Saturday, March 15, 2014
Son of God (2014)
Cast: Diogo Morgado, Roma Downey, Leila
Mimmack, Joe Coen, Amber Rose Revah, Darwin Shaw, Sebastian Knapp, Said Bey,
Matthew Gravelle, Joe Wredden
Director: Christopher Spencer
Synopsis: Based on the Gospel of John, the
film explores the life of Jesus Christ beginning with his birth and ending with
his resurrection and ascension.
Reviewer’s rating: 1/5
Review:
Son of God begins with the apostle John
(portrayed by Sebastian Knapp) as an aged exile who is beginning to write his
gospel. John calls himself one of Jesus’ followers, saying, “After what I saw,
how could I not be?” The movie then proceeds to highlight key events of Jesus’
life (played by Diogo Morgado), such as his birth, his calling of Peter (Darwin
Shaw), the establishment of his authority to forgive sins, and ultimately his
death at the hands of a hesitant Pontius Pilate (Greg Hicks). It is meant to
follow the narrative of John’s gospel, but it also incorporates events that are
not found in the fourth gospel, such as Jesus declaring in his hometown of
Nazareth that he is the fulfillment of Isaiah 61, which is found in Luke, or
the healing of the paralyzed man who is lowered through the roof of the house
(Mark 2). The conflict of the movie is set up through a three-way tension
between the Jewish high priest Caiaphas (Adrian Schiller), the
newly-established Pilate, and an upstart miracle worker from Galilee who
threatens to annihilate the peaceful order established between Israel and Rome
(Jesus). After the Jews arrest Jesus and convict him of blasphemy, he is then
taken to Pilate and questioned. Pilate becomes convinced that Jesus is guilty
of nothing more than being delusional, but in order to satisfy the Jews and
keep the peace he orders Jesus killed. However, this is not the end, as Jesus
comes back from the dead and commands his disciples to preach good news of his
return.
There is a powerful image of Jesus kissing the cross, and
he tells Peter at one point, “Give me one hour, and I will give you a new life.”
However, they retell the text of a gospel that does not exist. Professing
Christians should be careful to distinguish between the text and the event to
which the text testifies. For example, the event of Jesus dying on the cross
shows a Jewish miracle-worker who was being killed for threatening to upend the
Roman rule over Israel. However, when we read the text of John’s Gospel, we see
the Word who came to a world that he created, but its people rejected him. It
is the difference between seeing just one of countless crucifixions and seeing
the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the very people that killed him.
The Son of God is an acceptable introduction to the story
of Jesus, but for a Christian it is another disappointing depiction of a
constantly-smiling and gentle Jesus, one whom the Gospels do not necessarily depict.
Despite a powerful musical score by award-winning composer Hans Zimmer, the
rest of the movie is yet another failed attempt to boil down the ministry of
Jesus into two hours by telling a story that none of the gospel writers either
told or wanted to tell.
By: Michael Kuo
Hi Michael,
ReplyDeleteI also reviewed Son of God and had a different perspective than you did. I appreciate what you said about some of the lines not coming from scripture and I would also remind viewers that this film is not to be treated like it is the Bible. I found that the film closely followed the Gospel of John with an extra emphasis on the mounting tension of Roman occupation of Israel. I believe that this film does show Jesus claiming to be God and does present the Gospel. So I would disagree with you that this movie failed, but I agree that it was not 100% Biblical and while I did enjoy the film, I agree it could have been done better.