seen-it: Miracle Maker

Easter family film night - the obvious choice really.

Still remains the best adaptation of the Gospels if you ask me. Highly accurate, and the characterisations & the narrative blank filling are all plausibly done. Even the reference to Sepphoris at the beginning is an interesting inclusion ... I never realised it's existence til one of my college lecturers asked the question "Could Jesus have been alluding to Sepphoris when he talked about a city on a hill?"

JE, AJ & EJ all had lots of relevant questions which showed they were comprehending what was going on and attempting to make it relate to what they already know. And the crucial Passion week events are all done superbly for a child audience.

Still kind of amazing that film 4 were involved with this production - can't imagine them doing such a straight Biblical interprtation now. Proved it's weight in gold for use in children's work of course!

seen-it: The Passion of the Christ

Seemed like an appropriate film to watch once again over the Easter weekend. Had invited a few people unacquainted with it to view it for the 1st time too.

My 3rd viewing of the film now. It's naturally lost some of the impact of the very first viewing but still incredibly powerful. The brutality of the events still made me flinch and look-away on several occasions, though it was actually the events leading up to the more graphic scenes which made me well up a little.

Interestingly - and I don't know if this reflects on my spiritual state at the moment or not - but saw it through more 'human' eyes this time as opposed to a more theological viewing. By that I mean I was viewing it more as "how can anyone treat someone else so brutally ... how can people turn so insensitive so quickly". It's kind of a classic case of the "Stansford Prison Experiment". And I guess I'm thinking that because of the increasingly fractured social situation that seems to be emerging at the moment ... lots of groups all decamping into "them & us", and some with more power than others. Aware that I could probably easily slip into either role - either as Christian 'prisoner' to 'militant muslim/secularist/atheist guards', or as a right-wing nationalist 'guard' with 'muslim/immigrant/multi-culturist prisoners'. Hmmm. Deep!

Anyhow, the film does a superb job of accurately bringing the scriptures off the page - though obviously for the narrative gaps the Catholic influence is very evident. I think the portrayal of Satan and his subtle, sinister background appearances throughout give a really good portrayal of the fact that this wasn't just a Stansford Prison scenario but a real spiritual battle too. If nothing else then the film should at least be capable of dispelling the "Jesus the meek & mild hippy" image.

Wonder what it would have been like to be in Jerusalem that day?

Hope that familiarity never breeds contempt with this one.