Christian Films and the Gospel Truth: A Critique of Mel Gibson’s The Passion, Roger Young’s the Bible and Martin Scorsese’s the Last Temptation of Christ

Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain

doi:doi:10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11

| Peer-Reviewed

Christian Films and the Gospel Truth: A Critique of Mel Gibson’s The Passion, Roger Young’s the Bible and Martin Scorsese’s the Last Temptation of Christ

Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain

Published in Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks (Volume 3, Issue 1)

Received: 12 March 2017 Accepted: 31 March 2017 Published: 26 April 2017

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

Being invested with Christian and evangelical themes, Christian films are likely to seriously impact the spiritual being of audiences. They are generally conceived as having a direct or indirect link with the Bible, even when they include disdainers warning viewers on their directors’ departure from the Holy Scriptures. In tandem with this, a fair critique of this category of films will inevitably consider the biblical perspective. Following such a logic/premise, this paper presents a critique of three famous Christian films (The Last temptation of Christ, The Passion of the Christ and The Bible: Joseph), principally from a biblical perspective. Hinging on the autheurist, structuralist and encoding/decoding theories, the paper shows to what extent these three Bible films artfully interpret and deconstruct the Holy Scriptures. It argues that the two first films present contradictory versions of the life and mission of Jesus Christ on earth and contain a high deal of ideological and doctrinal coloration. This coloration tends, at a relatively high degree, to obscure or totally distort the evangelical message of the films. The paper also argues that the third film (Roger Young’s The Bible: Joseph) is highly sexualized, contrarily to the Bible which depicts sex in a mostly implicit way. From these observations, the paper concludes that, at varying degrees, the various directors are mainly non-scripturalist filmmakers. They seem bent on deconstructing biblical realities.

Published in	Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks (Volume 3, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11
Page(s)	1-9
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Christian Movies, Deconstruction, Autheurist Theory, Structuralism, Film Experience

References

[1]	Allen, Richard (2009). “Psychoanalysis” in Livingston P. and Plantinga C (Eds), the Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film. New York: Routledge. 446-456.
[2]	Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson (2000). Film Art, 6th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
[3]	Bordwell, David (2004). The Viewer’s Share: Models of Min in Explaining Film. David Bordwell’s Website on Cinema. [online] http://www.davidbordwell.net/essays/viewershare.com Accessed on 26/06/2015.
[4]	Corrigan, Timothy (1994). A Short Guide to Writing About Film. Second Edition New York: HarperCollins.
[5]	Goldberg, Michael (2013). Some Suggestions on ‘How to Read Film’. Available [online] at http://www.faculty.washington.edu/mlg/students/readafilm.htm Accessed on 26/06/2015.
[6]	Kicksola, Joseph (2009). Semiotics and Semiology. Livingston P. and Plantinga C (Eds), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Film. New York: Routledge. Pp. 457-469.
[7]	Monaco, James (1981). How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History, and Theory of Film and Media. Revised Edition Oxford: Oxford U. Press.
[8]	Stephen Prince (1999). Movies and Meaning: An Introduction to Film, McGraw-Hill.
[9]	White, James R. (2005). “Bible Versions: The good, the bad and the ugly Part 2”. Christian Research Journal, 28 (4), 1-26.
[10]	Yacavone, Daniel (2008). “Towards a Theory of Film Worlds”. Film-Philosophy, 12 (2), 83-108.
[11]	O’Sullivan Tim et al (1996). Key Concepts in Mass Communication. London: Methuen &Co, Ltd.
[12]	Blumber, P. and Hausa, A. (1996). Representing Reality in Films in Jarice, & Maxcy (Eds), Sources: Notable Selections in Mass Media. (pp. 88-109), Guilford: Dusking Publishing Group/Brown & Brenchmark Publishers.
[13]	Wollen, Peter (1974). From Signs and Meaning in the Cinema. The Auteur Theory. In Gerald Mast and Marshall Cohen (Eds) Film Theory and Criticism, New York: Oxford University Press, 530-540.
[14]	McQuail, Denis and Windal, Sven (1993). Communication Models for the Study of Mass Communication. New York: Prentice Hall.
[15]	Greydamus, G. (2012). The Last temptation of Christ: An Essay in Film Criticism and Faith. Available [on line], http://www.decentfilms.com, Retreved, 25-08-2014.
[16]	Gunn, Joshua (2012). Maranatha. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 98 (4), 359-385.
[17]	Ebert, Roger (1998). The Last Temptation of Christ. Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago: Sun-Time.
[18]	Endong, Floribert Patrick C. and Obongawan Edim (2015). “Sex in Christian Movie: A Study of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and Roger Young’s The Bible: Joseph”. International Journal of Communication and Media Sciences, 2 (2), 11-21.
[19]	Coates, Paul (2006). “Religion and the Romantic Legacy”. Canadian Journal of Film Studies, 15 (1), 75-93.
[20]	Sherperd, Davis. “From Gospel to Gibson: An Interview with the Writers Behind Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ”. Religion and the Arts, 9 (1), 2005: 325.
[21]	The Holy Bible (2007). Authorized King James Version. Chicago: Remnant Publications.
[22]	Nekeisha, Alexis-Baker (2009). “Renewing the Passion. Freeing the Cross for Redemption”. Vision, 86 (3), 41-47.
[23]	Agger, Ben (1991). “Critical Theary, Poststructuralism, Postmodernism: Their Sociological Relevance”. Annual Reviews in Sociology, 17 (1), 105-131.
[24]	Rhodes, Melvin (2004). “Could the Passion of the Christ Lead to Religious Revival?” World News and Prophecy: Biblical Perspectives on current Events. 7 (3), 1-18.
[25]	Watson, James (2003). Media Communication: an Introduction to Theory and Process. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
[26]	Wehmeir, Sally & Ashby Michael (2002). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain. (2017). Christian Films and the Gospel Truth: A Critique of Mel Gibson’s The Passion, Roger Young’s the Bible and Martin Scorsese’s the Last Temptation of Christ. Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks, 3(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain. Christian Films and the Gospel Truth: A Critique of Mel Gibson’s The Passion, Roger Young’s the Bible and Martin Scorsese’s the Last Temptation of Christ. Adv. Wirel. Commun. Netw. 2017, 3(1), 1-9. doi: 10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain. Christian Films and the Gospel Truth: A Critique of Mel Gibson’s The Passion, Roger Young’s the Bible and Martin Scorsese’s the Last Temptation of Christ. Adv Wirel Commun Netw. 2017;3(1):1-9. doi: 10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11,
  author = {Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain},
  title = {Christian Films and the Gospel Truth: A Critique of Mel Gibson’s The Passion, Roger Young’s the Bible and Martin Scorsese’s the Last Temptation of Christ},
  journal = {Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks},
  volume = {3},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1-9},
  doi = {10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.awcn.20170301.11},
  abstract = {Being invested with Christian and evangelical themes, Christian films are likely to seriously impact the spiritual being of audiences. They are generally conceived as having a direct or indirect link with the Bible, even when they include disdainers warning viewers on their directors’ departure from the Holy Scriptures. In tandem with this, a fair critique of this category of films will inevitably consider the biblical perspective. Following such a logic/premise, this paper presents a critique of three famous Christian films (The Last temptation of Christ, The Passion of the Christ and The Bible: Joseph), principally from a biblical perspective. Hinging on the autheurist, structuralist and encoding/decoding theories, the paper shows to what extent these three Bible films artfully interpret and deconstruct the Holy Scriptures. It argues that the two first films present contradictory versions of the life and mission of Jesus Christ on earth and contain a high deal of ideological and doctrinal coloration. This coloration tends, at a relatively high degree, to obscure or totally distort the evangelical message of the films. The paper also argues that the third film (Roger Young’s The Bible: Joseph) is highly sexualized, contrarily to the Bible which depicts sex in a mostly implicit way. From these observations, the paper concludes that, at varying degrees, the various directors are mainly non-scripturalist filmmakers. They seem bent on deconstructing biblical realities.},
 year = {2017}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Christian Films and the Gospel Truth: A Critique of Mel Gibson’s The Passion, Roger Young’s the Bible and Martin Scorsese’s the Last Temptation of Christ
AU  - Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain
Y1  - 2017/04/26
PY  - 2017
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11
T2  - Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks
JF  - Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks
JO  - Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-596X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11
AB  - Being invested with Christian and evangelical themes, Christian films are likely to seriously impact the spiritual being of audiences. They are generally conceived as having a direct or indirect link with the Bible, even when they include disdainers warning viewers on their directors’ departure from the Holy Scriptures. In tandem with this, a fair critique of this category of films will inevitably consider the biblical perspective. Following such a logic/premise, this paper presents a critique of three famous Christian films (The Last temptation of Christ, The Passion of the Christ and The Bible: Joseph), principally from a biblical perspective. Hinging on the autheurist, structuralist and encoding/decoding theories, the paper shows to what extent these three Bible films artfully interpret and deconstruct the Holy Scriptures. It argues that the two first films present contradictory versions of the life and mission of Jesus Christ on earth and contain a high deal of ideological and doctrinal coloration. This coloration tends, at a relatively high degree, to obscure or totally distort the evangelical message of the films. The paper also argues that the third film (Roger Young’s The Bible: Joseph) is highly sexualized, contrarily to the Bible which depicts sex in a mostly implicit way. From these observations, the paper concludes that, at varying degrees, the various directors are mainly non-scripturalist filmmakers. They seem bent on deconstructing biblical realities.
VL  - 3
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain

Department of Theatre and Media Studies, University Of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain. (2017). Christian Films and the Gospel Truth: A Critique of Mel Gibson’s The Passion, Roger Young’s the Bible and Martin Scorsese’s the Last Temptation of Christ. Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks, 3(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain. Christian Films and the Gospel Truth: A Critique of Mel Gibson’s The Passion, Roger Young’s the Bible and Martin Scorsese’s the Last Temptation of Christ. Adv. Wirel. Commun. Netw. 2017, 3(1), 1-9. doi: 10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain. Christian Films and the Gospel Truth: A Critique of Mel Gibson’s The Passion, Roger Young’s the Bible and Martin Scorsese’s the Last Temptation of Christ. Adv Wirel Commun Netw. 2017;3(1):1-9. doi: 10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11,
  author = {Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain},
  title = {Christian Films and the Gospel Truth: A Critique of Mel Gibson’s The Passion, Roger Young’s the Bible and Martin Scorsese’s the Last Temptation of Christ},
  journal = {Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks},
  volume = {3},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1-9},
  doi = {10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.awcn.20170301.11},
  abstract = {Being invested with Christian and evangelical themes, Christian films are likely to seriously impact the spiritual being of audiences. They are generally conceived as having a direct or indirect link with the Bible, even when they include disdainers warning viewers on their directors’ departure from the Holy Scriptures. In tandem with this, a fair critique of this category of films will inevitably consider the biblical perspective. Following such a logic/premise, this paper presents a critique of three famous Christian films (The Last temptation of Christ, The Passion of the Christ and The Bible: Joseph), principally from a biblical perspective. Hinging on the autheurist, structuralist and encoding/decoding theories, the paper shows to what extent these three Bible films artfully interpret and deconstruct the Holy Scriptures. It argues that the two first films present contradictory versions of the life and mission of Jesus Christ on earth and contain a high deal of ideological and doctrinal coloration. This coloration tends, at a relatively high degree, to obscure or totally distort the evangelical message of the films. The paper also argues that the third film (Roger Young’s The Bible: Joseph) is highly sexualized, contrarily to the Bible which depicts sex in a mostly implicit way. From these observations, the paper concludes that, at varying degrees, the various directors are mainly non-scripturalist filmmakers. They seem bent on deconstructing biblical realities.},
 year = {2017}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Christian Films and the Gospel Truth: A Critique of Mel Gibson’s The Passion, Roger Young’s the Bible and Martin Scorsese’s the Last Temptation of Christ
AU  - Endong Floribert Patrick Calvain
Y1  - 2017/04/26
PY  - 2017
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11
T2  - Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks
JF  - Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks
JO  - Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-596X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.awcn.20170301.11
AB  - Being invested with Christian and evangelical themes, Christian films are likely to seriously impact the spiritual being of audiences. They are generally conceived as having a direct or indirect link with the Bible, even when they include disdainers warning viewers on their directors’ departure from the Holy Scriptures. In tandem with this, a fair critique of this category of films will inevitably consider the biblical perspective. Following such a logic/premise, this paper presents a critique of three famous Christian films (The Last temptation of Christ, The Passion of the Christ and The Bible: Joseph), principally from a biblical perspective. Hinging on the autheurist, structuralist and encoding/decoding theories, the paper shows to what extent these three Bible films artfully interpret and deconstruct the Holy Scriptures. It argues that the two first films present contradictory versions of the life and mission of Jesus Christ on earth and contain a high deal of ideological and doctrinal coloration. This coloration tends, at a relatively high degree, to obscure or totally distort the evangelical message of the films. The paper also argues that the third film (Roger Young’s The Bible: Joseph) is highly sexualized, contrarily to the Bible which depicts sex in a mostly implicit way. From these observations, the paper concludes that, at varying degrees, the various directors are mainly non-scripturalist filmmakers. They seem bent on deconstructing biblical realities.
VL  - 3
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download