And behind door number 22... a guide to some music of the more traditional kind
Catherine Munn and Jacob Martin list their Top 5 programmes to watch over the festive period.
And behind door number nine... some dazzling musical delights
The complete arts guide, for week 9
It’s Easter Sunday, and we at The Yorker have been thinking about representations of Jesus Christ in film and television. Here’s our list of the best ten onscreen Jesuses:
Appearing as early as Season 1's ‘Chitty Chitty Death Bang,’ Jesus has been a semi-regular fixture of Family Guy since the show's beginning. Jesus got his big break in Season 7's ‘I Dream of Jesus,’ in which Peter finds him working in a record store and convinces him to reveal himself to the public. More importantly, that's also the episode featuring “Surfin' Bird”. - Cieran Douglas
Niles may seem an odd choice for this list, but Jesus did appear in an episode of Frasier, in a manner of speaking. In ‘Merry Christmas Mrs Moskowitz,’ the titular psychiatrist attempts to keep up the illusion that the Crane family is Jewish for his new girlfriend’s strict mother. When Niles returns from a Christmas production dressed as Jesus, the illusion is punctured and hilarity ensues. - Jamie Macdonald
Authenticity was the buzzword for director Philip Saville in his recreation of Jesus’ life; The Gospel of John follows said scripture word for word, with no additions or subtractions. Emotive and truly human performances from a highly talented cast handpicked from numerous theatre companies and superbly understated narration from Christopher Plummer combine to make what could’ve been a disastrous project nothing short of a moving cinematic experience. - Rich Powell
Hey kids check it out! Jesus is groovy! He might even be tempted by the ladies. Judas, though, he’s a square. Man, that’s far out. Come on, let’s get on down with the apostles. Ted Neely and his long-haired, be-flared, be-tie-dyed friends brought a bit of apparently much-needed disco sparkle to the events surrounding the crucifixion thanks to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Norman Jewison. Wizard. - Laura Furniss
The success of any portrayal of Jesus Christ is always going to depend heavily on the individual preferences of the audiences. If you prefer your messiah rendered as a sea of eloquence and tranquillity, then Robert Powell’s performance in Jesus of Nazareth is definitely for you. The 1977 mini-series project was spearheaded by acclaimed Italian director Franco Zeffirelli and filmed entirely on location in Tunisia and Morroco. Covering the entire life of Christ in intricate detail and spanning a total run-time of well over six hours, it is one of the few attempts at dramatisation of the Gospels that truly conveys the epic nature of the story. - Rich Powell
While not technically the messiah (instead being “a very naughty boy”), Brian from Monty Python's The Life of Brian nonetheless deserves a mention here. Paralleling the last few days of Jesus' life, Graham Chapman's Brian is just a normal man in 1st Century Jerusalem who happens to be mistaken for the son of God, and ends up meeting the same grizzly end as Jesus. But hey, always look on the bright side of life. - Cieran Douglas
Mel Gibson’s blockbuster has been given a lot of stick for being a bloodthirsty, titillating epic that is more concerned with gore than it is any spirituality. Yet this is not the case. Jesus overcomes temptation for the sake of the greater good. The scene where he meets the devil epitomises mankind’s struggle against evil, and gives the gruesome flagellation scenes an ulterior purpose. Whether you like The Passion of the Christ though, does depend on whether you can stand Aramaic. - Michael Tansini
The Jesus of South Park is an affable host of the popular talk show ‘Jesus and Pals’ (watched by as many as 12 people!). He supports the good values of love and peace, but we like him most when he’s fighting the forces of evil with the superhero team ‘Super Best Friends’ (including Moses, Muhammed and Krishna among others). - Natalija Sasic
Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ stars Willem Defoe as Jesus Christ. As an adaptation of the controversial novel by the same name, it depicts Christ as a human who faces every temptation that we do. (It angered some Christians for showing Christ engaging in sexual activities with Mary Magdalene.) The film, which earned Scorsese a Best Director Academy Award nomination, quite obviously departs from the regular representation of Christ’s life in the gospels.
Perhaps dissatisfied with the attempts of mere mortals to play the Son of God in the flesh, Derek Hayes and Stanislav Sokolov decided that their Jesus would be best represented in puppet form; surprisingly, this turned out to be something of a directorial masterstroke, as they managed to imbue their 3D model messiah with twice the emotional range of many actors! Told from the perspective of a young girl named Tamar, The Miracle Maker features star turns from a number of ‘serious’ actors including Richard E. Grant, Sir Ian Holm and Ralph Fiennes as Christ himself. - Rich Powell
You must log in to submit a comment.
