The Jesus Film Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

The Jesus Film Blu-ray Movie Review

Does this film rise to the occasion?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 27, 2014

The weeks leading up to Easter have traditionally been a time for labels to reach into their vaults and release Biblically themed films and television outings for mass consumption. Over the past several spring to Eastertide seasons, Blu-ray fans have been offered such releases as King of Kings, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Ten Commandments, The Passion of the Christ, The Robe, Jesus Christ Superstar (which admittedly appeared a bit post-Easter), The Last Temptation of Christ, Quo Vadis, Demetrius and the Gladiators, The Bible: In the Beginning... and just for good measure The Bible: The Epic Miniseries. The fact that so many top tier titles have already made it to high definition is further evidenced by this year’s slate of Biblically themed material, which, while interesting in its own way, would probably not make anyone’s Top Ten (Commandments or otherwise) list. Samson and Delilah, a fairly turgid 1949 melodramatic retelling of that unfortunate barbering mishap, has just been released on Blu-ray, and now comes The Jesus Film, a 1979 outing that never made much of a dent in the American box office but which has gone on to allegedly become the most watched film of all time, courtesy of a worldwide missionary effort that screens it for indigenous populations across the globe (something that’s documented in an interesting if self-serving featurette included on the Blu-ray disc as a supplement).

I’ve mentioned in some other reviews of Biblically themed material that my rather eclectic religious background has given me a perhaps unique perspective on how films tend to approach this sometimes delicate subject matter. I had one Jewish and one Christian parent, and because I spent the early part of my life in Salt Lake City, where the prevailing religion (Mormonism of course) still held sway over such things as the public school system, my parents put me in an Episcopalian parochial school for the first several years of my school life. This was an “old style” academy where we went to Mass every day, and all of this, when coupled with my Jewish relatives’ liturgical training when I would visit them in New York City, gave me a rather (no pun intended) ecumenical overview of how Christianity and Judaism intertwine. It’s interesting to me, therefore, that The Jesus Film actually begins with a rather well done narrative sweep that attempts to weave together the Old Testament stories of Adam and Eve and then Abraham into an overarching thesis of human free will, cleaving from the Divine Will, and, ultimately, redemption.

Once The Jesus Film finally gets to its titular character, the film hews rather closely to The Gospel of Luke, following the story from the annunciation (in one of the film’s frankly hokier moments) through to the miraculous birth and then Jesus’ life. The film is admittedly fairly reverent, as should probably be expected, but it’s also not as stilted as some lesser fare tends to be. In fact, the film credits the Good News Bible (i.e., one couched in contemporary verbiage rather than the more poetic but artificial sounding King James Version) as having provided some of the dialogue, which gives the film a surprisingly up to date feel at times.

However, The Jesus Film is more Jesus than film, if that makes sense. The filmmakers’ rote observance of Luke’s gospel becomes an anecdotal set of vignettes through which the characters pass like mannequins in so many dioramas. The odd thing about this all is that the opening and closing bookending segments are really rather artistically shot and edited, while the central section dealing with Jesus is a much more pedestrian affair, beginning with the narrated warning that no “mere” actor could ever hope to adequately portray a divine being like Jesus, something Brian Deacon may not have appreciated.

The film’s historical accuracy is excellent, and the location shooting in Israel and environs certainly gives the film a lot of verisimilitude from a purely visual perspective. But this is a strangely distant story, one which never really connects emotionally with the viewer. The film has been used worldwide as a major tool in introducing Jesus’ story to countless peoples, and a promotional supplement claims this has resulted in literally hundreds of millions of conversions (or at least confessions of faith). But that may ultimately prove what is The Jesus Film’s central shortcoming: it may in fact work marvelously as an educational film, or (some might argue) an indoctrination technique, but from a purely dramatic standpoint, it’s far from a miracle.

The Jesus Film Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Jesus Film is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. A lot of this film is rather heavenly from an image perspective, while some sections are considerably more purgatorial, if not downright hellish. According to some online reportage, the film has been sliced and diced through the years into a variety of formats and editions, and that may mean that this version needed to be cobbled together from different elements. Look, for example, at the differing levels of clarity and general color saturation between screenshots 5 and 11 for just one example at some of the quality variances on display. Another reason I tend to think this has been sourced variously is a rather wide variance in grain structure. While much of the film boasts a natural grain field, there are several noticeable scenes (most of them establishing shots of outdoor locations) which look almost like they've been sourced from video. The bulk of the film looks quite good, however, even if some individual sequences are comparatively on the soft side (see screenshot 1). Colors are generally very accurate looking and decently saturated (and at times a good deal more than decently). There's also some exceptional fine detail in many of the close-ups, revealing the little nappy textures on the apostles' clothing and, later, the horrific scars on Jesus' back. Contrast is very good to excellent throughout and there are no compression artifacts of any note to worry about.

The Jesus Film Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Jesus Film's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 has some excellent immersion in terms of the film's score (which is quite contemporary sounding at times) as well as a lot of the ambient environmental effects. Alexander Scourby's eloquent narration as well as much of the dialogue tends to be anchored front and center. Fidelity is excellent and the track displays no damage of any kind.

The Jesus Film Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Impact of The Jesus Film (1080p; 12:22) documents how the film has been used as a mission tool around the world.


• Historical Notes (480i; 5:11) gives some pretty basic background on the film's creation and Jesus.


• Making of The Jesus Film (480i; 6:00) features a collection of still photos while Paul Eshleman (who incorrectly says videotape didn't exist in 1978) describes what's being shown.


• Jesus Trailer (1080p; 2:02)

The Jesus Film Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Jesus Film was obviously a labor of love, and while it's just as obviously incredibly heartfelt, rather strangely that doesn't translate into an abundance of actual heart. This is like watching a Sunday School lesson brought to life—it's instructive and perhaps laudable from both religious and ideological standpoints, but it's never overly moving. By contrast, as repulsive as some people found The Passion of the Christ's emphasis on violence, cruelty and Jesus' physical torments, there's no denying that it was hard to find anyone on either side of the critical spectrum who hadn't been devastated—for better or worse—by that film. The Jesus Film comes off as a reverent and often visually enticing film that is nonetheless a bit of a bore, at least in purely cinematic terms. Devout Christians may well want to check this out, as the technical merits are quite strong and the film is visually very impressive, but film fans have a glut of other, better, lives of Christ to watch.