Through great acting and a word for word translation, The Gospel of John brings the story of Jesus Christ from the Bible to the screen along with its passion and power.
The movie exactly follows the American Bible Society's Good News Bible version of the book of John from its beginning to end to meticulously tell Jesus’ journey, death and resurrection.
Narrated by Christopher Plummer and directed by Phillip Saville, The Gospel of John goes beyond The Passion of Christ to bring a complete picture of Jesus’ life and times. This helps the audience gain a broader sense of Christ and makes his crucifixion that much more heartbreaking and his resurrection that much more powerful.
Henry Ian Cusick portrays Christ in a soft and gentle way, and at the same time shows the strength of the Jesus.
The actor also allows the audience to see emotions in Christ, such as laughter and sadness, that might not be seen by just reading the Bible. You are able to see the sadness in his face at the death of Lazarus, the anger when Christ clears out the temple of animals and challenges those who would make it a marketplace, and you see the pain Christ endured during the crucifixion.
Saville also does a great job at illustrating, again through word for word adaptation of the book of John, how dangerous the words of Christ were to the Pharisees and other lawmakers. He also shows how what Christ said could be considered blasphemous to the people at that time. This adds to the tension that mounts as the crucifixion approaches. Cusick, throughout the entire movie, shows how Jesus continued his ministry without doubt and how he taught to love those who doubt or persecute you.
The movie also does a great job of showing the miracles of Christ without letting Hollywood special effects step in and detract from the movie’s message. When Jesus heals the blind or even brings Lazarus back to life, there are no big effects to take away from what you are seeing. The movie keeps the same tone from start to finish and allows the audience to feel their own emotions based on the story and not the amount of money spent on a special effect. This method also helps during the scenes where the Romans whip Christ and even the crucifixion itself.
Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus Christ (©Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved)
Instead of making the scenes extremely violent or gory, as in The Passion of the Christ, Saville uses shadow and sound to let the audience see and feel the pain Christ is suffering. When you finally do see Christ on the cross, you feel every bit of pain and it is truly hard to hold back the tears. All of this emotion pays off, when you see Christ resurrected.
Again, Saville does not use grand special effects or music to add to the scene and follows the literal translation of the book of John. When we see Christ resurrected, he is not standing on the stone, or hovering in the air. Instead, he is simply knelt down looking at a plant, which is why Mary confuses him at first for a gardener. Cusick uses the same gentleness he did early in the film to show Mary and the audience that it is Christ she is seeing. <!--page-->
It is this simple story telling approach, passion and accuracy, that makes The Gospel of John on of me most powerful stories of Jesus produced for the screen and probably on of the best religious pictures I have seen.
The DVD comes as a two-disc set with both the three-hour theatrical version of the film and a shorter two-hour version. It also comes with several special features including a historical background, production design and the making of the film, a feature on the cast and filmmakers, an interactive map of the Holy Land and the miracles of Jesus, and a glossary of historical terms.
The historical background includes interviews with the Visual Bible International’s Academic Advisory Committee. They discuss how the book of John is one of the best love versions of the Gospels and how its narrative is clearer than the other books. They also discuss how Jesus is described different and more human than in other Gospels due to it having more of Christ’s conversations.
They also discuss how the movie follows the book of John word for word and why it was important to the film. It shows the challenges of letting the book speak for itself without using the other Gospels for outside sources.
Lynsey Baxter as Mary Magdalene in 'The Gospel of John' (©Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved)
During the feature on the cast, Cusick discusses how he didn’t realize what a large role playing Christ would be or the amount of responsibility that came with it. He also talks about how he took it “scene by scene” and looked at his acting as a “mouthpiece” for the words to come through. Cusick also talks about how the director wanted him to portray Christ in a very human way and how the movie was not about special effects and instead strived to keep a very earthy feel to it.All of the special features add to the overall quality of the DVD and show the trouble the filmmakers took to keep the picture as historic and realistic as possible. They also add to the overall enjoyment of the film. I highly recommend this movie.
The DVD is out to own on March 15 in the US and available to pre-order via Amazon ; no word on a UK release yet.
Further details and stills in our database .
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