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Gospel of John, The
Other // PG-13 // April 6, 2004
List Price: $44.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
THE MOVIE
It's hard not to make comparisons between The Gospel Of John and The Passion Of The Christ, having seen both movies in a short amount of time. So, while I must admit I was more emotionally moved by Mel Gibson's film, Philip Saville's word by word adaptation of the book of John is a more well-rounded look at the life of Jesus, and a great film to pick up for those who enjoyed The Passion Of The Christ and want to find out more about Jesus' life and ministry.
One area in which The Gospel Of John excels over The Passion is in its selection of actors to portray Jesus. This film features Henry Ian Cusick playing Christ, and his performance gives us a very charismatic Jesus – one that is very accessible to the audience, and one that helps us understand why so many people would have given up their lives to follow him.
Because The Gospel Of John is a word for word translation of this book of the Bible (taken from the Good News version of the American Bible Society), some of the minor characters never have a chance to develop. As the bonus material points out, not a word was added nor a word taken away from the Gospel – which not only meant that some characters never get a chance to speak, but that the director himself could neither edit or add to his movie. The result is a film that plays more like a docudrama than a straight dramatic piece, but also one that has a lot of power because it is the most literal translation of the Bible ever captured on film.
For those parts of the Gospel that are not spoken by a character, the movie employs the talent of Christopher Plummer as the narration for the movie. His strong and powerful voice (which is actually the voice of St. John, who wrote this Gospel) proves to be one of the lead characters in the film, and helps explain much of what we are seeing – once again, through the words of the actual text itself.
THE DVD
Video:
The Gospel of John is presented in anamorphic widescreen with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The transfer is quite good, with no evident dirt or other glitches on the print.
Audio:
Viewers will have the option of listening to the movie in either 5.1 Dolby or DTS 5.1. There's not too much of a difference between the audio options, and since the film is very dialogue-heavy, neither track is particularly aggressive. However, both tracks are crisp and clear and offer a pleasant listening experience.
Extras:
The Gospel of John comes in a 3-DVD set, with the first two discs carrying the movie (which clocks-in at roughly three hours) and the third disc containing the bonus features. The movie discs come with the ability to turn an icon on, which will appear on your screen at certain points of the film – allowing you to hit "Enter" on your remote and see further information about the events happening on-screen.
Disc Three starts off with a Historical Background section that is divided into five parts. "Jesus, Son of God" is a seven-minute featurette that talks about the historical Jesus and includes statements by the Academic Advisory Committee of Visual Bible International, Inc. "The World of Jesus" is eight minutes, and has more interviews with the Committee and talks about the historical background of the times in which Jesus lived. "Word For Word" gives us even more interview material and explains how nothing was taken away or added from John's Gospel in the making of this movie. This featurette runs seven minutes. Also included in this section is a "Glossary of Terms", which are text pages covering definitions of some of the people, locations and items you'll see in the movie. "Bibliography and Filmography" are a list of source materials that went into the making of The Gospel of John.
The next section of Disc Three is entitled Production Design and features short six to twelve-minute individual interviews with the director, screenwriter, director of photography, production designer, costume designer, musical score composer, and hair and make-up designer.
Other bonus features include About The Cast and About The Filmmakers and Academic Advisory Committee, which are text biographies of the actors and those involved in the making of the film. The "About The Cast" section also includes six-minute video interviews with Henry Ian Cusick and Christopher Plummer.
Also added to Disc Three is an Interactive Map Of The Holy Land: The Miracles Of Jesus, which provides both a map of where events took place in the film and short clips from the movie. Finally, there's the Theatrical Trailer for the film – surprisingly the only video extra on Disc Three that is not presented in anamorphic widescreen.
THE BOTTOM LINE
By trusting the text of the Gospel itself and not attempting to fictionalize even the smallest aspect of the life of Christ, The Gospel of John may be the most accurate portrayal of Jesus that has ever been presented on screen. What it loses in character development, it makes up for in its devotion to be as loyal to John's Gospel as possible. Because of this, and because of the great portrayal by Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus, I'm giving this set an enthusiastic recommendation.
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One area in which The Gospel Of John excels over The Passion is in its selection of actors to portray Jesus. This film features Henry Ian Cusick playing Christ, and his performance gives us a very charismatic Jesus – one that is very accessible to the audience, and one that helps us understand why so many people would have given up their lives to follow him.
Because The Gospel Of John is a word for word translation of this book of the Bible (taken from the Good News version of the American Bible Society), some of the minor characters never have a chance to develop. As the bonus material points out, not a word was added nor a word taken away from the Gospel – which not only meant that some characters never get a chance to speak, but that the director himself could neither edit or add to his movie. The result is a film that plays more like a docudrama than a straight dramatic piece, but also one that has a lot of power because it is the most literal translation of the Bible ever captured on film.
For those parts of the Gospel that are not spoken by a character, the movie employs the talent of Christopher Plummer as the narration for the movie. His strong and powerful voice (which is actually the voice of St. John, who wrote this Gospel) proves to be one of the lead characters in the film, and helps explain much of what we are seeing – once again, through the words of the actual text itself.
THE DVD
Video:
The Gospel of John is presented in anamorphic widescreen with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The transfer is quite good, with no evident dirt or other glitches on the print.
Audio:
Viewers will have the option of listening to the movie in either 5.1 Dolby or DTS 5.1. There's not too much of a difference between the audio options, and since the film is very dialogue-heavy, neither track is particularly aggressive. However, both tracks are crisp and clear and offer a pleasant listening experience.
Extras:
The Gospel of John comes in a 3-DVD set, with the first two discs carrying the movie (which clocks-in at roughly three hours) and the third disc containing the bonus features. The movie discs come with the ability to turn an icon on, which will appear on your screen at certain points of the film – allowing you to hit "Enter" on your remote and see further information about the events happening on-screen.
Disc Three starts off with a Historical Background section that is divided into five parts. "Jesus, Son of God" is a seven-minute featurette that talks about the historical Jesus and includes statements by the Academic Advisory Committee of Visual Bible International, Inc. "The World of Jesus" is eight minutes, and has more interviews with the Committee and talks about the historical background of the times in which Jesus lived. "Word For Word" gives us even more interview material and explains how nothing was taken away or added from John's Gospel in the making of this movie. This featurette runs seven minutes. Also included in this section is a "Glossary of Terms", which are text pages covering definitions of some of the people, locations and items you'll see in the movie. "Bibliography and Filmography" are a list of source materials that went into the making of The Gospel of John.
The next section of Disc Three is entitled Production Design and features short six to twelve-minute individual interviews with the director, screenwriter, director of photography, production designer, costume designer, musical score composer, and hair and make-up designer.
Other bonus features include About The Cast and About The Filmmakers and Academic Advisory Committee, which are text biographies of the actors and those involved in the making of the film. The "About The Cast" section also includes six-minute video interviews with Henry Ian Cusick and Christopher Plummer.
Also added to Disc Three is an Interactive Map Of The Holy Land: The Miracles Of Jesus, which provides both a map of where events took place in the film and short clips from the movie. Finally, there's the Theatrical Trailer for the film – surprisingly the only video extra on Disc Three that is not presented in anamorphic widescreen.
THE BOTTOM LINE
By trusting the text of the Gospel itself and not attempting to fictionalize even the smallest aspect of the life of Christ, The Gospel of John may be the most accurate portrayal of Jesus that has ever been presented on screen. What it loses in character development, it makes up for in its devotion to be as loyal to John's Gospel as possible. Because of this, and because of the great portrayal by Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus, I'm giving this set an enthusiastic recommendation.
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