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Jesus (sometimes called The Jesus Film), is a feature-length motion picture released in 1979 that depicts the life of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of Luke in the Bible.

History

The film was the brainchild of Bill Bright, a born-again Christian who founded the Campus Crusade for Christ. Bright desired to present a biblically-accurate feature-length film of the life of Jesus that could be used as an evangelism tool around the world.

In the mid-1970s, a team of approximayely 500 Christian scholars and leaders from various denominations and organizations began a five year project to research the story of Jesus of Nazareth, with the ultimate goal of producing a film that was both entertaining and biblically accurate, unbiased, appealing to all ages, easily translatable, and of theatrical viewing quality.

The film was produced in 1978, at a cost of $6m, most of which was donated, and filmed over several months throughout the Middle East. Some locations used in the film, such as the River Jordan and what is believed to be the home of Simon the Tanner were used. It was produced by John Heyman, and the critical role of Jesus was played by British Shakespearean actor Brian Deacon. Deacon, whose mother was Catholic and father was Protestant, says he was encouraged by both his parents at a young age to find his own way and neither's religious view were forced on him. Former Jesus Film Project director Paul Eshleman, who was on location during much of the principal photography (and even had a small non-speaking role as a Roman soldier on horseback,) claims that Deacon was so committed to the film and its inspirational message that he often read several Bible translations in order to make certain that he properly presented Christ's teachings.

After each day's filming was completed, the footage was sent to a panel of biblical scholars for review. Instead of building up a back story for the film, like other Christian epics such as The Ten Commandments (1956), for example, the producers of Jesus strove to make a literal adaptation of the Biblical text, boasting that virtually every word spoken in the film comes directly from the Gospel of Luke, which was chosen when John Heyman sought advice from clergy and scholars, many of whom responded that the screenplay should be based one just one Gospel, and, if they were going to use one Gospel, it should be the Gospel of Luke because of its completeness.

Scenes for a version of the film for younger children, called The Jesus Film for Children," were shot concurrently with the main production.

Warner Bros. released the film in U.S. theaters in 1979, where it earned a meager $4m at the box office.

In 1981, Bill Bright organized the Jesus Film Project with the goal of accurately translating the film into other languages and showing them around the world. The first translation was done for the Tagalog-speaking people of The Philippines. The organization works with thousands of missionaries around the world to show the film, sometimes to audiences who have never seen a motion picture. Distribution in the United States is also a priority, as millions of unsolicited tapes have been sent to addresses around the country. In 2004
, the organization made the film available for viewing on its website in over 300 languages. Both The Jesus Film and The Jesus Film for Children are available in DVD and VHS formats. Audio dramatizations are also available.

Translating The Jesus Film

Unlike a majority of other films, the process of translating The Jesus Film is not a simple matter of overdubbing. Months of painstaking research by linguists goes into each new translation project in order to maintain the strictest accuracy. When a script is finally approved, special care is taken to synch the new dialogue spoken by the carefully chosen voice actors with the mouth movements of the English-speaking actors in the film as precisely as possible so that not only do the actors in the film sound like they're speaking the viewer's language, but they look like it as well. Sometimes words have to be changed, but Christ's message must be accurate and concise.

In 2001
, a new opening sequence depicting the creation of man, the expulsion from Eden, Abraham's aborted sacrifice of his son, and the angel telling the three wise men of the birth of their Savior was filmed to show, as Paul Eschelman states in the audio commentary, how Jesus' life fits into the span of history.
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Some related entries: The Hound of the Baskervilles | Charade | Whasango | Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? | Waikiki Brothers | Amarkalam | Love Eterne | Warlords of Atlantis | Bad Company | The Little Drummer Girl | Thirteen Days
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Movies - Jesus

History

Translating The Jesus Film

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