AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Another season of "The Chosen" is coming, along with another debate about the correct way to portray Jesus of Nazareth. "The Chosen" is the life story of Jesus, and the sixth season is on Prime Video starting next Sunday. This one is about the crucifixion. We wanted to look at how Jesus shows up on screen. Joining me now is Peter Chattaway. He's a freelance film critic for Christianity Today and writes a Substack about Bible movies. Thank you so much for joining us.
PETER CHATTAWAY: Oh, thanks for having me.
RASCOE: The life of Jesus of Nazareth has been, you know, awfully interesting to Hollywood and to lots of others. Let's start with "Ben-Hur" from 1959, where Jesus is such a distant and reverent figure that he never speaks. Here, Charlton Heston recognizes Jesus as he carries his cross.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEN-HUR")
CHARLTON HESTON: (As Judah Ben-Hur) I know this man.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RASCOE: They're playing to their audience here. Were we just not ready to hear Jesus' voice?
CHATTAWAY: Probably not. I mean, there have been a lot of Jesus movies in the silent era, but somehow when sound came along in the late '20s, the genre just sort of stopped. And it didn't really revive until the 1950s, when "Ben-Hur" came out. And they were very concerned about offending people if they were too direct in their portrayal of him, and so they tended to keep him off to the side. And I think they wouldn't even reveal who the actor was at the time. Like, we see the effect that he has on other people, but we don't see Jesus himself.
RASCOE: Well, that takes us to a film that went in a totally different direction because, by the 1980s, Willem Dafoe, in "The Last Temptation Of Christ," is a very flawed man.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST")
WILLEM DAFOE: (As Jesus Christ) I'm a liar, a hypocrite. I'm afraid of everything. I don't ever tell the truth. I don't have the courage. When I see a woman, I blush and look away.
RASCOE: Obviously, this movie was very controversial, but what's the director, Martin Scorsese, doing here?
CHATTAWAY: Well, first, he's adapting a novel. And it's about trying to address the human side of Jesus - the wrestling match, if you will. Christianity holds that Jesus is fully divine and fully human. And most films have sort of veered very strongly towards the divine side, but they've kept him out of reach. And so this film was trying to show him as human. And some would argue that it veered too far in the opposite direction just by making him so flawed. Like, you know, many people saw the film, and they said, well, I appreciate that it was meant to be a human Jesus, but there are lots of humans who aren't as full of self-doubts and insecurities and so forth as the Jesus of that film was.
My favorite line on that film was from a Catholic scholar who said that the problem with "Last Temptation" is not the low Christology, but the low anthropology, that it has a very low view of what it means to be human.
RASCOE: In 2004, we got Jim Caviezel as Jesus. Here he is in "The Passion Of The Christ."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST")
JIM CAVIEZEL: (As Jesus Christ, non-English language spoken).
CHATTAWAY: It's funny hearing this - hearing the clip without the subtitles (laughter).
RASCOE: (Laughter) Yes. You - and you can translate that, right?
CHATTAWAY: I don't know Aramaic, but if I...
RASCOE: (Laughter) I'm just joking. I'm joking. Yeah (laughter).
CHATTAWAY: I mean, Mel Gibson comes from a very deeply traditionalist Catholic background. And what's interesting about "The Passion Of The Christ" is that it's a very, very deeply Catholic film, and yet the film had a huge appeal to evangelical Christians.
And Mel Gibson - you know, if you watch the films that he's acted in, he very often endures scenes of pain and suffering and torture, if you watch the "Lethal Weapon" movies or "Braveheart." His version of Jesus is a Jesus who is very masculine, and he can take the pain. And so when he's being flogged, he sort of crumples to the ground. But then when he sees his mother, he stands up tall because he has to show her that he - that - you know, that he's got it still. And because he stands up tall, the Romans ratchet up the pain that they inflict on him.
RASCOE: Now here we are. We have "The Chosen." This series has been around since 2019, and here's Jonathan Roumie as Jesus, talking to some little children.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE CHOSEN")
JONATHAN ROUMIE: (As Jesus Christ) I like so many different foods, but I especially love bread for many reasons.
RASCOE: How is this an evangelical Jesus?
CHATTAWAY: Season 1, in particular - the early episodes reminded me of Billy Graham movies. Like, the structure of a Billy Graham movie is very often, there's a person whose life is going badly. And then at the very end of the movie, they go to a Billy Graham crusade, and they get saved. Almost like a deus ex machina - that God comes in at the end of the story and solves things. And if you watch "The Chosen," the first two episodes both follow characters doing things, and then Jesus shows up at the end. So things like that go into the sensibility, I would argue.
RASCOE: The series has been hugely popular. I know that you are very interested in Bible movies and how Jesus is depicted on screen. But I want to ask you, do you think it's worth watching, like, just on its own? Not - take all the religious out of it. Is it a good show?
CHATTAWAY: Take the religious out of it? I don't know how you would do that.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: So is it a show that people would just enjoy, even if they're not really religious? Or do you have to be, like, religious to really enjoy it?
CHATTAWAY: I mean, apparently, some people do. There are - apparently, it does have fans who aren't, who just like it because they like it as a show. They've introduced a whole lot of extra subplots and plot twists and things that are not from the Bible, but they make it more dramatic. And some people are really into that.
There's never been a biblical show that's lasted more than one season before. They've tried, but the first couple of attempts were canceled after one season. This one's actually made it to Season 6 now, and they've already filmed Season 7. And so between seasons, there's time for the fans to go, oh, what's going to happen next?
RASCOE: That's Peter Chattaway. He writes a Substack about Bible movies. Thank you so much for being with us.
CHATTAWAY: Yeah. It's been a pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF RYAN HELSING & MATTHEW SALTZ'S "LAYERS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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