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February 4, 2005
Jesus the Jew on film
Hollywood's view of Christ's Jewishness is uneven.
PAT JOHNSON
Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion of the Christ
is "a bad film from just about every point of view," according
to a scholar who spoke in Vancouver recently on the depiction of
Jesus as a Jew in the long history of moving pictures.
Adele Reinhartz, a professor of religious studies at Wilfrid Laurier
University in Waterloo, Ont., has researched the depiction of Jesus
in film, with particular emphasis on how Hollywood has dealt with
the Christian diety's Jewishness. Her presentation took place Jan.
10, the day after Gibson's film won the People's Choice Award for
favorite drama of the year. The film was basically overlooked by
the Academy Awards, being nominated in only three categories: cinematography,
make-up and original score.
Gibson's film provoked a massive discussion last year over the depiction
of Jews in the last days and moments of the life of Jesus. Some
critics claimed The Passion of the Christ reinforced medieval,
anti-Semitic imagery of Jews as deicidal and demonically possessed.
Reinhartz criticized Gibson's film on esthetic grounds, acknowledging
that it was powerful, but stating that the sustained pitch of violent
and emotional fervor does not reflect conventional standards of
film, which require a balance of emotion and action. It also fails
on content, she added.
"It's bad from a theological standpoint," said Reinhartz.
"It fails, in my view, to convey any sense of Jesus as human
and divine. He's basically a pile of pounded meat for most of it."
Reinhartz used clips from films – from the silents to The
Passion – to show how Jesus's Jewishness has been addressed
over the years by filmmakers. The depiction of Jesus and Jews in
Gibson's film exists on a spectrum that ranges from fair to anti-Semitic
over the century of moving pictures, she said.
The 1916 D.W. Griffith landmark Intolerance is the oldest
film Reinhartz reviewed, and it began a tradition of depicting Jesus
on film in ways that do not represent what most Middle Eastern men
of his time likely looked like. She cited the shoulder-length straight
hair, fair skin and slight physique as typical of Jesus's ongoing
depiction in film and popular culture. Though generally accurate
in depicting the Jewish traditions that Jesus probably followed
– Shabbat observance, for example – Reinhartz said the
film had one glaring anomaly. As the background music for a wedding,
the filmmaker chose a traditional Jewish tune, but failed apparently
to grasp that Kol Nidre is associated not with festive events like
weddings, but with Yom Kippur.
Cecil B. DeMille's 1927 silent film King of Kings depicts
the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas as money-obsessed and "wily,"
traits that Reinhartz contended are typical of anti-Jewish stereotypes.
Franco Zeffirelli's 1976 film Jesus of Nazareth depicts Christian
supercessionism – the theological idea that Christianity is
the legitimate and total replacement for Judaism – in the form
of Jesus declaring at the Last Supper that the Passover wine is
to become the blood of Jesus; the matzah, the body of Christ. This
fundamental ritual of Christianity is an example of Jewish tradition
being usurped and altered for Christian practices, she said. A similar
transformation of Jewish ritual takes place in Gibson's film, she
added, noting that the Last Supper and the crucifixion of Christ
took place at Passover, the Jewish celebration of salvation and
rebirth, which was transformed in Christian retelling into Easter,
the time of Christian salvation and rebirth.
Reinhartz, who is the author of books including the upcoming Jesus
of Hollywood and who served as an historical consultant on the 2003
film The Gospel of John, reviewed popular culture offerings
like Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar and even
Monty Python's Life of Brian. Among the films she said most
fairly portray the Jewishness of Jesus are The Last Temptation
of Christ and the Canadian film Jesus of Montreal.
The depictions of Jewishness in Jesus-related films has its ups
and downs, Reinhartz said, with both fair and dubious depictions
existing over time. There does not seem to be a trajectory from
good to bad or vice versa, but rather an ongoing struggle to accurately
depict the centrality of Judaism in the life of Jesus.
Reinhartz's visit was sponsored by the adult Judaic studies department
of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, the University
of British Columbia and the Norman Rothstein Theatre, where the
event took place.
Pat Johnson is a B.C. journalist and commentator.
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