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The youthful zeitgeist-oriented approach that had served him well with Romeo and Juliet (1968) failed with Brother Sun, and a chastened Zeffirelli approached Jesus of Nazareth determined to make a film, not of the moment, but for the ages.
#1977 jesus of nazareth movie movie
Francis movie Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972). If Jesus of Nazareth was an opportunity for Zeffirelli to serve his Church and his faith with his talents, it was also an opportunity for professional redemption after the critical and box-office failure of his prior religious project, the St. A wayward but loyal and even conservative son of the Church, Zeffirelli reportedly put his theatrical design and staging talents at the Church’s service for a number of papal ceremonies and has more than once expressed concern for the Church’s image in the modern media era. (Zeffirelli has also claimed that Paul VI separately suggested to him that he make a Jesus movie, and even that the Pope lobbied for him with Grade’s team.)įor Zeffirelli, Jesus of Nazareth was an important project for a number of reasons. On the small screen, producer Lew Grade’s Moses the Lawgiver (1973), forgotten now, was well received at the time, paving the way for Jesus of Nazareth - at the suggestion of Pope Paul VI, according to Grade. Some of the best moments are fictional episodes, while some crucial Gospel stories have inexplicably been omitted.īy the 1970s the big-screen Bible epic was dead, killed by the box-office failure of George Stevens’ earnest, ultra-serious Gospel film The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) and John Huston’s Genesis epic The Bible: In the Beginning… (1966).
#1977 jesus of nazareth movie trial
Key moments like Peter’s great confession of Jesus and the Last Supper are reverentially staged, while other moments like the Parable of the Prodigal Son and Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin are dramatically reimagined - and not infrequently the latter are far more interesting and valuable than the former. Jesus of Nazareth’s best sequences are brilliant, but they alternate with middling or indifferent material.
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It’s also because of the work’s unevenness. It’s also because the first and last acts particularly lend themselves to seasonal viewing at, respectively, Christmas and Easter time. That’s not just because it’s nearly six and a half hours long and often broadcast in two parts. In the four decades since it made its debut on Palm Sunday and Easter of 1977, I’ve watched Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth in bits and pieces far more often than I’ve watched the whole thing.