Watching television (and that includes the likes of Netflix), is a dangerous waste of time. All movies and series are made to create opinions, desensitize us to what's coming or simply influence/program us somehow, so we must be very attentive of what we watch.
Nevertheless, there are two genres of movies/series that I still watch: Movies that expose the nefarious plans for humanity and movies inspired by the Bible. The later is a hobby I call 'find the Biblical errors'. (I know, I'm an incredibly fun person).
So, these are some of the movies I watched and a quick review in case you wonder what to watch next weekend. Enjoy!
Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
One of the most famous and well produced movies on Jesus Christ. His face helped crystalize the Caucasian Christ image, which is hard to believe in my opinion. The movie centers a lot on his eyes, it even has this special lightning. The actor who played Jesus mentioned at the time how the role made him understand that Jesus could not have been a regular man, so his acting was to show how holy he was. He indeed did a fantastic job!
Regarding the rhythm of the movie, though, I have to say that it was a bit too slow for me. There is in general a misconception in spiritual movies that things must very soft, slow and gentle. And as I could not watch the whole movie (6 hours!!), I can't comment much on the Biblical reliability.
Moreover, even though Robert Powel did a great job in such a difficult role, the movie is overly focused on making him look good. Yahusha (Jesus) was not here to look good and this was definitely not how he saved us. But still this is a common thing in all 'Jesuses'.
On a scale of 1 to 10 handsome Jesuses, this movie is a 3
The greatest Story ever told (1965)
The photography of this movie is amazing! Surprisingly, it was not filmed in the Middle East but in the US. Sadly my positive impression of this movie ends on its scenery.
From a Biblical perspective this movie was not faithful at all. My first annoyance is that the Messiah in the movie felt to me like a hippie with this ‘peace and love’ attitude which seems to be in line with the historical post-war youth mentality. Let’s get this straight: Yahusha was a warrior, a gentle person, but nevertheless a fighter for righteousness. He was not here to talk only about love, he was here mainly to call to our attention to the hypocrisy of religious leaders and their distorted teaching of the Torah.
My problem with movies about ‘Jesus’ is that most of them avoid the supernatural things described in the Bible – for example, the sky opening and the Father speaking to John the Baptist as he baptized Yahusha. This movie would go as far as showing Jesus curing people and when they told him ‘you made me walk’, Jesus answered ‘No (!!!), your faith did’. Yahusha would never say that. The faith IN HIM allowed the cure to happen, but the cure never happened with faith alone – faith in what? It’s a subtle message, but a seed of what would later become the ‘trust yourself’ that is everywhere now.
The movie also shows that the apostles approached Jesus and asked to be his followers, which is not biblical either. The Messiah chose his apostles and told them to follow. And guess who was the apostle who first approached Jesus in the movie? Judas! You have got to be f... kidding me!
Another Bible red flag is that the movie makes believe that the faith in our Savior started stirring revolt amongst the Israelite against Rome and that Rome wanted to kill him because of that. This is not Biblical and this view is used to undermine what Yahusha meant for us by reducing him to an ‘anarchist fighting against the system’. The people he pissed off were not the Romans, if you know what I mean.
I give this movie one positive thing: John the Baptist was badass! Although he was a bit too naked for an Israelite, he behaved exactly like I imagine. (REPEEEENT!!)
Anyway, I have not managed to watch the whole movie. It seems after all that this was not the greatest story ever told.
On a scale of 1 to 10 Apostles with blue eyes, this movie is a 2
The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John (2003)
This is my favorite portrait of the Messiah by far! Peruvian actor Henry Ian Cusick managed to make a balanced mix of kindness and energy that I could relate to our Savior. It was also nice to hear the biblical passages voiceover between the scenes instead of making long scenes. The movie is dynamic and fairly respectful with the Scriptures.
Another positive thing about this movie is that it had actors of more of a middle eastern appearance. It is not a 100% clear to me how the people of Israel looked like in the time of Yahusha, but this movie at least tried not to have only blond people with blue eyes in the cast.
My only annoyance with this movie was Mary Magdalene’s presence at the last Supper as if she was another apostle and this, my friends, is NOT in the Bible ;)
On a scale of 1 to 10 miracles, this movie is a solid 8
(you can watch the full movie below)
Noah (2014)
I hate this movie with a passion! I could not watch past half and this movie doesn't serve even as entertainment because it’s just too ludicrous. The only thing in this movie that resembles the Bible are the names of the characters.
Despite the amazing special effects and a cast of very famous actors, this movie managed to destroy a beautiful and amazing story by denying the glory of the Creator and by portraying Noah as an idiotic asshole! What pisses me off about this kind of movie is that a lot of young people who never opened a Bible will watch this garbage and think it's the real story.
On a scale of 1 to 10 fallen angels, this movie is a -10
Exodus (2014)
This movie is not faithful to the Bible at all. Nothing, nada. However, it is still possible to sit through it without throwing your popcorn at it and you can calmly compare it with the Scriptures and make a list of all the Hollywood absurd. Here are some of them:
The movie shows Moses growing up in the Pharaoh’s castle like an Egyptian and not aware that he was an Israelite. Well, the movie started wrong already. But you know Hollywood, they need to have an existential crisis to kickoff the movie, so he has his ‘I’m your father’ moment to digest and leaves Egypt because the Pharaoh discovers his true identity, which is also not true. Who read the Bible knows that Moses fled Egypt because he killed an Egyptian.
Once in Midian, he meets Jethro, marries his daughter, time passes, blablabla and he is still a hardcore unbeliever (??) who challenges God by climbing His mountain because ‘no one can go there’. That’s also not true according to Scriptures, but ok, I’ll let this one go.
Climbing up in the mountain, God speaks to him and the movie makes another ‘Hollywoodness’ showing God as child. The child is a great actor, I must give that, but no one has ever seen the face of God, so, don’t take that one seriously either.
Now Moses is called to his mission and after a boring life crisis, he finally decides to go back to Egypt to save his people. The most ridiculous scene is the Passover when he tells the Israelite ‘I have a feeling that if each one of us kills a lamb and spread the blood on the threshold of the door we will be spared from the wrath of God’. No!! no! That was not a ‘feeling’ from Moses, that was a clear instruction he received from Yahuah to indicate to the death angels which houses to spare!
Hollywood movies don’t want to show the supernatural element of Yahuah but they have no problem showing the Nephilim called ‘heroes’ like Superman flying and doing all sorts of impossible things, or Tom Cruise jumping from an airplane shooting a gun and getting back on the plane in time to fly it back to safety. But Yahuah speaking to Moses? ‘Oh, no, that’s too surreal!’ Give me a break!!
On a scale of 1 to 10 golden calves, I'll give it a 5
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
This movie is allegedly what expelled Mel Gibson from the inner circle of Hollywood. I am always skeptical about 'rebels', because even when a famous person seem to be against the powerful ones, they might still be playing the 'opposition' game. But this movie is interesting and was extremely well done.
When 'The Passion of the Christ' was released, there was several complaints of anti-Semitism - not because it showed that the Jewish leaders and Jewish population plotted and demanded the death of Yahusha - this is backed by the Scriptures, so nothing new there. The issue was the focus on the sadistic torture our Savior had to endure with disturbing details that although we all can imagine to be true, add to this already sad event a new layer of indignation.
Regardless of the polemic, some comments on the movie stated that it's an emotionally draining experience and I can only subscribe to that.
I’m not a huge fan of this movie for a few reasons:
- It's the Messiah's last 12 hours before his human death, so he is shown physically weak. I can understand why he would be portrayed like that, but that’s not how I see him. Yahusha is our rock and in this movie, he looks defeated;
- The first scene when 'Jesus' is in Gethsemane felt to me overly dramatic. That was Mel Gibson's vision, but Yahusha was confident and in peace with his destiny. And even in his worst distress, he was not shaken and fearful like we see in this movie. Mel Gibson's Jesus felt to me like a man, not like Yahuah incarnated;
- Excessive attention to Mary, the mother. We all respect and admire Miriam (Mary), for she was righteous and delivered our Messiah, but she was a human and she is not to be worshiped. The worship of the feminine, which is a pagan practice, got mixed in many Christian churches and this ‘magic’ around Mary is not correct nor Biblical.
What I did like about this movie:
- The language of the movie is Aramaic and Latin, which is really nice for us to have a closer idea of how the events took place on their 'sort of' original language;
- The experience of working on this story had profound impacts on the lives of the actors and some became believers afterwards;
- The movie did not have many famous actors and focused on people of middle-eastern or Latin background, which gave a more realistic visualization;
- Jim Caviezel's resilience after so many injuries and illness during the filming process.
Overall, it's a movie worth watching for the quality of the production and Jim's acting. Nevertheless, I can't help wondering that while such violent and gruesome movie may have given believers a realistic perspective of what our Savior went through for us, on the other hand for those who hate him, watching him suffer may have been a delight.
On a scale of 1 to 10 angry Jews, this movie is a 6
Paul the Apostle (2013)
This movie is quite decent. It shows Saul's days as a persecutor of Christians until his conversion to Paul the Apostle. Extra points for showing a scene where Miriam (Mary, the mother of Yahusha) tells a Christian who falls on his knees in front of her: ‘Don’t worship me, I’m just a regular woman and another Christian like you’. Perfect, awesome, thank you!
On a scale of 1 to 10 blond Israelite with British accent, this movie is a solid 6
Jeremiah (1998)
Surprisingly good movie! Patrick Dempsey did a great job as the prophet Jeremiah and there is also the voice over with the Bible verses which I appreciate. Worth the watch!
On a scale of 1 to 10 sacrificial lambs, this movie is a 7
Bible Collection: Solomon (1997)
Treat it as entertainment only. The life of Solomon is not 100% clear from the Scriptures, so it felt to me that the movie tried to complete the missing pieces with romantic stories. His ‘fall’ into idolatry is shown only superficially, but in reality his transgressions were so grave that the nation of Israel was forever divided and the upcoming generations departed even further from the Creator. It’s not a bad movie, but I would not take it as true to the Bible.
On a scale of 1 to 10 wives, this one is a 5
The Story of David (1976)
Just like Solomon, there are aspects of David’s life that are not possible to tell for sure and this movie also seem to complete the puzzle with interpretation. Can we tell from the Scriptures that David was a bad father? In the movie, although David was a dedicated servant of Yahuah, he is portrayed as a horrible person towards his family. This is a stretch of the information we have.
The movie also shows an absurd scene, when Abigail goes after David to fix her husband’s mess, they openly flirt with each other and David even touches her lips (Abigail was also blond, lol). This sexual tone is a western erotization that would never occur in Biblical times. Ok, we know that David had an incident with a married woman, but by sexualizing this episode with Abigail, the spectator can’t see the profound wisdom of her attitude and how she saved her household.
I will watch other movies about David and compare. I think this interesting King deserves more attention.
On a scale of 1 to 10 dead giants, this movie is a 4
So this is my personal grumpy review. How about you? agree, disagree? :)
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