The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John (2003)

The story of Jesus' life as told by the apostle John, narrated by Christopher Plummer.

Director:

Philip Saville

Writer:

John Goldsmith (screenplay)

Stars:

Henry Ian Cusick, Daniel Kash, Christopher Plummer

1 win & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christopher Plummer	...	Narrator (voice)
Henry Ian Cusick	...	Jesus Christ
Stuart Bunce	...	John
Daniel Kash	...	Simon Peter
Stephen Russell	...	Pontius Pilate
Alan Van Sprang	...	Judas Iscariot
Diana Berriman	...	Virgin Mary
Richard Lintern	...	Leading Pharisee
Scott Handy	...	John the Baptist
Lynsey Baxter	...	Mary Magdalene
Diego Matamoros	...	Nicodemus
Nancy Palk	...	Samaritan Woman
Elliot Levey	...	Nathanael
Andrew Pifko	...	Philip
Cedric Smith	...	Caiaphas

Storyline

The story of Jesus' life as told by the apostle John, narrated by Christopher Plummer.

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Plot Keywords:

jesus christ | john the apostle | crucifixion of jesus | based on the bible | 1st century | 

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Taglines:

For God loved the world So much...

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence involving the crucifixion

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Yahoo group

Country:

Canada UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 November 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Gospel of John

Filming Locations:

Canada

Box Office

Budget:

CAD 17,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$98,363, 28 September 2003, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$4,068,087, 11 April 2004

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gospel of John Ltd., Toronto Film Studios, Visual Bible International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

180 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

75 principal actors and 2,000 extras.

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Quotes

Jesus Christ: A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean, and you are all clean, all except one.

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Connections

Follows The Visual Bible: Matthew (1993)

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Soundtracks

Psalm 121: excerpt
from "Music of the Bible Revealed, Vol. 3"
Musical realization and artistic direction by Suzanne Haik-Vantoura
Produced by Alienor

User Reviews

Henry Ian Cusick is brilliant portraying Jesus of Nazareth

This film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Amazingly, it avoided all of the mistakes made in most other attempts to tell this story. The Bible's presentation of the story of Jesus is based primarily on four narratives--each stamped with its author's own personality and unique perspective.

Many previous films have sampled more than one of the Biblical narratives on the life of Christ. Also, they needlessly added scenes not found in the original sources. The authors of those screenplays in merely sampling from several sources, lost the unique focus of each respective author and diluted the overall effect of the story.

This film is based on John Goldsmith's screenplay which deftly avoids all the laughably silly cliches of previous film versions. Goldsmith's screenplay is based on only one man's perspective, that of Jesus' disciple John. Many stories with which the viewer is familiar, such as the nativity, are missing from John's gospel and therefore also from this wonderfully complex and yet lucid screenplay. Jesus' words are not here presented as pious platitudes, but occur within a context where Jesus responded to those around him.

The dialogue is solely based on the Good News Bible (also known as Today's English Version) Christopher Plummer very ably supplies the verse by verse narration from the same source. His delivery re-enforces the clarity of what is on the screen. Most of the other actors were not known to me--which I felt helped. (What part could one give to an actor who previously portrayed a drug dealer?)

Jesus is brilliantly portrayed by Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus the man with human emotions, Jesus the visionary resented by the religious establishment of his day. This Jesus did not refer to them for his authority. Cusick, convincingly portrays Jesus the carpenter as a handsome, masculine, very charismatic man. Cusick is very much equal to the task. I spoke very briefly with Cusick after the screening, thanking him for his portrayal of a part that is loaded with hazards--all of which he avoided. I hope we see a great deal more of this fine actor.

The music by Jeff Danna is wonderful--well beyond what I could have hoped for.

One friend of mine at the screening expressed his concern that this film in portraying Jesus' death at the hands of the Jewish establishment might make it vulnerable to accusations of Antisemitism. I reassured him that in its earliest days, Christianity was a sect within Judaism. Almost all the people portrayed in The Gospel of John were Jewish. It was not until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70 that the Christian sect became predominately Gentile.

Director Philip Saville has done an enviable job directing a project that was fraught with artistic traps.

I hope this film receives very wide distribution. Even Christian conservatives should be very happy with it.