"The Gospel of John"

By David DiCerto
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- As suggested by its title, "The Gospel of John" (ThinkFilm) is a reverently filmed, word-for-word version of the life, ministry and death of Jesus Christ, as recounted by the fourth evangelist.

Beautifully shot on a modest budget and with a running time of three hours, the film, directed by Philip Saville, eschews biblical pageantry in order to paint an intimate portrait of Christ true to its source material.

Far from the stolid good shepherd of "King of Kings" (1961) and "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965) -- which tended to shy away from, if not completely ignore, Christ's humanity -- Saville's Jesus (played by Henry Ian Cusick) is a flesh-and-blood manly savior. Though filling Christ's sandals is a bit much to ask any actor, Cusick admirably brings an appealing blend of warmth and virility to the role, by turns gentle and full of a relentless self-assertiveness bordering on arrogance.

His is no milquetoast messiah, but a true lion of Judah, a firebrand rabble-rouser only too eager to ruffle the status-quo feathers of the Temple authorities in order to complete his appointed mission.

From its magnificent opening prologue ("In the beginning was the Word"), the unadorned film captures the poetic lyricism of the Johannine text. Following John's Gospel to the letter, the narrative commences with John the Baptist foretelling Christ's coming. An adult Jesus is introduced soon after, already engaged in a life as an itinerant rabbi.

While much of his public ministry as told by John is paralleled in the other three canonical versions, many scriptural touchstones found in the synoptic gospels of Mathew, Mark and Luke -- including the Nativity, the Sermon on the Mount, the parables and the institution of the Eucharist -- are not recorded by the fourth evangelist. Yet in their absence, John's Gospel contains some of the most spiritually pregnant passages in the New Testament, among them the protracted Last Supper discourses leading up to Christ's passion.

The wordy narrative is held together by the soulful reading of the text by Christopher Plummer. Written two generations after Jesus' death (around the year 90 A.D.), well after the other three Gospels, the Gospel of John employs a more lyrical style of prose, suffused with mystical signs and allusions.

Highly literate and symbolic, it focuses on Jesus as the incarnate Word and image of the Father. In it, common everyday objects like fish, bread, water and wine take on spiritual significance, serving as metaphors for divine truths.

Despite its literary eloquence, St. John's text was written as Scripture, not as a screenplay. And while adhering to it word-for-word affords viewers an opportunity to experience the Gospel message undiluted, many of the passages which make up the film's dialogue contain superfluous redundancies.

This narrative repetition (a style of prose common throughout the Bible), though highly effective for contemplative reading of Scripture, at times weighs down the pacing of the film. When dealing with dramatizations of Christ's passion and death, Catholics and others should keep in mind the words of the Second Vatican Council's "Nostra Aetate" that, while Jewish authorities and their followers "pressed for the death of Christ," at the same time "his passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today."

Saville's handling of this interreligious hornets' nest may get mixed reviews from people of both faiths. The film opens with onscreen text affirming the Jewishness of Jesus and his disciples and explaining that John's Gospel was written during a period of factional tension between the early Christian communities and the Jewish establishment. In an effort to avoid broad brushstrokes when assigning blame for Jesus' death, Saville has gone with the Good News Bible's translation of the original Greek "Ioudaioi" as meaning "the Jewish authorities" rather than the more collective "the Jews."

However, these attempts to sidestep controversy are undermined by a caricatured depiction of several Jewish characters -- among them a villainous-looking Pharisee. And though balanced by sympathetic portrayals of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, the film comes close to casting the Jewish populace in an unflattering light -- as either beard-twirling cabalists or members of stone-hurling mobs.

The film's tasteful handling of Jesus' death achieves equilibrium between the salvific suffering and the redemptive triumph of the cross, without fixating on its more grisly aspects. Despite some hokey moments -- including Jesus' baptism, where he rises out of the water like a glittering shampoo model -- Catholic viewers cannot help but be moved by the sublime power of the divinely inspired, if at times uncomfortably challenging, words. And while some may feel their viewing is hampered by the restrictions imposed by the film's verbal straitjacketed literalness, others may find its unapologetically unwatered-down approach spiritually edifying.

Due to crucifixion violence, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents are strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

* DiCerto is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.