This film tells the life of Jesus Christ as a story. Directed by Christopher Spencer, its a spin-off from the series "The Bible", of the "History Channel". The main role is played by Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado.
This film has been subject of negative reviews for allegedly not do a literal reading of the biblical texts. Evangelical Christians were furious, conservative Catholics too. Some of the criticism has logic but others are pure religious fanaticism of people for whom the Bible is untouchable, no matter how many times it has been mistranslated, amputated (in pages or even entire books), rewritten and censored until get the version that we have in our house. This is the problem when we talk about movies with religious themes: people just aren't able to see beyond their beliefs.
When I knew that "History Channel" would make this spin-off, I knew immediately that it was just to make the most profit of a production that had been very expensive. Since a few years ago, the contents of this TV channel (at least here, in the western corner of Europe) has had less and less quality (the programs come from America and speak only about pawn shops, cars, scrap and theories, absolutely idiotic, about ancient extraterrestrials). So I loved the original series, it was much better than the programs they normally broadcast. I didn't expect something too glued to the biblical text but a tale, inspired in the concept "Bible told as a story". The film follows this model, telling Jesus'story from birth to ascension. Purists may not like it but, nowadays, this material can be very useful, drawing attentions to the Bible in a world when every less people have it in home.
The film does a very regular job telling the life of Jesus. Its greatest sin is still too much like the TV series, as if it were an expanded chapter. The special, visual and sound effects aren't cinematic enough, the soundtrack is not particularly relevant. As a movie film its bad, but as a TV film it works well. The actors, as expected, are absurdly unknown to most of the public. This includes the protagonist, the Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado, who made Jesus Christ. Like most of the Portuguese, I followed Morgado's career, who gained fame in our country through television soap operas and series, and a few Portuguese movies where he participated. Its not a bad choice for the role, although I think that Jesus will probably have been much darker than Morgado (the actor even has light brown hair), like most of the Jews.
This film has been subject of negative reviews for allegedly not do a literal reading of the biblical texts. Evangelical Christians were furious, conservative Catholics too. Some of the criticism has logic but others are pure religious fanaticism of people for whom the Bible is untouchable, no matter how many times it has been mistranslated, amputated (in pages or even entire books), rewritten and censored until get the version that we have in our house. This is the problem when we talk about movies with religious themes: people just aren't able to see beyond their beliefs.
When I knew that "History Channel" would make this spin-off, I knew immediately that it was just to make the most profit of a production that had been very expensive. Since a few years ago, the contents of this TV channel (at least here, in the western corner of Europe) has had less and less quality (the programs come from America and speak only about pawn shops, cars, scrap and theories, absolutely idiotic, about ancient extraterrestrials). So I loved the original series, it was much better than the programs they normally broadcast. I didn't expect something too glued to the biblical text but a tale, inspired in the concept "Bible told as a story". The film follows this model, telling Jesus'story from birth to ascension. Purists may not like it but, nowadays, this material can be very useful, drawing attentions to the Bible in a world when every less people have it in home.
The film does a very regular job telling the life of Jesus. Its greatest sin is still too much like the TV series, as if it were an expanded chapter. The special, visual and sound effects aren't cinematic enough, the soundtrack is not particularly relevant. As a movie film its bad, but as a TV film it works well. The actors, as expected, are absurdly unknown to most of the public. This includes the protagonist, the Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado, who made Jesus Christ. Like most of the Portuguese, I followed Morgado's career, who gained fame in our country through television soap operas and series, and a few Portuguese movies where he participated. Its not a bad choice for the role, although I think that Jesus will probably have been much darker than Morgado (the actor even has light brown hair), like most of the Jews.