Word: jesus
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...George Stevens' 3hr.20min. effort his is the longest Jesus film to play theatrically (I think), and monumentally, genteelly, stupefyingly reverent. It watches most off the action from a subservient distance, as if Jesus were too magisterial to approach within 100 paces. On the soundtrack, the heavenly choir trills away earnestly. The Passion segment (44 mins.) couldn't be less so. Connoisseurs of intentional camp treasure "TGSET" as the movie where John Wayne, as a Roman centurion, glowers and says, "Truly this was the Son of God." Pilgrim...
...Sydow, alighting from the Ingmar Bergman films, certainly brings height and hauteur to the role - and if you're going for the Renaissance masters' vision of Jesus as a European, he might as well be Nordic. (Though, as I was reminded by TIME.com's Tony Karon, my guru in all things political, Jesus was a Semite; if he was tall, lank, bearded and dressed in flowing robes, as von Sydow is, the person he would have resembled most would be...Osama bin Laden.) The actor's iconographic superiority gives this Jesus the big frosty balls to tell his followers...
...follow Thee more nearly, day by day"). Director David Greene set the 1973 movie on Manhattan's city streets and the climax in a city playground. The other night on "The Daily Show," Rob Corddry accurately described the "Godspell" Christ figure as "a '70s pop rainbow suspendery kind of Jesus." Brown-eyed, frizzy-haired Victor Garber, who 30 years later has a career on Broadway ("Art") and TV ("Alias"), stresses Jesus' gentility in sensitive-clown makeup: teardrop eyeliner and a sweet heart on his forehead. The rest of the young cast follows suit, miming up a storm, sipping imaginary sacramental...
...Since this Jesus is a creature of woozy gentility, the Passion takes only about 10 mins. Jesus is propped up on the sort of round platform suitable for an elephant's foot and crucified against a chain-link fence. "Oh, God, I'm dying," Jesus intones, and the Apostles chime in, "Oh, God, you're dying." "Oh, God, I'm dead." "Oh, God, you're dead." (Oh god, poor God, Judas hung you in the playground and you're feeling...
...JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR...