Jesus (1979)

Excellent but underrated film

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I have the VHS version and a certain scene is deliberately missing! Where he is taken by the temple guards to a stable area,where he is then knocked down by a guards blow,gets back up and a rack is suddenly on the wall behind his head,that wasn't there originally, with a jug directly above his head!

Brian Deacon stars in this film about the only begotten of the Almighty God known as "The Jesus Film". The screenplay about the life of Jesus was based on the gospel written by Saint Luke which starts from the Annunciation when the Blessed Virgin Mary received the news from the Angel Gabriel that she is going to be the Mother of God up to the time when Jesus - the Son of God - resurrected from the dead.No question that this movie was not made with a great amount of budget similar to the likes of The Ten Commandments at $13 million back in the 1950's or $120 million to present day standards.In fact,it was only made for $6 million back in 1979 or 25 million to today's standard.Or better yet,just enough to pay movie stars like Leonardo Di Caprio or Tom Cruise.Nor was it really popular mainstream similar to other films about Jesus such as Mel Gibson's The Passion Of Christ,which earned $600+ million world-wide. It even lost money earning only $4 million when it was released on the theaters back in 1979 ($13 million at present).Why did it lose money?The Jesus Film - the 1979 version - can be considered dry,monotonous and boring while it was telling the story of Jesus.It also has low production values.What is even noteworthy was that the voices of the actors with the exception of Brian Deacon,who portrayed Jesus, was not theirs.Accuracy of the gospel is the only thing it could be really be proud of.But in spite of them,the movie became the most watched film about Jesus of all-time especially in many countries abroad that were willing to evangelize and spread the word of God after it was used to spread the gospel.Its popularity outside the United States was truly surprising at present and it only shows that God is truly alive.Amen!!!

After opening with the expected quotation from John 3:16, the video Jesus bases its plot solely on the gospel of Luke, remaining rigidly faithful to the gospel and rarely adding conversations that you can not find in Luke. That makes for a far less controversial route than would occur if incorporating variations from the other three gospels that differ slightly from each other.In a sense the choice of filming only the gospel of Luke has its strengths, as it appeals to a larger audience and presents Jesus Christ in his best. The richest parables are told here, with a larger overview of Christ's life, but the film focuses mainly of Christ's public ministry and glosses over his birth and his questioning of the priests in the temple at the age of 12. It also portrays Christ in the most positive way on the cross, as his final words in the Luke version are `Father! Into your hands I commend my spirit.'Besides using the scripture from Luke straightforwardly, the filming locations add authenticity to the production. It appears to be straight from Jerusalem without any other settings. The scene leading to the Crucifixion does appear to take place on the actual Via Delorosa and thus provides much realism.Even though the movie was great script and settings it is hurt by the lack of emotion. Movie seems fake in the sense of how the actors act. From the beginning starting with the narrator he has no emotion just reading the words causing it to be dull. Nothing was surprising as it was dull and you knew what was coming next if you had read the book of Luke. The movie was just plain, plain text and plain acting. Being from 1979 you cannot expect a great video production but they could spice up the acting. After seeing what is easily the greatest Jesus movie ever made (The Passion of Christ) it is hard to be impressed but I was not expecting to be. In general it's a below average movie, had the best setting possible and the script already written just with the poor mellow dramatic acting decreased it value.

This is an excellent movie based on the book of Luke. Its dialog is entirely taken from Scripture, which makes it unique, as well as the fact that they didn't ADD any nonsense to the story like modern films based on the Bible do. No over-acting and the effects are pretty good considering it was filmed in '79! Highly recommended.