: Where is God when I'm S-S-Scared? ( Phil Vischer/Mike Nawrocki,[USA], 2003)
Bugtime Adventures: It's the Pits (Jeff Holder[USA], 2006)
Liken Bible Series: Daniel and the Lions ([USA], 2006)
Belshazzar (Don Kent[France], 2008)
The Bible: Survival (Crispin Reece; Tony Mitchell; Christopher Spencer[USA/UK], 2013)
The Book of Daniel (Anna Zielinski[USA], 2013) - pictured above

Even just a cursory glance of these 30 titles reveals that almost all of them fall into at least one of four basic categories: church-based, animated, silent or opera adaptation. Sadly many of the early, short, silent films are now lost. That leaves a couple of entries from a longer series (Greatest Heroes of the Bible (1978-79) and The Bible(2013)) and the 1953 film Slaves of Babylon.

I must admit I know very little about Nabucco, Verdi's 1841 Opera which has been filmed at least six different times, or about Belshazzar, Handel's 1744 Oratorio which has been brought to the screen twice.

I'm about to do a piece on the Lion's Den in film and surprisingly there are significantly fewer films that cover this, given that the story is the most famous of those from the book of Daniel. I suspect this is because many of the films are from the early silent era. Anyway films that specifically cover the Lion's Den scene are:

Les martyrs chretiens: Daniel dans la fosse aux lions (Lucien Nonguet[France], 1905)
Daniel dans la fosse aux lions (Louis Feuillade[France], 1908)
Daniel (Frederick A. Thomson / Madison C. Peters[USA], 1913)
Slaves of Babylon (William Castle[USA], 1953)
Greatest Heroes of the Bible: Daniel in the Lions Den* (James L Conway[USA], 1978)
Animated Stories from the Bible: Daniel (Richard Rich [USA], 1993)
Testament. The Bible in Animation: Daniel (Lioudmila Koshkina[UK], 1996)
The Beginners Bible: The Story of Daniel in Lions' Den (Gary Selvaggio, [USA], 1996)
Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible: Daniel and the Lions' Den (William R. Kowalchuk [USA], 1998)
Veggie Tales: Where is God when I'm S-S-Scared? ( Phil Vischer/Mike Nawrocki,[USA], 2003)
Bugtime Adventures: It's the Pits (Jeff Holder[USA], 2006)
Liken Bible Series: Daniel and the Lions ([USA], 2006)
The Bible: Survival (Crispin Reece; Tony Mitchell; Christopher Spencer[USA/UK], 2013)
The Book of Daniel (Anna Zielinski[USA], 2013)

I suspect my piece will also mention the 2008 Argentinian film Leonera (Lion's Den) which isn't a modernisation, but simply uses the way that the phrase "going into the Lion's Den" has passed into popular parlance.

More Films About Jephthah

Back in 2013 I wrote a piece about the portrayal of Jephthah on film. Since then I have become aware of several other films about Jephthah, so I thought I would bring them all together here. I'm aware of five in total, though in an age when anyone can own a video camera and video editing software there are probably a few more. Most of these however were released in just a five year period, from 1909 to 1913. Here are some details.


Jephthah's Daughter (1909). 
Vitagraph. Dir: J. Stuart Blackton
I discussed Blackton's film at some length back in 2013, but there's also a bit on it in David Shepherd's book "The Bible on Silent Film". He notes

Much as in The Judgement of Solomon, the characters of Jephthah's Daughter offer the depth and range of emotional responses only hinted at in the biblical narrative itself, but increasingly expected by audiences steeped in the melodrama of early twentieth=century cinema (p.70)

La Fille de Jephté (1910). 
Gaumont. Dir: Léonce Perret
(Pictured above - there's another image at IMDb)
Whilst this film is sometimes attributed to Louise Feuillade, it was actually made by it's star Leonce Perret (who plays Jephthah) and features additional performances from Luitz-Morat and Jeanne-Marie Laurent. It's apparently based on a scenario by Abel Gance having been inspired by the poem by Alfred de Vigny. It was also released in English speaking countries as The Vow

A summary of the plot, from a 1910 edition of "Moving Picture Magazine", is also available on IMDb.


Jepthah's Daughter (1913).
Diana Film/Warner Bros. Dir: J Farrell MacDonald
1913 saw the release of not one but two films about the errant judge. I discussed McDonald's entry in 2013 and there are a couple of stills with my review as well.

Surprisingly David Shepherd doesn't mention this one.


La Fille de Jephté (1913). 
Pathé. Dir: Henri Andréani
Andréani produced a string on Bible films for Pathé in the 1910s - at least six biblical films in 1913 alone. Whilst Shepherd lists this film in his filmography, and discusses Andréani at length in the book, he doesn't really discuss this film. However, there is a summary in the Pathé archive which suggests that the film seems to broadly follow the biblical account. Here's a translation of that summary:

Jephthah was a brave warrior of Gilead; disinherited by his brothers, he withdrew to the mountain, began to lead a band of adventurers and indulged in a kind of banditry. He thus acquired a great reputation for boldness and courage, and soon the leaders of his tribe - enslaved by the Ammonites - came to him and asked him to put himself at their head to drive out the oppressors. Jephthah agreed, but on condition that after the war he would remain the head of Gilead.

He completely defeated the Ammonites on the banks of the Arnon. He had vowed, if triumphant, to sacrifice to Jehovah the first person who would come out of his house to meet him. Upon his return, his only daughter walked first to the sound of instruments, at the head of her companions. Jephthah, overwhelmed with grief and despair, tears his clothes and in tears announces the promise that his mouth has uttered. The girl, resigned, asks for a grace period of two months with her companions on the mountains of Gilead, to mourn the disgrace of being neither wife nor mother. Then she offers the sacrifice to fulfil the vow of Jephthah

Bat Yiftach [Jephtah's Daughter] (1996). 
Dir: Einat Kapach/Eynat Kapach
The only modern film about Jephthah of any note is by Israeli filmmaker Einat Kapach (who may spell his first name with a "y"). There's a clip from this film on YouTube which I've embeded below.

There's also a little more about Kapach here and the same site contains some more information about the film including this synopsis.

The year is 1984. A Jewish family is on its way by foot from Ethiopiato Sudan, from where they will board a plane for Israel. The father, whom the family’s life depends on, is seized by brigands. Things change when his eldest daughter comes across the place. The story is typical of what happened to hundreds of Ethiopians on their difficult journey to Israel, in the 1980’s, when they crossed the desert, in order to reach the Promised Land

You can actually pay to watch the film online.

A few more notes on this one. It's 19 minutes long. The English title does appear to be Jephtah's Daughter with only two aitches. And there appears to be a variety of release dates from 1996 to 1998 (and even 2003). I'm a little pushed for time but I might try and review this one if I can.

The Seven Ages of Bible Films

Over the years there have been various books and articles written on the development of Bible films some of which have attempted to sub-divide the material in some way. Whilst some have done this thematically (e.g. Adele Reinhartz's "Jesus of Hollywood") the majority have sought to present films in chronological order and then, if they have attempted to sub-divide them at all, have tended to go by decade (e.g. Kinnard and Davis' "Divine Images").

However, the more I think about this subject the more I find that whilst the by-decades approach might work well in certain contexts, it doesn't work as well as it might in others. So I'd like to propose a new sub-division into seven periods which link the films to both social forces outside of the industry but also to do with key developments directly related to particular Bible films and their reception.

I think the history breaks down into these categories fairly naturally, but it's kind of nice that it breaks into seven - a number with far more significance in the Bible rather than say eight or six. But I'd be interested to hear what people think about this - both the number of eras and the points of transition from one to the next. Anyway, enough pre-amble - here they are:

The Early Silent Era
No shocking revelations as to where to start this initial period, but I'd suggest that this era runs through the various series of films from Pathé, Gaumont and Vitagraph to the first "feature length" films such as Olcott's From the Manger to the Cross (1912) and Griffith's Judith of Bethulia (1914). However it would be another film from D.W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation, that launched a new era in silent film in general such that his follow up would mark the start of a new period.

From Intolerance to the End of the Silent Era.
Whilst some would argue Griffith's work is not as influential as is sometimes claimed, Intolerance was an important film for Bible movies. Before it they were largely small, pious affairs adapting the stories from the Bible in a fairly simple manner. Afterwards they became grand spectacles, like the works of DeMille and Curtiz. And when the silent ea ended Bible films went back into their shell for a little while.

The Early Talkie Period
The first talkies largely bypassed the Bible. The depression meant that the large budgets now required were no longer so readily available; industry regulation clipped the wings even of films which served up their overt sexuality with a morality tale. And then World War Two started and budgets tightened still further. A few notable Bible films were made in this period chief among them Golgotha but it was not until 1949 that a new Bible film would really make a splash.

From Samson and Delilah to Greatest Story Ever Told
The fourth period is often dubbed the Golden Era of Bible films, but that is perhaps to give too little credit to earlier periods when biblical films did tremendous business. Nevertheless, DeMille's 1949 epic Samson and Delilah triumphed at the box office and suddenly everyone wanted to make, and watch, a Bible film. It worked well for about ten years, aided by the arrival of widescreen aspect ratios, but by the time that King of Kings was released in 1961 the tide was beginning to turn and 1965's The Greatest Story Ever Told put the final nail in the coffin. John Huston's The Bible squeezed through after that, but to no better results, and it is very much a part of this era rather than the one which would follow the fall of the big-budget biblical epic.

The Experimental Period
The failure of the traditional, largely faithful adaptations of the Bible resulted in an unprecedented time of creative freedom, as filmmakers were freed from the restraints of having to appeal to the widest possible audience in order to get a decent return on their huge budgets. Whilst a few conservative and traditional films snuck through during this period, the more controversial films that were released during this period speak for themselves - Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Il Messia, Life of Brian. Last Temptation of Christ and Jesus of Montreal. Eventually though religious groups began to organise themselves in protest against what they perceived as an attack on their beliefs. The campaigns went off the scale with Last Temptation and even lowish budget but controversial films like that became too risky.

The Millennial Period
The impending arrival of the new millennium brought with it an increase of interest in the man at the centre of the celebration. This combined with the pressures brought upon studios led to the arrival of a whole host of more faithful, but (largely) less artistically challenging adaptations. The Bible Collection tweaked the story round the edges, sometimes trivialising the story somewhat, but it became the most extensive selection of film based on the Bible. Not far behind it was the Visual Bible's word for word adaptations of Matthew and Acts. Whilst a few more creatively interesting films got made (The Cross, The Miracle Maker) and the odd more controversial film (Book of Life) still got through overall the tone was fairly traditional a move that came to a head with the 2004 release of The Passion of the Christ, in many ways the epitome of this move to a more traditional portrayal of the Bible on film.

After The Passion of the Christ
To say the runaway success of The Passion of the Christ was unexpected is an understatement, but it lead to two different groups of people seeking to make Bible films, but with largely disappointing results (from both a creative and financial point of view). One the one hand were conservative Christians trying to get Hollywood to finance their pet projects. A huge proportion of the films announced failed to make it onto the big screen and those that did were panned by critics. On the other were the money men, who smelt the opportunity, but lacked the necessary understanding of the landscape that was required to make money. There were a few successes - The History Channel's The Bible drew better than expected audiences - but overall he two groups failed to find projects that would satisfy both their objectives. Typical of this phenomena is 2014's Noah - too experimental to do well with Christians, yet too biblical to do well with fans of Aronofsky's previous films, the film failed to find a big enough audience. No surprise then that 2015 and 2016's seem to have approved with lower budgets but only needing to appeal to a more niche demographic in order to make a return on its investment.

It will be interesting to revisit this post in the years to come to see if, and indeed when, a new era arrives and in which direction if moves.

Joseph films for Church Use

A while back, one of the churches I'm involved with has asked me about good clips for use in a series on Joseph. I've been flat out recently, so I suspect I'm too late to be of any use, but I thought I'd highlight a couple of films that might be useful for churches looking at Joseph.

Compared to some biblical characters, Joseph hasn't actually had that many films made about him, and there are still a few I need to see. Chief amongst these is 1974's The Story of Jacob and Joseph (sometimes called simple Jacob and Joseph), starring Colleen Dewhurst amongst others, which sits unwatched on my shelves. It's got 7.1 on IMDb suggesting it's better than average for the time, period and subject, but I suspect it probably is still a little too shabby for public use.

There were a number of silent films on the subject, most notably La Sacra Bibbia (The Sacred Bible): The Story of Joseph in Egypt (my review). The first Genesis film was one about Joseph, the French Vendu Par Ses Frères (Joseph Sold by his Brothers) made in 1904. IMDb turns up a couple of others both from 1914 - Joseph in the Land of Egypt and Joseph's Trials in Egypt. (Campbell and Pitts list date Joseph in the Land of Egypt as 1915). None of these three are commercially available.

There were then a string on Joseph films in the 1960s, predictably two coming out of Italian studios - Giuseppe Venduto Dei Fratelli [Joseph Sold by his Brothers] (1960), I Patriarch Della Bibbia [The Patriarchs of the Bible] (1963) - as well as a couple of Israeli films - the puppet animated Joseph and his Brethren (1962) and Joseph the Dreamer (1967). The story is also covered by the Living Bible series (1957 - Joseph, The Young Man and Joseph, Ruler of Egypt, ) and the Greatest Heroes of the Bible series (1978 - Joseph and his Brothers).

However, all these films are probably too dated for modern audiences. Some people in those church groups might find them interesting, but as all generations become increasingly more media literate, the above films seem increasingly archaic and unintentionally humorous. So realistically we need to look to the modern era. A neat division is made here by the absence of any Joseph films from the 1980s.

Al-Mohager [The Emigrant] (1994)
Whilst the film's subtitles will mean that this film is probably not going to work for most congregations, it's probably the best of the films about Joseph in my opinion. It's been five years since I saw it, but as I mentioned in my review at the time, it's the one version of this story that actually makes me care for the protagonist.

The Bible Collection: Joseph (1995)
This entry (also known as Joseph in Egypt) is arguably one of the best in the Bible Collection Series - it did, after all, win an Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries. Much of that is down to Ben Kingsley's portrayal as Potiphar, although Paul Mercurio's (Strictly Ballroom) turn in the lead role and a strong supporting cast (Martin Landau, Monica Bellucci, Warren Clarke and Lesley Ann Warren) also helped. At 3 hours long you would expect it to cover most of the story's main episodes, although it's been so long since I saw it that I can't remember. Peter Chattaway fleshes things out a bit in his thoughts on the series.

Testament (1996)
I've reviewed much of the Testament:Biblein Animation series in recent years, but this is one episode it's been a while since I saw. It's one of the few puppet animated entries in the series and so will work well for kids, although that usually puts off the adults who fail to realise that this is animation made primarily for adults. So whilst it's a succinct and relatively thorough account of the story, with all of Testament's usual technical excellence, I'd advise potential users to think about how it will be received.

Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999)
If you wanted to go for campy humour value then look no further. This 1999 recording of Rice and Webber's stage show camps it up to the max, but even so the final result is exceptionally poor. There's perhaps some credit to the casting of Joan Collins as Potiphar's wife - genuinely terrifying - and the songs are (annoyingly) memorable, but even the straighter Jason Donovan version of the stage show brings little but an easy laugh.

In the Beginning (2000)
Landau pops up again in Joseph's ancestory, but here he's playing his Great Grandfather Abraham (rather than his dad Jacob as in the Bible Collection). The film is pretty poor, but the Joseph scenes are not the worst of it.

Joseph, King of Dreams (2000)
King of Dreams is the prequel to the hugely successful Prince of Egypt so the fact it went straight to DVD speaks volumes. That said there are some notable successes, primarily the early scenes of Joseph's dreams, which are visualised in the same breathtaking style that won so many plaudits in Prince of Egypt. It's also notable for some voice work by Mark Hamill, although it's Ben Affleck who voices the hero. For whatever reason I do remember this one rather fondly and so have a hunch that had it been made today, with the popularity of sequels being what it is, it probably would have got a proper cinematic release. That's why it would be one of my recommendations to look at and why I'll be revisiting it with my children shortly.

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It's also surprising to look at the films that don't include the Joseph story. For all it's boats about it's long running time, this year's The Bible almost completely ignores Joseph. Another interesting film not to include the story here is Cheick Oumar Sissoko's La Genèse which is written during the time that Joseph is in Egypt, but written about the exploits of the rest of the family in his absence. There is of course reference to what has happened, and the film does a powerful job of portraying Jacob's grief, but essentially this is a film about Joseph made through his absence rather than his presence. Also falling into the close-but-no-cigar category are Huston's 1966 The Bible, Year One and The Real Old Testament all of which stop in the time of Joseph's father/grandfather.

Overall then, for church use, I'd cautiously suggest checking out the Bible Collection's Joseph miniseries and having a look at Joseph, King of Dreams and the Testament entry as well. For a film night for more discerning viewers either Al-Mohager or one of my perennial favourites La Genèse.

The Kingdom of Israel: Part 1

I'm trying to write a few comments on the key films about the Kingdom of Israel. In some ways it's fewer films than one might think - the kingdom starts with Saul, splits three kings later, and both the separate parts peter out. In terms of films there are very few films that pick the story up after the end of Solomon's rule. But on the other hand there have been a lot of films about David. Not as many as Moses and Jesus, but certainly too many to cover all of in detail in a briefing overview like this.

I think I'll take them in chronological order as that allows me to treat the separate parts of the story individually and where one production covers more than one part of the story (such as this year's The Bible) I can deal with the specific parts as they come up. Well I'll try it like that and see where it gets me.

The Start of the New Kingdom

Living Bible: Samuel, A Dedicated Man (1958), Il Messia (1975), One Night With the King (2006), The Bible (2013)

The Rise of David

David and Goliath (1908), Saul and David (1909), David and Saul (1911), Death of Saul (1913), Living Bible: David, A Young Hero (1958), David and Goliath (1960), Saul and David (1968), Story of David (1976), Greatest Heroes of the Bible: David and Goliath (1978), King David (1985), Testament: David and Saul (1996), Kings (2009), The Bible (2013).

David the King

David and Bathsheba (1951), Living Bible: David, A King of Israel (1958), Story of David (1976), King David (1985), The Bible Collection: David (1997), The Bible (2013).

Solomon the King

La Reine de Saba (1913), Living Bible: Solomon, A Man of Wisdom (1958), Solomon and Sheba (1959), Greatest Heroes of the Bible: Judgement of Solomon (1978), The Bible Collection: Solomon (1997).

The Divided Kingdom

Athaliah, Queen of Judah (1910), Green Pastures (1936), Sins of Jezebel (1953), Living Christ Series (1951), Living Bible: Elijah a Fearless Prophet (1958), Testament: Elijah (1996), Testament: Jonah (1996)

The Fall of Judah

Judith of Bethulia (1913), The Bible Collection: Jeremiah (1998), The Bible (2013)

I'm aware that I've left some out, not least the various other Judith films I've discussed recently, various peplum Goliath films, a few other silents, the odd cartoon, and a few very amateur projects. Nevertheless, this isn't a bad list, and I suspect I'll skip a few on this list for the sake of being something of significance about the others. Still, that's about 30 depending on whether you count different episodes of things like The Living Bible (1958) and The Bible (2013) separately, or just as one series together.

Ishmael in Film - Part 1

This post is incomplete as there are a number of errors that need rectifying.

One of the characters who appeared in the History Channel's latest series The Bible was Ishmael, Abraham's first son by Hagar. Abraham in general hasn't appeared in that many films. As far as I'm aware his fleeting appearance in 1936's Green Pastures is the earliest remaining appearance in a film. I say "remaining" because I know of up to four silent films in which Abraham may appear.

The BFI film archive does list two films, which it seems are now lost, that are about an Ishmael, 1912's Pathé Hagar and Ishmael and The Marriage of Ishmael from the following year (Imperium films). I can't find a great deal of information on these films online - neither of them even appear in the IMDb, but the book on Pathé's silent historical films - Richard Abel’s "The Cine Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914" - might yield a little more information. The first sounds highly likelky to be about the biblical characters, but the second could very conceiveably be about a different Ishmael: the Bible only talks about his marriage in the future tense.

I'm also aware of some other films about Abraham courtesy of David Wilson. The Trial of Abraham’s Faith was made by British company Empire Films in 1910. According to a review in the 3rd February edition of Biopscope from the same year this is, as might be expected, about Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac. The other is, yet again, from Pathé, 1911's Le sacrifice d'Abraham (1911). Neither appears to have featured Ishmael, although it is conceivable that he was included in a shot or two. Presumably though Ishmael does appear in Pathé's Le sacrifice d'Ismaël from the following year. Pathé were at it again the next year (1913) with Rebecca about Isaac's wife, though it seems unlikely Ishmael featured in this one. There were also brief appearances in 1918's Restitution and Le Berceau de dieu (1926), both of which tell a sweeping story across the whole Bible, rather than focus on a particular group of characters.

A few films from the sound era feature Abraham, but not Ishmael, including The Living Bible's entry Abraham: Man of Faith (1952), Greatest Heroes of the Bible: Abraham's Sacrifice (1979), Year One, The God Complex (both 2009) and 2011's Young Avraham. (N.B. I believe Hagar features in the Greatest Heroes episode, but no mention of Ishmael and I haven't seen it to be able to comment).

All of which leaves only 5 films that I can lay my hands on that deal with Ishmael: Huston's The Bible (1966); the longest available treatment, Abraham (1994) starring Richard Harris; Testament: Abraham (1996), The Bible: In the Beginning (2000) and this year's The Bible, I had meant to discuss these in this post but it's got too late so I will have to save it for another day soon.

Judith Films

I'm going to be writing a bit on films about Judith and Holofernes over the next week or so including writing about 3 silent portrayals of the story, as well as a quick look at how the main two characters are portrayed in the various films. So it seems a good idea to start by collating a list of the different films in which the story of Judith features. Interestingly the majority of these films are from the silent era, despite the seemingly contemporary appeal of the narrative for today's audiences - sex, violence, seduction, empowerment - can you imagine what Tarantino would do with this story?

 

It's always difficult to know how exhaustive to make lists like these, particularly now people can make films on their cameras and upload them to YouTube, but here is a list of most of the significant portrayals of this story. If you think I've missed one, please let me know in the comments.

 

Giuditta e Oloferne (1906/1908)

[Italy, Mario Caserini] The earliest film about Judith, Campbell and Pitts date this as 1906, but the print in the BFI National Archive is dated in 1908.

 

Judith et Holopherne (1909)

[Gaumont, France, Louis Feuillade] A year after the Italian Judith, Gaumont made a Judith film of their own, distributed in the UK simply as Judith.

 

Judith (1912)

[UK, Theo Frenkel]Evidence on this film is rather scant, indeed it may even be two films, one released in 1910 and another made 2 years later. Things are further confused because the director of this film Theo Frenkel made another film called Judith in 1923, although that does not appear to have been a biblical one.

 

Judith of Bethulia (1914)

[Biograph, USA, DW Griffith] Undoubtedly the most well known of the films about Judith this was Griffith's first feature length film. A 1917 release of the film was renamed Her Condoned Sin.

Giuditta e Oloferne (1928)

[Italy] Campbell and Pitts list this in the notes to the 1906 film, but there are no further details. IMDb lists this as 1929, as does Derek Elley. The BFI Archive lists this as 1928 and describes the film as having "two parallel stories, the first, set in biblical times about the heroic Giuditta who dies to save her city Betulia from the Assyrians. The second is about an engineer who tries to prevent any speculation about a beautiful woman."

Head of a Tyrant / Giuditta e Oloferne (1959)

[Italy, Fernando Cerchio] IMDb gives this a lowly 3.6 score and from the trailer and excerpt available on YouTube it's clear that this film imports a dance of Salome moment into the film as well as attempting to create extra intrigue by having Judith fall for her victim. (Poster image above).

 

General Electric Theatre: The Story of Judith (1960) [USA]

Judith (1961) [Argentina]

Judith (1965) [West Germany]

Judith (1966) [West Germany]

Judith (1969) [France]

These five all seem to be TV movies from the 60s, but definitely different films as they all list different actors.

 

Estudio 1: Judith (1979)

[Spain, Alfredo Castellón] At 140 minutes this is seemingly the longest version of the story.

 

Judita (1980)

[Yugoslavia, Marin Caric] Produced by Yugoslav company Hrvatska Radiotelevizija (HRT) this is the only biblical film I know of from the former European country.

 

Judith (2007)

[Canada, Eric Chaussé] This 4 minute short from French speaking Quebec limits itself to the bedroom scene and even without subtitles is a remarkably powerful treatment. It's available to view on YouTube and is well worth the four minutes.

Through the Bible with Film

I've been thinking for a while about whether to do anything Bible-filmy to mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version of the Bible seeing as there is quite a focus on promoting the Bible this year both in my own church and further afield. I think I'm going to host a series of film screenings working through the Bible. Ideally I'd like to get a nice mix. Rather than doing 9 biblical epics I'd like to mix styles, genres, countries of origin and so on. I'd also like them not to be too long (well under 3 hours where possible).

So I'm starting to form a list, which I thought I would share, partly as it might encourage some people to post their own lists/suggestions, and partly just because it makes the list-in-progress easier to find next time I want to look at it. I'm looking at about 6-10 films and so far this is my list:

Early Genesis - The Real Old Testament
Later Genesis - La Genèse
Exodus - Prince of Egypt
(Joshua/Judges - Samson and Delilah [DeMille])
Samuel/Kings - David and Bathsheba
Exile - Jeremiah
(Post-Exile - Esther [Gitai])
(Wisdom/Poetry - Solomon [Young])
Jesus - The Miracle Maker
Acts - Peter and Paul

That's between seven and ten depending on how many of those in brackets I do. I'm also slightly concerned that showing two films based on Genesis and only one about Jesus might be a bit imbalanced, but then again there's very little overlap between the two. Perhaps I should do one Jesus film that fits the Synoptics (Miracle Maker still) and something else that reflects John a bit more. Perhaps the two hour version of The Gospel of John might fit the bill. Now all I need to do is to figure out where to host it...

Does anyone else want to share their ideas?

Full List of Adam and Eve Films

On Sunday I started compiling a list of films featuring Adam and Eve. I've now had a chance to work through that previous list, and eliminate a few films which seem only tangentially linked to the biblical story. In some cases however there isn't really enough evidence to tell. I've also arranged them in ascending order of year. Here's the full list, 44 films in total:

Adam & Eve (1910)
Adam & Eve [Vitagraph] (1912)
The New Adam and Eve (1915)
Young Eve and Old Adam (1920)
Adam and Eve a la Mode (1920)
Adam and Eve in the Andes (1920)
The Bible: Creation (1921)
Adam and Eve (1921)
Good Morning Eve (1934)
Green Pastures (1936)
Adán, Eva y el diablo [aka Adam, Eve and the Devil] (1945)
Der Apfel ist AB (1948)
Adamo ed Eva (1949)
Adamo ed Eva (1950)
Adam wa Hawa (1951)
Adan y Eva (1956)
Stvoreni Sveta [The Creation of the World] (1958)
The Creation of Woman (1960)
The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960)
Male and Female Since Adam and Eve (1961)
Adam & Eve (1962)
I Patriarchi Della Bibbia (1963)
The Bible: In The Beginning (1966)
La Creacion (1968)
El Peco de Adan Y Eva [The Sin of Adam and Eve] (1968)
El pecado de Adán y Eva [aka The Sin of Adam and Eve] (1969)
Bible (1974)
New Media Bible: Book of Genesis [Genesis Project] (1979)
The Diary of Adam and Eve (1980)
Adamo ed Eva, la prima storia d'amore (1983)
Angyali üdvözlet (The Annunciation) (1984)
Second Time Lucky (1984)
The Diaries of Adam and Eve (1988)
Genesis: Creation and Flood (1994)
Testament: The Bible in Animation: Creation and the Flood (1996)
In The Beginning (1999)
Loss of Sexual Innocence (1999)
Expulsion from Paradise (2001)
The Story of Adam & Eve (2002)
The Real Old Testament (2003)
Iván Ávila Dueñas's Adán y Eva [Todavía] (2004)
Adam and Eve: Uncensored (2006)
The God Complex (2009)
Year One (2009)
The Unauthorized Biography of Adam and Eve (2009)


There's also 3 Adam and Eve related films being produced at the moment:


Keanu Reeves in a sci-fi version of the Adam and Eve story
David L. Cunningham's forthcoming 3D In the Beginning
Scott Derrickson's planned adaptation of Paradise Lost,

Did I miss anything?
(This list was written in 2020 and has not been updated - sorry about that! Feel free to add additional titles in the comments and I might add them at some point in the future if I get a chance!)

You might also like my list of films about Noah and the ark.

Finding Adam and Eve Films

Recently, I've been thinking about films about the creation of the world and Adam and Eve. In part this is because it seems to me that there are so many that I have heard of but am yet to see, and I struggle to distinguish some of them from one another. SO, just as I have previously tried to list "all" films on Noah and Samson, I'm going to try to do the same for this part of the Bible.

Firstly there are the films I have seen (linking to my writings on them - though some you may have to scroll down to reach).

Green Pastures (1936)
The Bible: In The Beginning (1966)
Genesis: Creation and Flood (1994)
Testament: The Bible in Animation: Creation and the Flood (1996)
In The Beginning (1999)
The Real Old Testament (2003)
The God Complex (2009)

Next up are the films that Campbell and Pitts name in "The Bible on Film":

Adam & Eve (1910)
Adam & Eve (1912) - Vitagraph
The Bible: Creation (1921-22)
Good Morning Eve (1934)
Der Apfel ist AB (1948)
Adamo ed Eva (1950)
Adan y Eva (1956) - poster above
Stvoreni Sveta (the Creation of the World) (1958)
The Creation of Woman (1960)
The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960)
Adam & Eve (1962)
I Patriarchi Della Bibbia (1963)
La Creacion (1968)
El Peco de Adan Y Eva (The Sin of Adam and Eve) (1968)
Bible (1974)

In addition to this there are a number of other films which I'm aware of which are not included in the above:

Mike Figgis's Loss of Sexual Innocence (pictured above)
The Genesis Project: Genesis,
Year One (2009)
David L. Cunningham's forthcoming 3D In the Beginning,
Scott Derrickson's planned adaptation of Paradise Lost,
The Annunciation (Angyali üdvözlet) (1984)
Iván Ávila Dueñas's Adán y Eva (Todavía).

Leafing through the Internet Movie Database reveals a number of other likely possibilities. Firstly those named simply "Adam and Eve"

Adam and Eve (1921)
Adamo ed Eva (1949)
Adam wa Hawa (1951)
Adam og Eva (1953)
Adam och Eva (1963)
Adam i Heva (1969)
Adamo ed Eva, la prima storia d'amore (1983) aka "Adam and Eve"
Adam & Eve (2002) aka "Forbidden Fruit"
Adam & Eve (2003)

There is also Adam and Eve (2005) better known as National Lampoon: Adam and Eve, but from what I can make out that one has little to do with the biblical story.

Then there are also these films which include "Adam and Eve" in the title, and might well be based on the Bible in some way:

The New Adam and Eve (1915)
Young Eve and Old Adam (1920)
Adam and Eve a la Mode (1920)
Adam and Eve in the Andes (1920)
Adán, Eva y el diablo (1945) aka "Adam, Eve and the Devil"
Male and Female Since Adam and Eve (1961)
El pecado de Adán y Eva (1969)aka "The Sin of Adam and Eve" - USA
The Diary of Adam and Eve (1980)
The Diaries of Adam and Eve (1988) (TV)
The Story of Adam & Eve (2002)
Eve & Adam (2004)
Adam and Eve: Uncensored (2006)
The Unauthorized Biography of Adam and Eve (2009)

I haven't had time to check the descriptions of the films on the IMDB as usually a few of them prove to be largely unrelated. So when I get another chance I'll work through all those, eliminate any spurious entries and post a complete list.

Top Ten Bible Films of the Noughties

I've been meaning to post this since around mid-December but haven't quite got to it. However, with the Oscars over a week in the past I figured it was now or never (unless I turn into one of those pedants who refuse to recognise the old decade as finishing until 31st December this year).

Before I reveal the "winning" films, there are a few notes on my selection. Firstly, I've not accounted for short films. There are a number that could have been considered, but the growth of YouTube and Vimeo mean that it's almost impossible to assess everything that might qualify under those conditions. This leads me onto my second point. I have not managed to see every Bible film that was released between 2000 and 2009. I've caught most but I'm aware of films like Corina van Eijk's Samson and Delilah, Mesih (Jesus, the Spirit of God) and even NBC's Kings which have escaped my grasp. Lastly there is always a line to be drawn between Bible films and those that reference the Bible in some way but are sufficiently well set in another time period so as to make it too much of a stretch to consider them for a list like this. Here I've decided to place the line somewhere between Son of Man (which qualifies) and A Serious Man (which, regrettably, does not).

So, without further ado, allow me to unveil my Top Ten Bible Films of the Noughties.
Jezile (Son of Man)
If, 4 years after proving a hit at Sundance Son of Man is still struggling to find a decent distributor, it's certainly not on account of its quality. Mark Dornford-May's modernisation of the Jesus story roots itself in a fictional African township which is run by corrupt officials and torn apart by violence. The unconventional treatment of Jesus' death and resurrection is only one of a number of the film's bold moves, but really the film's heart lies in its political handling of Jesus' message.The Real Old Testament
Whilst he idea of filming the opening chapters of Genesis in the style of MTV's "The Real World" would probably send most filmmakers running, TROT turns out to be a work of inspired genius. Telling a 3000 year old story in the style of the 21st century's most overdone television genre strips away the pomp and piety that has become attached to these stories and lays them bare, revealing odd little details that are all too frequently glossed over. The ending might not quite live up to the opening, but reading certain parts of Genesis will never be the same again.
The Miracle Maker
If ever there was a film that disproved that animation is solely for children, this is it (well maybe this and that The Simpsons). Sure it works for kids, but I've been amazed that no matter how many times I return to this film I always find something new. Jesus may be played by a puppet, but this remains one of the most credible portrayals of a human Jesus, and it's also arguably the most Jewish Jesus ever to grace our screens. And the tight screen writing (which is remarkably well-versed in 1st century history) does justice to the story in a mere 90 minutes.

The Nativity Story
Rushed out to cash in on the success of The Passion of the Christ, The Nativity Story failed to find the audience of its predecessor. The opening scenes were wonderful however, depicting the gritty realism of life as a 1st century (BC) peasant, and whilst Keisha Castle-Hughes didn't perform as well as her début in Whale Rider, Oscar Isaacs portrayal of Joseph gave the film real heart. It was a shame that the earthiness of the first half of the film gradually gave way to kitschy Christmas card sentimentality, but even in spite of that The Nativity Story will feature as part of many a Christmas viewing tradition in years to come.

Mary
It's probably an oxymoron to call something a non-canonical Bible film, but Abel Ferrara's film about a film is not really the kind of picture to fit neatly into boxes. There is some representation of the canonical gospels here, as well as an interview with a well known Biblical scholar (Elaine Pagels), but there's also a modern day tale of infidelity and redemption and the first decent portrayals of one of the canonical gospels. And if that sounds deeply confused then it's probably a fair reflection of the film itself.

The Passion
It had been almost 40 years since the BBC had properly dramatised the Jesus story, and whilst nothing would be quite worth that kind of wait, it was certainly a fine effort. Shown in 4 parts, The Passion offered a 'real time' look at the events of Holy Week determined to be fair to the Romans and the Jewish leaders as well as the followers of Jesus. Joseph Mawle's performance as Jesus remains one of the very best though there's some great work from the lesser characters as well. And the programme offered some refreshing new takes on the old, old story.

The Gospel of John
Dwarfed by The Passion of the Christ looming in the background, this word for word adaptation of John's gospel did a surprisingly good job of enlivening a difficult, wordy text. It's due in part to a charismatic, if a little smug, performance by Henry Ian Cusick in the leading role, and a few flashes of brilliance from director Philip Saville. It may become a little turgid in places, and have floundered at the box office, taking the Visual Bible company with it, but there are plenty of strong moments as well. Not least the way the screenplay handles the gospel's anti-Semitic polemics.

The Passion of the Christ
Dividing religious leaders and film critics in equal measure Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ proved to be one of the most controversial films of all time, and certainly the surprise hit of the decade. It's easy to scoff, or to take offence at the subject matter, but there's much to admire in Gibson's film from the bold use of Aramaic to the Caravaggio-esque cinematography. And whilst those who find the film distasteful may have some valid points, what other film could unite Quentin Tarantino and the Pope?

The Apocalypse
Easily the least defensible choice on my list, not least because of a tagged on love story and poor (and by now dated) CGI. But at the same time it's one of the few films about Revelation to rely on the story's likely, historical context instead of the spectacular / bizarre.

Who Wrote the Bible
The noughties were the decade where documentary films began to emerge into the mainstream so it's more than fitting to include one on this list. Robert Beckford's controversial look at the authorship of the Bible challenged both those clinging to the traditional takes on the writers of the Bible and those who would disregard it completely. The documentary would spawn a string of films presented by Beckford which presented thoroughly 21st century takes on Christianity, unafraid to question and adopt alternative theories but rooted in belief nevertheless.

So over to you. What would you have included and what do you think I'm wrong to include?