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The Life of Jesus Provides Inspiration for Numerous Blockbuster Films

No book has been portrayed on the big screen more than the Bible and few historical figures have been depicted in film more than the New Testament’s central figure—Jesus of Nazareth. Hollywood’s fascination with Jesus goes back to the advent of motion pictures and silent movies such as Passion Play (1903), From The Manger To The Cross (1912), and Intolerance (1916).

It was legendary director Cecil B. DeMille who manufactured the first epic retelling of the life of Jesus in The King of Kings (1927). Every morning during production, DeMille would spend hours reminding them of the important work they were doing and would then lead them in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9–13). He went on to describe the filming of the crucifixion as “the highest moment of my life” and beforehand implored the cast to once again pray as they considered their moral responsibility as they reenacted the iconic scene.

The next major film to portray Jesus was The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), which, unlike DeMille’s version, covered Jesus’s entire life. What followed were a trio of contemporary portrayals including Godspell (1973), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), and Monty Python’s The Life of Brian (1979). 

That all changed with the movie Jesus (1979), which is commonly referred to as The Jesus Film. As films were modernizing at a rapid pace, this became the standard for accurately portraying the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) that future movies about Jesus would be judged against. 

It would be another 14 years before Jesus’s life would once again become a popular topic in Hollywood. The Gospel of John (2003) was quickly followed by the blockbuster hit The Passion of the Christ (2004), which was made famous due to Mel Gibson’s role as director and Jim Caviezel’s stunning portrayal of Jesus during his final days.

“The role of Jesus was the most difficult endeavor I’ve ever taken up,” he told the Polish publication wPolityce. “There is nothing more glorious and at the same time more humbling than this role. Nothing could teach me the humility better.”

Along the way, there have also been films based during Jesus’s lifetime, such as Ben Hur (five different versions between 1925 and 2016) and The Robe (1953). Even more recently, Hollywood has made a concerted effort to retell various parts of Jesus’s story on multiple occasions with studio offerings such as The Nativity Story (2006), Last Days in the Desert (2015), The Young Messiah (2016), and Risen (2016).

Movies telling the entire story of Jesus—from birth to resurrection—have been less common. That ended, however, when Mark Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey, adapted their epic television mini-series “The Bible” into the feature film Son of God (2014). 

“His whole life hasn’t been seen on the big screen for 50 years since The Greatest Story Ever Told,” Downey said before the film’s release. “So, we thought this was the opportunity to bring Jesus to the big screen for a whole new generation.”

With much of its content inspired by the Gospel of John, the film became an $81-million international box-office success. The opening sequence depicts the apostle John (and one of Jesus’s disciples) in exile as he gives context to the story he witnessed.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1–2, NIV)