Saturday, January 13, 2007

Another Gospel of John Film? Why?

Marchiano Ministries is getting ready to produce a film about the Gospel of John. The title of their film is The Gospel According to John, word for word from the NIV version. They also have a blog on Blogger.com to keep everyone up-to-date about the production of this film. I am not sure why they feel the need to produce another film when we already have the wonderful Gospel of John film produced by Philip Saville and starring Henry Ian Cusick.

The Gospel of John film is now listed in Wikipedia.com (or.org), the free encyclopedia. You can find it by doing a search on the Wikipedia web site for "The Gospel of John (film)".

When Marchiano Ministries' film does come out, we can then compare the two films. If you want to visit their blog, go to http://makingthefilmthegospelaccordingtojohn.blogspot.com/ or their web site, http://www.gospelaccordingtojohn.com/.

Hopefully, people won't get confused and think it is the same film.

Here's a review of the Gospel of John film from Christianity Today:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/gospelofjohn.html

Also, a review from Crosswalk.com:

http://www.crosswalk.com/fun/movies/1218491.html

7 comments:

Neil said...

I'm glad you are spreading the word about this terrific movie. It is great to watch all at once or to use as a Sunday School lesson series.

TulsaMJ said...

Bruce Marchiano starred as Jesus in the predecessor to The Gospel of John, which is called The Visual Bible: Matthew. The same company is behind both: see http://www.visual-bible.com/ The existing John movie is, to my mind, far superior to the Matthew movie, but the Matthew movie got me interested in the John one in the first place.

The Matthew movie is word-for-word from the New International Version, as is the envisioned new John movie; the existing John movie is word-for-word from the Good News Translation. With two not-yet-dramatized Gospels available I'm not sure why Mr. Marchiano chose John to make, unless it's just to use the NIV for the text.

Anonymous said...

Generally speaking I am always thrilled to hear about new attempts to tell the greatest story of all time. As long as the producers are respectful in their approach, historically accurate, and don't attempt to change the details of the story or teachings as found in the Bible.

That is why I am even happier to hear of another word-for-word form the Bible Gospel film. I do wish that someone would attempt Mark and Luke.

However, I welcome all attempts to convey the Gospel to all who will hear it. You never know how one film might touch someone in a way another film did not. Just as God can use the imperfect vessel of each Christian for His glory, so it can be with each imperfect attempt to depict the story of His most precious Son.

All that being said, of all the film portrayals of Christ (and I have seen at least a dozen) "The Gospel Of John" (the subject of this blog site) is unquestionably my favorite. The production qualities are the best, it is true to the Bible, and it is powerful.

The bar has been raised very high. I'll be very interested in the newer films... to see if they are up to the task. I hope so.

Anonymous said...

I love this movie. Cusick did a phenomenal job portraying Jesus. The scenes were well thought out and refreshingly creative. The cast of characters was superb. I enjoyed watching the interaction between Jesus and the chief Pharisee immensely. It was riveting.

My only critique is the singling out of Mary (Magdalene) as if she was one of the inner group of twelve. It is very noticeable in the upper room scenes. This is not clearly supported in any of the gospel accounts. There is reference to many women helping to support His ministry out of their private means in Luke's gospel account (Luke 8:1-3). Three are mentioned by name and the account says many others were contributing support.

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Steve M. said...

I love this movie. Cusick did a phenomenal job portraying Jesus. The scenes were well thought out and refreshingly creative. The cast of characters was superb. I enjoyed watching the interaction between Jesus and the chief Pharisee immensely. It was riveting.

My only critique is the singling out of Mary (Magdalene) as if she was one of the inner group of twelve. It is very noticeable in the upper room scenes. This is not clearly supported in any of the gospel accounts. There is reference to many women helping to support His ministry out of their private means in Luke's gospel account (Luke 8:1-3). Three are mentioned by name and the account says many others were contributing support.