• Bible Films Blog

    Looking at film interpretations of the stories in the Bible - past, present and future, as well as preparation for a future work on Straub/Huillet's Moses und Aron and a few bits and pieces on biblical studies.


    Name:
    Matt Page

    Location:
    U.K.












    Thursday, October 06, 2005

    Genesis Films

    This is an article I wrote for the Open Heaven Church website back in the days before this blog really existed. It's likely that the article will disappear from that site shortly, so I thought I ought to repost it before it disappeared forever.
    ===
    Noah's Ark 1928
    Of all the events narrated in the Bible, perhaps the hardest to picture, let alone understand, are those in Genesis. Whilst there have been several attempts by filmmakers to capture these formative events on celluloid, their most productive time was actually back in the silent period. The most comprehensive lists cite around 20 films on the various stories made during the silent period, and a further six in the first 10 years of the “talkie” period. By contrast, the past 70 years have only produced a similar number.

    The first film made about a story in Genesis was the French film Joseph Vendu Par Ses Frères (Joseph Sold by his Brothers) made in 1904. Other notable films in this early period included 1928 silent version of Noah’s Ark (where allegedly some people actually died filming the spectacular flood scene[1]), and The Green Pastures (1936) a child’s daydreamed version of the stories she is hearing in Sunday School.
    The Green Pastures (1936)
    The Green Pastures was probably the first film to portray God, and certainly the first to portray him as a black man. Unsurprisingly the Ku Klux Klan were outraged and protested causing many theatre owners to refuse to show it. The Genesis scenes, being seen through a child’s imagination make no attempt to be realistic, but their gentle humour, and basic simplicity give the film a spiritual authenticity that is absent from the majority of these films.
    The Bible (1966)
    Perhaps the best known Genesis film was made by John Huston in 1966. The Bible looked at the first 22 chapters of Genesis, starting with a wonderfully filmed creation sequence (voiced by Huston himself), and progressing through to Abraham and Isaac. The Bible was made at the end of the golden era of the biblical epic, and wisely avoids making this into a spectacular but camp, bathrobe drama. Instead its dark lighting gives much of the film a strange sense of the dawn of time, and the primitive nature of the cultures involved.
    The Bible (1966) - backstage shot
    At the same time the literalism of the presentation will both find favour with those who take a more literal understanding of the “how” questions of creation, whilst also giving it the air of archetypal myth that adopt a more symbolic interpretation.
    Genesis Project  -The Bible: Genesis (1979)
    The Bible was the last Hollywood film based on the Old Testament for over 30 years, with the exception of Richard Gere’s 1985 turn as King David, (replete with his undignified monkey dancing in front of a returning Ark of the Covenant). Instead most bible films began to be made for the TV and the church market. Typical of this was the late seventies “Greatest Heroes of the Bible” series, which included the stories of Noah, The Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham, Joseph. Around the same time the American organisation Campus Crusade (who made the 1979 Jesus film) made Genesis. This was a word for word, bland narration of the whole book accompanied by fairly uninspiring images which lasted for four long hours. It’s biggest plus point was it’s use of Middle Eastern actors, but it’s no surprise that none of them subsequently became the new Omar Sharif.
    Mrinal Sen’s Hindi adaptation - Genesis (1986)
    The eighties were a dry old time for cinematic versions of the book. Only the intriguingly titled Italian film Adam and Eve: The First Love Story and Mrinal Sen’s Hindi adaptation of the first five chapters were even made.
    The Bible Collection - Abraham (1994)
    The nineties were a different matter. With Phil Collin’s namesake rock band out of the way, the bible’s opening tome was back in business. Whilst there were many Genesis movies made over that decade the majority were made by the Italian-American based company Lux Vide. Lux Vide put together 11 Old Testament stories as part of their “Bible Collection”, which also includes three New Testament films Jesus, Paul and The Apocalypse (my review), as well as four largely fictional spin offs, (each loosely based on a marginal New Testament character). Four of the Old Testament episodes were based on the events in Genesis - Creation and Flood, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, and all four have their points of interest. Abraham, Jacob and Joseph frequently pierce the Sunday School cocoon that surrounds many tellings of these stories, both in cinema and other media, by including stories such as The Rape of Dinah, and Judah and Tamar that are so awkward, real, embarrassing and controversial that they are usually excluded completely. And the performances of Richard Harris, Sean Bean and Ben Kingsley respectively are usually worth watching in their own right.
    Genesis: Creation and Flood (1994)
    Of the four, Genesis: Creation and Flood (1994) is possibly the jewel in the crown. Certainly it is strikingly different from the more traditional and straightforward tellings of the story that the other films give us. Instead of attempting to emulate the pattern of the earlier The Bible, or of the other films in the series, Genesis: Creation and Flood sets it’s own course. Covering the first eight and half chapters the film shows us the stories through the eyes of an old man telling his grandson the history of his people. Paul Schofield narrates in all but a few passages, only occasionally interrupted by a female counterpart.

    The narration is accompanied by a striking series of images, occasionally interspersed by shots of Grandfather and the child, and other members of their family. It is an unusual effect. As Peter T Chattaway notes how normally you would be able to “follow any film's basic narrative thrust with the sound turned off… Genesis would fail that test”.[2]  In other words the narration shapes how the images are perceived. In a sense, this is like the act of creation itself, bringing form and order to the otherwise chaotic and unintelligible. The slow pacing of the film also gives it a meditative feel, enabling the audience to let the images wash over them whilst highlighting the words that drive them, and bring them meaning. This relaxed pace also brings a level of internal calm and thus transports the viewer to another time and another place far more effectively.

    Ultimately then Creation and Flood is far more poetic than any of it’s predecessors, and it is ironic that a film which is essentially driven by such a narrative and literary work is ultimately so unliterary and poetic as a final product. It’s also interesting how the stress here on the story being passed down from generation to generation reflects the oral tradition that preceded and underlies the written text we have today.
    In the Beginning (1999) - Martin Landau
    Another film that takes this community narrative approach was a made for TV movie In the Beginning (2000). Martin Landau headed up a strong cast, playing Abraham; just four years after he had played Abraham’s grandson Jacob in the aforementioned Joseph. At over three hours, In the Beginning had plenty of time to cram in a number of these stories, and as a result, it could afford to continue well into Exodus. The creation scene here is also told by way of a flashback, but the sequence is so overloaded with explosive special effects, and cheap modern documentary footage it completely strips the event of its mystery and gravitas.
    Noah's Ark (1999)
    The end of the millennium brought with it a flood of biblical stories, and Genesis films were no exception. Chief amongst the offenders was another TV movie Noah’s Ark (1999), which was almost as unwelcome as the events it depicts. It is difficult to imagine what motivated the production of this film. Its attempt to weave futuristic elements into a pre-historic myth backfires more spectacularly than a seventies Robin Reliant. The bizarre futuristic elements evoke Kevin Costner’s mega flop Waterworld. Had that film been a success this at least could be called a cheap cash in, but as it was a commercial disaster that cannot have been the driving factor. Similarly terrible is the ludicrous attempt to pass off its idiotic amalgamation of the stories of Lot and Noah with the ridiculous off-hand comment “by the time they finish the story of Sodom and Gomorrah they will probably say we weren't even there."

    The only potential merit of the film is that it solves the debate on God’s foreknowledge for ever. Noah’s Ark is so bad that if God had known the flood would spawn this stinker, he may have opted for another method of world destruction, (or at least have made sure that this was destroyed along with everything else). Frankly, it deserves every “wooden acting” joke that critics can throw at it.

    Another poorly executed Genesis film is the straight to video Prince of Egypt  prequel   Joseph King of Dreams. The film does have some good points, notably the dream sequences which certainly benefit from a more creative and more expressive medium. However, the tiresome songs quickly become so dull that ultimately you begin to wonder if a spell in prison like Joseph’s might be far preferable.
    La Genese (1998)
    Perhaps the best Genesis film of recent years (and of all time) is Cheick Oumar Sissoko’s La Genèse(1998). Sissoko’s film tells the story of Abraham’s family from an African perspective, and as a result, it is recorded in the Bambara language of Mali, spoken by only few million people. As a result La Genèse understands the nomadic tribal context in which these stories are set, far better than any number of  Hollywood films, and brings with it a number of fascinating insights.
    La Genese (1998)
    It also refuses to lionise its protagonists, and emphasises just how dysfunctional this family was at times. Too often these characters have been stripped of their humanity, and shown simply as one dimensional heroes. La Genèse gives a more realistic picture which honours the God who uses such ordinary, broken unreliable people to further his will, and offers us hope that he can use us as well.

    La Genèse is also beautifully filmed capturing the wonderful landscapes, and capturing something of the empty space that typified the world several thousand years ago. Nevertheless, at times the film is very stark and brutal in what it captures – starring unflinchingly at some of the more earthy elements of the story.
    La Genese (1998)
    It’s the ability of this film to bring a new angle to well known and familiar stories that makes it so valuable. There have been many films on the various Genesis stories, but only a handful bring something insightful, interesting or challenging. Of these three stand out in particular. The Bible (1966) simultaneously shuns the worst excesses of the 50s and 60s Biblical Epics whilst subverting some of the genre’s standard features. La Genèse (1998) brings the tribal context to the fore, exploring the stories with an authenticity that is largely absent otherwise. Finally, Genesis: Creation and Flood (1994), offers us the chance to reflect on scripture anew as it draws attention to the poetic nature of the text.  


    [1] Various reports of this, the best online can be found at www.jimusnr.com/Noahsark.html

    [2] www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/bc.cgi?bc/bccn/0501/artvideos

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    Sunday, January 15, 2006

    The Green Pastures


    Peter Chattaway mentioned at his FilmChat blog last year that Green Pastures (1936)was about to be released on DVD, and I notice from Tyler Williams' Codex Blogspot that it is now available to buy (although only in region 1 format).

    I was slightly disappointed to hear it as I had only just bought a copy on VHS having held off for years. My wife, Mel, and I decided when we bought a DVD player that we wouldn't be people who replace their collections, so sadly I'll have to stick with VHS for now.

    It was one of the films I got to talk about in an interview I did for a documentary due to be shown on Channel 4 this Easter. It was a controversial film when it came out. The Klu Klux Klan sought to get it banned. At the other end of the spectrum, it has been criticised more recently for it's use of "Uncle Tom" style stereotypes. Even the Warner release of the film now carries a disclaimer at the start

    It's difficult to judge this film 70 years later. The original release date of this film (1936) was 20 years before the civil rights movement, and is approximately halfway between today, and the end of the American Civil War - race relations have changed so significantly in that 141 years that it's hard to tell how things actually were in 1936.

    In my opinion, the fact that the KKK sought to ban the film, and persuaded many cinemas to boycott it, perhaps underlines how progressive a film it was. It was pretty much the first film to portray God, and to depict him as a black man, just 71 years after the end of the civil war, seems a very bold step.

    On the other hand portrayal of the other characters is a little more complex. They are portrayed both positively and negatively, but few characters appear to be very intelligent. That said, the majority of the film takes place in the children's imagination, and so it could be argued that flatter more simplistic characterisations might be what we expect.

    Time Out notes that it doesn't find the characterisations as offensive as "the way in which the depths of plangent suffering that inspired the spirituals are totally ignored. Instead we get white society's wish-fulfilment image of happy Uncle Toms who will be content with their due reward of a ten-cent cigar and a fish-fry in heaven." That quote reminds me of one my major criticism of the film - it's handling of the Moses story. I'm led to believe that the story of Moses leading his people to freedom from slavery was key in the negro spirituals and the theology that accompanied it, such that it has still retained significance in modern day Black Theology. Sadly the Moses section of the story is drained of all it's resonant associations and significance, presumably for fear of the radical implications of associating black plantation workers with the Hebrew slaves.

    Overall I think that if you place the film in it's context you get a bold attempt to move race relations on further. By today's standards it certainly could appear to be regressive or oppressive. However, I'd tentatively suggest that judging it by today's standards is perhaps not appropriate - the content may be a poor portrayal, but the spirit behind it may well be far more progressive that many films today that are aimed at a black audience. That said I recognise that as a white middle class English man, I'm not the best person to judge.

    Moving away from the race issue I commented on this film in my article on Genesis Films, where I noted "The Genesis scenes, being seen through a child's imagination make no attempt to be realistic, but their gentle humour, and basic simplicity give the film a spiritual authenticity that is absent from the majority of these films". The soundtrack is great, and there's some really nice gentle humour in the film. At times the script explores aspects of God and the bible that would probably get veggie-taled under the carpet today. This is particularly interesting as the stories are told through the eyes of children, and as a result make the story very accessible for children.

    For the record the film covers:

    Opening real life scenes
    opening dream sequences in heavem
    Creation
    Cain and Abel
    Noah and the Flood
    Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (as characters rather than their stories)
    Moses and the Freeing of the Israelites
    A Generic Prophet (not a biblical one, but someone who seems to combine different aspects from various Old Testament Prophets)
    Jesus's coming (told theough Da Lawd's reaction)

    Matt

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    Saturday, September 21, 2024

    '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

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    Friday, September 11, 2009

    Films and 90 Days Through the Bible

    RC of Strange Culture is trying to read the Bible in 90 days. As he does so, he's posting a few thoughts on the cinematic potential in what he reads. So far he's written on Genesis and Exodus. I've written quite a bit on films about Genesis and Exodus, though frustratingly I can't work out a way to track my older posts for these labels. I also wrote an article a few years ago on Genesis films.

    It looks like I've seen a few more films from Genesis than RC. I'm a big fan of the African La Genesse (pictured), Green Pastures, Huston's The Bible and the various films in The Bible Collection that touch on stories from the Bible's opening book. As for Exodus films, I started writing a book on that years ago, but only got halfway before I lost my weekly writing day. I think Moses the Lawgiver is my favourite, though I'm still in awe of watching L'exode a couple of months back.

    Anyway, I look forward to reading RC's thought on the rest of the Bible as he progresses.

    Monday, September 02, 2024

    The Tale of the Ark (1909)

    The earliest film about Noah and the flood is The Tale of the Ark (1909) by British animation pioneer Arthur Melbourne Cooper. It's currently available for free on BFIPlayer, in the UK at least, and seems to also have been circulated under the title Noah's Ark. I don't know much about Cooper, but he apparently learnt some of his skills from the legendary British cinema pioneer Birt Acres and while I'd love to get into all of that, I simply don't have the time at the moment. So I'll restrict myself to a few passing observations about the film itself.

    The film begins with a young girl playing with a toy Noah's Ark, who soon tires and settles herself down for a nap. there's a cut, and the next shot is of the ark now resting on water, by grass. This is a charming framing device, which both contextualises this as a children's film (or at least one suitable for/aimed at children), while also putting it outside the scope of historical scrutiny. Years later another black and white film that featured Noah, The Green Pastures (1936) would employ a similar framing device.

    The rest of the film is stop-motion animation. Plot-wise things are fairly straightforward. Noah opens the doors, the animals bring themselves on board, the rains comes forming a flood, then the water recedes and the animals disembark, but there are a number of nice touches here. Firstly while most of the animals file onto the ark fairly uniformly, the elephants provide a certain level of comedy, spinning and rolling about and heading off in different directions. This shows a level of advancement, of Cooper going beyond basic execution of a smoothly executed piece of animation, to include humour and give his characters personality.

    Secondly I was struck by the way the waters gradually recede after the flood. I don't know whether the water was gradually drained off camera, or if it was gradually filled and the footage reversed, but again it perhaps could have been done with simple cuts but this seemed a superior approach.

    Finally, Cooper again uses the elephants to lighten the tone and highlight his dexterity as an animator. When Noah and the animals disembark Noah lowers the ramp, but it's not placed quite right, at least, not for one of the elephants who uses their trunk to adjust it before going down. Again the fussiness / sense of  exasperatedly having to show Noah how to do it right is quite a complex thing to convey with animated figures.

    For those wanting to read more about this film, David Shepherd wrote a paper on it for the Journal of Religion and Film back in 2016 called "Noah's Beasts  Were the Stars": Arthur Melbourne Cooper Noah’s Ark (1909)'.

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    Tuesday, April 09, 2013

    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.

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    Wednesday, October 08, 2008

    Giving of the Ten Commandments

    My church is looking at the Ten Commandments at the moment, so I got asked to dig out some clips of Moses receiving the commandments. I looked at the following five which are probably the best crafted of those available:
    The Ten Commandments (1923)
    The Ten Commandments (1956)
    Moses the Lawgiver (1975)
    Moses (1996)
    Ten Commmandments (2006)
    As well as being the best clips they are probably the most widely known. The other popular Moses film that is not on the list is obviously The Prince of Egypt, but this only really shows a brief shot of Moses holding the commandments right before the credits roll. Likewise there is no equivalent scene in 1974's Moses und Aron For the record I could also have included clips from the following:
    Green Pastures (1936)
    The Living Bible - Moses, Leader of God's People (1958)
    Greatest Heroes of the Bible - The Ten Commandments (1979)
    History of the World Part 1 (1981)
    The Ten Commandments: The Musical (2006)
    Ten Commandments (2007)
    ...not to mention a whole host of cartoons.

    Anyway, for anyone interested in repeating the exercise elsewhere, here are the start and end places/times of the clips I used - the clip length, and the version that I used. In most cases these are region 2, but I imagine the difference will be very slight, particularly as the DVD releases for the first two are identical regardless of the regional code. Links are to previous posts on each film. I've also added the leading actor's name and a few comments.
    The Ten Commandments (1923)
    Ten Commandments (1956) 50th Anniversary Collection – region 2
    Disc 3 - Chapter 6; 35:05 – 42:48 [7:43 minutes]
    Moses played by Theodore Roberts

    This is the oldest of those available, and, for those unused to silent films, the style takes a bit of getting used to. Note the age of Moses here, and also that DeMille's citations are from Exodus 31 and 32 rather than the first account of the giving of the commandments in Exodus 19 and 20.

    The Ten Commandments (1956)
    Ten Commandments (1956) 50th Anniversary Collection – region 2
    Disc 2 – Chapter 15; 73:12 – 78:45 [4:30 minutes]
    Moses played by Charlton Heston

    This is, obviously the most famous version, but it's utterly reliant on DeMille's earlier version. The streak of fire writing the commandments is fresh, but otherwise it's just a remake. Note how in both examples Moses receives the commandments at the top of the mountain, and whilst commandments 1 and 2 are being broken (not that the people would have known given this film's chronology!)

    Moses the Lawgiver (1975)
    Network/Granada Ventures – Region 2
    Disc 2 – Chapter 3; 10:48 – 15:00 [4:12 minutes]
    Moses played by Burt Lancaster

    This is perhaps the most controversial version of these events, but it's relatively accurate to the accounts in Exodus. The clip ends with Moses on his way up the mountain with the tablets already under his arm, with the people having already agreed. An earlier scene shows Moses hearing God's call (in Lancaster's own voice) from the top of the mountain, but it's entirely ambiguous as to whether these commandments are from God or from Moses. It's also good how they are given more as prose than as "commandments".

    Ten Commmandments (2006)
    Disc 2 – Chapter 7; 68:10 – 72:04 [3:52 minutes]
    Moses played by Dougray Scott

    This is the most recent of the five, and it's main concern seems to be showing off it's technology. There's a heavy dependence on DeMille too - the idea of Moses going up the mountain to get the tablets, and of them being literally written by God (although not literally the "finger of God" as the text states), not to mention the desire to make this a showy scene.

    Moses (1996)
    Time Life Box Set – region 2
    Part 2; 29:30 – 36:20 [6:50 minutes]
    Moses played by Sir Ben Kingsley

    This is perhaps my favourite of these five clips, largely because I had to see it to make me realise how the story actually appears in Exodus. It's sticks very closely to the text (Exodus 19:10-20:21), but given how stagey other version have been, this is a good thing, which is also why I recommend showing it last. I also like the idea of the commandments being something that welled up from the people as they encountered God, and the idea of the people corporately being the mouthpiece of God.

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    Tuesday, August 07, 2007

    Richard H. Campbell on Lang's "The Bible on the Big Screen"

    A couple of weeks ago I noted the (then) forthcoming release of Stephen J. Lang's "The Bible on the Big Screen". I'm still waiting for my copy, but I was interested to read a review at Amazon by the one and only Richard H. Campbell. Campbell was one of the two authors who published "The Bible on Film", way back in 1981, so it's particularly interesting to read his comments. Overall he gives the film 4 stars out of a possible five. "Mr. Lang does an excellent job writing about each film. Everything in this book is well-done; great writing; a wonderful fresh read."

    He does, however find two major faults with the book. Firstly, there is apparently no mention of others books or websites on the subject, including Campbell's own. Secondly, the book claims to include a "comprehensive filmography with a chronological listing of all biblical movies ever made" whereas it only mentions a total of 90 or so films. (Campbell notes how his 1981 book "lists almost 300 entries"). Of these 90 or so it appears that Lang deals with 36* films of them in greater depth. Campbell lists them as follows:
    From The Manger to The Cross
    Intolerance
    Ten Commandments (1923)
    King of Kings (1927)
    Green Pastures
    Samson and Delilah
    David and Bathsheba
    Salome
    Prodigal
    Ten Commandments (1956)
    Solomon and Sheba
    Story of Ruth
    Esther and the King
    King of Kings (1961)
    David and Goliath
    Sodom and Gomorrah
    Greatest Story Ever Told
    Gospel According To Matthew
    The Bible...In the Beginning
    Godspell
    Jesus Christ Superstar
    Gospel Road
    Passover Plot
    Jesus of Nazareth*
    Il Messia
    Jesus
    Life of Brian
    King David
    Last Temptation of Christ
    Prince of Egypt
    Jonah
    Gospel of John
    Passion of the Christ
    Nativity
    One Night With The King
    The list contains 4 films that I am yet to see - The Prodigal, Sodom and Gomorrah, The Passover Plot and Jonah. I'm assuming that the latter is the Veggie Tales movie. Campbell also notes how the book discusses only 9 films made since the release of his book, and how it excludes made for TV films (except for Jesus of Nazareth).

    Three observations at this point. 1 - The list only contains English Language / and Italian made films. 2 - I'm particularly pleased to see Il Messia make the list. 3 - There are 20 "Jesus films" on the list (including some of the more tangential titles such as Salome, and 15 Old Testament.

    You can read Campbell's full review here,
    (EDIT:The above was written about Campbell's longer review. It was replaced by a shorter review of the book, which now, in turn, seems to have disappeared).

    I hope to publish my own review of the book shortly.

    *Jesus of Nazareth is counted in two parts taking the total to 36 films

    Monday, February 29, 2016

    Blood of Jesus (1941)

    Spencer Williams Blood of Jesus (1941) is not a Bible film as such, though it contains characters from the Bible, namely satan, and various quotes from the New Testament. It's also a little known and under-appreciated film from a period when the Bible barely featured on the silver screen and the vast majority of portrayals of non-white characters were racist and patronising.

    The film was Williams' second as director and he also wrote and starred in it as a husband who accidentally shoots his wife. It's unclear whether her case is something of an exception, or whether the path she undergoes represents something we all shall face, but either way she ends up at a dusty crossroads torn between the pleadings of a giant-winged angel and the temptations of a horned devil.

    For me the film is strongly reminiscent of The Green Pastures (1936). The budget is clearly not high and viewers may find the concept quaint, hokey or imaginative depending on their perspective, but the key performances are engaging and believable, the compositions are clearly the work of someone who knows how best to frame a scene and whilst there's something comical about the angels wings and the devil's horns this appears to be Williams' intent rather than all he could muster.

    Best of all is the soundtrack, a mix of spirituals, traditional hymns and the odd jazz-era hit thrown in for good measure - evocative and moving without ever becoming twee.

    It's not hard, then to see why the film was the first "race film" to be admitted into the US National film registry, nor why the curators of a forthcoming "Pioneers of African American Cinema" box set consider it to have pride of place amongst the diverse range of films comprising the collection. There's more on that from The Guardian as well as a nice write up by The Bullock Museum in Texas to accompany a recent screening. It will be nice to see a propery restored version so we can assess Williams' work as it was meant to be seen.

    Friday, June 11, 2010

    Full List of Adam and Eve Films

    A poster for "The Private Lives of Adam and Eve"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.

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    Sunday, June 06, 2010

    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.

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    Monday, May 27, 2013

    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.

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    Sunday, July 01, 2018

    Why the Film Community Needs to Rethink its Stance on the Biblical Film


    I think it's time film lovers revisited the Bible film.

    I understand their a bad reputation: too often they have suffered from being low-grade propaganda, artistically or morally deficient, or just plain dull. Furthermore, it's been compounded by the way that biblical films have come to be seen as synonymous with biblical epics. It's not hard to see how, as the dominant genre of 50s has fallen from grace, many have thrown the often pompous, overblown, baby out with the subtler, more nuanced, bathwater. But whilst epics form a significant part of the picture, it's important to realise that portrayals of the Bible on film are, in fact, far more wide ranging than the biblical epic.

    Perhaps the most persuasive argument for fans and students of film to take biblical adaptations more seriously is simply to look at the list of directors who have made one. So yes, of course, there's DeMille but there are also such directors as Roberto Rossellini, Jean Luc Godard, John Huston, Alice Guy, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jean Marie Straub/ Danielle Huillet, Luis Buñuel, The Coen Brothers, Ermanno OlmiMartin ScorsesePhilippe Garrel and Carl Dreyer. Add to that the numerous biblical films in which Orson Welles was involved, and an ultimately unrealised work on Genesis by Robert Bresson and that's quite a list.

    For a large part these directors and the team of filmmakers they represent worked outside the boundaries of the biblical epic. The subject was one for them to adopt, adapt, interpret, uphold or rally against. They are women and men of various approaches to faith, from the passionately devout, through to troubled agnostics and provocatively atheistic and they brought their artistic sensibilities with them.

    So looking at the films I have covered on this site over the years, in addition to the epics, there are also musicals (Jesus Christ Superstar, 1973), comedies (Monty Python's Life of Brian, 1979), neo-realism (Il vangelo secondo Matteo, 1964), horror (Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter, 2001), surrealism (La Voie Lactée, 1969), materialism (Moses und Aron, 1973) and the avant garde (Lot in Sodom, 1933).

    Furthermore these films also touch on other more wide ranging 'movements' in cinema from silent film (of which I've discussed more than thirty here over the years), queer cinema (Salomé 1922) and pioneering animation (The Miracle Maker, 2000); as well as numerous films such as The Green Pastures (1936) and Golem, l'esprit de l'exil (1992) which quite simply defy classification.

    I should point out that I don't wish to dismiss the biblical epic. You can't run a site like this and not admire DeMille in full flow. I guess I'm just saying that if epics are not your aesthetic preference, then you're in good company because some of the cinema's greatest ever artists have rejected those same aesthetics. So let's celebrate their work, rather than dismiss it for being something it isn't.

    Tuesday, December 31, 2019

    Where to See the 100 Bible Films

    If you're reading this you've probably found the URL from my book "100 Bible Films", if so, thanks for reading!

    While it was a point of the book to focus on films that still exist in some form some are difficult to track down, there are even one or two in archives which I'm hoping to do something about in the future. For now though this is where you can see the films. If you find any where the links have gone dead, or you know a better /alternate source, please let me know.

    If you've found this some other way, you can view a sample or buy my book here.

    1. La vie et la passion de Jésus-Christ (1898)
    (Louis Lumière, Georges Hatot, IMDb)
    Freely available via the US Library of Congress..
    Link
    Alt text.
    Link

    2. Martyrs Chrétiens (1905)
    (Lucien Nonguet, IMDb)
    One of the films featured on the BFI's "Fairy Tales: Early Colour Stencil films from Pathé" DVD.
    Link

    3. La vie du Christ (1906)
    (Alice Guy, IMDb)
    Available free on YouTube.
    Link
    Also on DVD.
    Link

    4. Vie et Passion de N.S Jésus-Christ (1907)
    (Ferdinand Zecca, IMDb)
    Available free on YouTube.
    Link
    Also on DVD.
    Link

    5. Jephtah's Daughter: A Biblical Tragedy (1909)
    (Stuart Blackton, IMDb)
    Not currently available, but email me if interested as a kickstarter campaign may be starting in the future

    6. L'exode (1910)
    (Louis Feuillade, IMDb)
    Not currently available, but email me if interested as a kickstarter campaign may be starting in the future

    7. Jaël et Sisera (1911)
    (Henri Andréani, IMDb)
    Can be viewed in the BFI's Reuben library.
    Link
    A kickstarter campaign may be starting in the future.
    Link

    8. From the Manger to the Cross; or, Jesus of Nazareth (1912)
    (Sidney Olcott, IMDb)
    Available free on YouTube.
    Link
    Also on DVD.
    Link

    9. Judith of Bethulia (1914)
    (D.W. Griffith, IMDb)
    Available free on YouTube.
    Link
    Alternate version on YouTube.
    Link

    10. Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)
    (D.W. Griffith, IMDb)
    Available free on YouTube.
    Link
    Also on DVD.
    Link

    11. Blade af Satans bog (1920)
    (Carl Theodor Dreyer, IMDb)
    DVD.
    Link
    Also at Daily Motion.
    Link

    12. La Sacra Bibbia (1920)
    (Pier Antonio Gariazzo, Armando Vey, IMDb)
    DVD

    13. Der Galiläer (1921)
    (Dimitri Buchowetzki, IMDb)
    Available free via Internet Archive.
    Link

    14. Salomé (1922)
    (Charles Bryant, Alla Nazimova, IMDb)
    Available free on YouTube

    15. Sodom und Gomorrha (1922)
    (Michael Curtiz, IMDb)
    Available free on YouTube
    Also on DVD.
    Link

    16. The Ten Commandments (1923)
    (Cecil B. DeMille, IMDb)
    Available free on YouTube
    Also on DVD.
    Link

    17. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
    (Charles Brabin, Christy Cabanne, Rex Ingram, Fred Niblo, J.J. Cohn, IMDb)
    Included in this DVD box set.
    Link
    Can stream via Amazon & Apple.
    Link

    18. The King of Kings (1927)
    (Cecil B. DeMille, IMDb)
    Lobster Bluray/DVD
    Also on YouTube.
    Link

    19. Noah's Ark (1928)
    (Darryl F. Zanuck, Michael Curtiz, IMDb)
    US DVD

    20. Lot in Sodom (1933)
    (Melville Webber, James Sibley Watson, IMDb)
    Available free on YouTube

    21. Golgotha (1935)
    (Julien Duvivier, IMDb)
    Available free via Internet Archive.
    Link

    22. The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)
    (Ernest B. Schoedsack, Merian C. Cooper, IMDb)
    DVD

    23. The Green Pastures (1936)
    (Marc Connelly, William Keighley, IMDb)
    DVD
    Also at Vimeo.
    Link

    24. Jesús de Nazareth (1942)
    (José Díaz Morales, IMDb)
    Available free on YouTube.
    Link

    25. Samson and Delilah (1949)
    (Cecil B. DeMille, IMDb)
    Bluray

    26. David and Bathsheba (1951)
    (Henry King, IMDb)
    DVD

    27. Quo Vadis (1951)
    (Mervyn LeRoy, Anthony Mann, IMDb)
    Bluray

    28. The Robe (1953)
    (Henry Koster, IMDb)
    Bluray
    Rent on YouTube.
    Link

    29. Sins of Jezebel (1953)
    (Reginald Le Borg, IMDb)
    DVD

    30. The Prodigal (1955)
    (Richard Thorpe, IMDb)
    DVD

    31. The Ten Commandments (1956)
    (Cecil B. DeMille, IMDb)
    Bluray

    32. The Star of Bethlehem (1956)
    (Lotte Reiniger, Vivian Milroy, Jan Sadlo, IMDb)
    Extra on BFI "Adventures of Prince Achmed" Dvd
    Also on Gospel Films Archive DVD.
    Link

    33. Celui qui doit mourir (1957)
    (Jules Dassin, IMDb)
    Available on YouTube (in French with Eng subtitles).
    Link

    34. Solomon and Sheba (1959)
    (King Vidor, IMDb)
    Bluray

    35. Ben-Hur (1959)
    (William Wyler, IMDb)
    Bluray
    Rent on YouTube.
    Link

    36. Esther and the King (1960)
    (Raoul Walsh, Mario Bava, IMDb)
    DVD

    37. The Story of Ruth (1960)
    (Henry Koster, IMDb)
    DVD

    38. Barabbas (1961)
    (Richard Fleischer, IMDb)
    DVD
    Available on YouTube.
    Link

    39. King of Kings (1961)
    (Nicholas Ray, IMDb)
    Bluray
    Rent on YouTube.
    Link

    40. Il vecchio testamento (1962)
    (Gianfranco Parolini, IMDb)
    DVD (German one is best)
    Various versions free on YouTube (here best visuals but Italian audio).
    Link

    41. Il vangelo secondo Matteo (1964)
    (Pier Paolo Pasolini, IMDb)
    Bluray
    Also free on YouTube - chose subtitled & black & white.
    Link

    42. The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
    (George Stevens, David Lean, Jean Negulesco, IMDb)
    Bluray
    Free on Amazon Prime or rent on YouTube.
    Link

    43. I grandi condottieri (1965)
    (Marcello Baldi, Francisco Pérez-Dolz, IMDb)
    DVD

    44. The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966)
    (John Huston, IMDb)
    DVD

    45. Les Actes des apotres [Atti degli apostoli] (1969)
    (Roberto Rossellini, IMDb)
    Available on YouTube

    46. La voie lactée (1969)
    (Luis Buñuel, IMDb)
    DVD

    47. Son of Man (1969)
    (Gareth Davies, IMDb)
    Not currently available

    48. Jesús, nuestro Señor (1971)
    (Miguel Zacarías, IMDb)
    US DVD

    49. Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)
    (Norman Jewison, IMDb)
    DVD
    Free on Amazon Prime.
    Link

    50. Godspell: A Musical Based on the Gospel According to St. Matthew (1973)
    (David Greene, IMDb)
    DVD

    51. Moses und Aron (1975)
    (Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub, IMDb)
    Bluray

    52. Il messia (1975)
    (Roberto Rossellini, IMDb)
    DVD
    On YouTube (Italian w Eng subs despite video title).
    Link

    53. The Passover Plot (1976)
    (Michael Campus, IMDb)
    DVD
    Currently on YouTube.
    Link

    54. Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
    (Franco Zeffirelli, IMDb)
    DVD

    55. Karunamayudu (1978)
    (A. Bhimsingh, Christopher Coelho, IMDb)
    DVD
    Free on YouTube.
    Link

    56. Jesus (1979)
    (Peter Sykes, John Krish, IMDb)
    DVD

    57. Life of Brian (1979)
    (Terry Jones, IMDb)
    DVD
    Free on YouTube.
    Link

    58. Camminacammina (1983)
    (Ermanno Olmi, IMDb)
    DVD

    59. Je vous salue, Marie (1985)
    (Jean-Luc Godard, IMDb)
    DVD

    60. King David (1985)
    (Bruce Beresford, IMDb)
    US DVD

    61. Esther (1986)
    (Amos Gitai, IMDb)
    DVD

    62. Samson dan Delilah (1987)
    (Sisworo Gautama Putra, IMDb)
    French DVD

    63. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
    (Martin Scorsese, IMDb)
    Bluray
    Rent on YouTube.
    Link

    64. Jésus de Montréal (1989)
    (Denys Arcand, IMDb)
    DVD
    Free on YouTube.
    Link

    65. The Garden (1990)
    (Derek Jarman, IMDb)
    DVD

    66. The Visual Bible: Matthew (1993)
    (Regardt van den Bergh, IMDb)
    DVD
    Also on YouTube.
    Link

    67. Al-mohager (1994)
    (Youssef Chahine, IMDb)
    DVD
    Streaming on Netflix.
    Link

    68. Jeremiah (1998)
    (Harry Winer, IMDb)
    DVD

    69. The Prince of Egypt (1998)
    (Simon Wells, Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, IMDb)
    DVD

    70. The Book of Life (1998)
    (Hal Hartley, IMDb)
    DVD
    Streaming on Vimeo.
    Link

    71. La genèse (1999)
    (Cheick Oumar Sissoko, IMDb)
    DVD

    72. Jesus (1999)
    (Roger Young, IMDb)
    Bluray

    73. The Miracle Maker (2000)
    (Stanislav Sokolov, Derek W. Hayes, IMDb)
    DVD
    Rent on YouTube.
    Link

    74. The Real Old Testament (2003)
    (Paul Hannum, Curtis Hannum, IMDb)
    Occasional DVD on eBay
    Clips on YouTube.
    Link

    75. The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John (2003)
    (Philip Saville, IMDb)
    DVD

    76. The Passion of the Christ (2004)
    (Mel Gibson, IMDb)
    Bluray available but seems to have a problem. DVD
    Free on Amazon Prime.
    Link

    77. Shanti Sandesham (2004)
    (P. Chandrasekhar Reddy, IMDb)
    Available free on YouTube.
    Link

    78. Color of the Cross (2006)
    (Jean-Claude La Marre, IMDb)
    DVD
    Free on YouTube.
    Link

    79. Jezile [Son of Man] (2006)
    (Mark Dornford-May, IMDb)
    DVD
    Free on YouTube.
    Link

    80. The Nativity Story (2006)
    (Catherine Hardwicke, IMDb)
    DVD

    81. Mesih [Jesus, Spirit of God] (2007)
    (Nader Talebzadeh, IMDb)
    Available free on YouTube.
    Link

    82. The Passion (2008)
    (, IMDb)
    DVD

    83. El cant dels ocells (2008)
    (Albert Serra, IMDb)
    Available on Mubi

    84. Oversold (2008)
    (Paul Morrell, IMDb)
    Download from Amazon

    85. Year One (2009)
    (Harold Ramis, IMDb)
    DVD

    86. Io sono con te (2010)
    (Guido Chiesa, IMDb)
    DVD

    87. Su re (2012)
    (Giovanni Columbu, IMDb)
    DVD

    88. The Bible (2013)
    (, IMDb)
    Bluray

    89. Noah (2014)
    (Darren Aronofsky, IMDb)
    Bluray

    90. The Savior (2014)
    (Robert Savo, IMDb)
    Rent on Amazon.
    Link

    91. Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
    (Ridley Scott, IMDb)
    Bluray

    92. The Red Tent (2014)
    (Roger Young, IMDb)
    DVD

    93. Os Dez Mandamentos: O Filme (2016)
    (Alexandre Avancini, IMDb)
    Brazilian DVD/Bluray.
    Link

    94. Risen (2016)
    (Kevin Reynolds, IMDb)
    DVD

    95. Get Some Money (2017)
    (Biko Nyongesa, IMDb)
    Director to make available soon

    96. Mary Magdalene (2018)
    (Garth Davis, IMDb)
    DVD
    Rent on YouTube.
    Link

    97. Paul, Apostle of Christ (2018)
    (Andrew Hyatt, IMDb)
    DVD

    98. Seder-Masochism (2018)
    (Nina Paley, IMDb)
    Free online download via director.
    Link

    99. Assassin 33 A.D. (2020)
    (Jim Carroll, IMDb)
    Available from Amazon.
    Link
    Also released as Black Easter.
    Link

    100. Lamentations of Judas (2020)
    (Boris Gerrets, IMDb)
    Currently unavailable

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