So, with today being Good Friday and Easter coming up on Sunday, we move on from the life of Moses to Jesus in our film selections. Jesus has always been, to say the least, a difficult role for any actor to take on, but Pier Paolo Pasolini's take on the story is one of the most celebrated interpretations of the gospels ever filmed. It is a very effective movie, filmed in a stark neo-realism style with amateur actors, minimal score, and only uses dialogue lifted straight from the gospel. This quasi-documentary approach is powerful image making, and I think it's really everything you would want to see if what you're looking for is the Bible story directly placed on film. Incredibly, famed Italian director Pasolini was an avowed atheist (and marxist of all things), but his reverence and faithfulness to the story as it's relayed in the gospel is pretty remarkable. The simplistic nature of the film leaves a deep impact.
Original 1964 Trailer:
