Whatever Happened to Jesus?

The remarkable ratings of  The Bible  miniseries on the History Channel led to the release of the new film  Son of God.

Serious, Biblically correct films like Son of God make it easy to forget the Jesus Christ Superstar-style whimsical messiah who once reigned at box offices.

Producers played up the fact that it had been  10 years since Mel Gibson’s  Passion of the Christ  was released and grossed at the box office more than $600 million internationally. In its opening weekend, the  Son  of  God  made  $26 million—not bad, given that its content had previously aired on television.

Both films are serious for their revenue generating, their strategic niche marketing to the religiously devout, and their tone, style, and approach.  The Passion  was two hours of brutality. Some reviewers screamed that it was a  horror flick, not a holy one. Gibson was intent on accuracy (or at least how his particular Catholicism viewed the sacred story). The characters did not speak English and he had the color of actor  Jim Caviezel’s eyes digitally altered from blue to brown and gave him a prosthetic nose  to make him look “authentically” Jewish. The  Son of God  is serious in its own way.  A “political thriller” and an epic “love story,”  the film features  overtly evangelical themes  of the virgin birth, miraculous healings, vicious crucifixion, and the resurrection.

Original Post:  https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/03/whatever-happened-to-hippy-jesus/284138/