"Since the earliest days of the movies more than a century ago, moviemakers have been intrigued by "the greatest story ever told." They have tried, with varying degrees of success, to capture the life of Jesus on film. In Jesus at the Movies Barnes Tatum has created a fascinating and exhaustively-researched viewer's guide to the movies about Jesus. Tatum guides the reader film-by-film from Sidney Olcott's silent classic "From the Manger to the Cross" through Denis Arcand's award-winning "Jesus of Montreal" to the future of Jesus movies. With his experience as author, biblical scholar, and teacher on religion and film, he presents this unique look at Jesus films in all dimensions: as cinematic art, as literature, as biblical history and as theology." (Publisher description)
The cinematic Jesus: promise and problem, 1
The cinematic Jesus: Jesus-story films, 17
Sidney Olcott: From the manager to the ross, 23
D. W. Griffith: Intolerance, 35
Cecil B. Demille: The king of kings, 47
William Wyler: Ben-Hur (and others), 61
Samuel Bronston: King of kings, 77
George Stevens: The greatest story ever told, 89
Pier Paolo Pasolini: The gospel according to St. Matthew, 105
Norman Jewison: Jesus Christ superstar, David Greene Godspell, 119
Franco Zeffirelli: Jesus of Nazareth, 137
Monty Python's Life of Brian, 149
John Heyman: Jesus, 165
Martin Scorsese: The last temptation of Christ, 179
Denys Arcand: Jesus of Montreal, 195
Mel Gibson: The Passion of the Christ, 209
The cinematic Jesus: retrospect and prospect, 227
Jesus-story films and Christ-figure films