This is the best Christian film I have seen in a long time. The worst of them are chock full of stereotypes, contradictions, and just plain bad writing and acting (cough...God Is Not Dead...cough). This one has none of that. It is the story of a Roman tribune, Clavius, who is stationed in Judea at the time of Christ. He puts down uprisings and kills the rebels, but he has neither joy nor sadness about this fate. It is simply his job and he is rather stoic about it. It is part of his long term plan that gets him back to Rome, position and power, wealth, a good family, and then a home in the country - "a day without death" as he puts it.
The governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, assigns Clavius to find the body of Jesus when it disappears from its tomb. The next 20 minutes or so of the film is like an ancient CSI as Clavius methodically seeks out Jesus' believers and tries to get them to talk. He thinks he has tracked down the body to a small room. Clavius draws his sword, kicks down the door preparing to fight, and there, sitting in a circle are the twelve disciples with Jesus looking right at him. He knows this is the man he saw dead on the cross days ago, he sees his wounds, yet he is alive. He cannot just go back, so he follows these disciples to Jesus' ascension. Particularly moving is the conversation between Jesus and Clavius as they sit alone at night. What will Clavius do in the end? Watch and find out.
The filmmakers took the time to get so many aspects of the film right. The coin under the tongue of the dead Roman soldiers and the funeral pyres for them, the open grave where the bodies of the executed are tossed, not buried, the horror of an actual crucifixion, and the simple love and joy of the original Christian faith. And they don't try to paint Clavius as some searching soul. He is quite at home in Roman culture, praying to Mars - the Romans had a quid pro quo arrangement with their gods. The mortal offers to do something, if the god will do something. The only thing that stops him in his tracks is seeing something that reason tells him cannot be.
I like how for once Jesus looks like someone who actually was born at the intersection of Europe, Asia, and Africa. He has swarthy skin, and his physique is unremarkable. He is not ugly or handsome, neither tall nor short. Ironically Jesus is played by the New Zealand Maori actor, Cliff Curtis, born half a world away from the setting of the film.
Kudos to the actor who played Pontius Pilate too. He truly captures the essence of a toady politician who has enough conscience to regret doing something he thinks is wrong, but if it is you or his career he will choose his career every time. And the emperor is coming for a visit and Pilate above all wants the emperor to find order in Judea when he arrives. This is the motive for everything he does.
I'd highly recommend this film.
The governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, assigns Clavius to find the body of Jesus when it disappears from its tomb. The next 20 minutes or so of the film is like an ancient CSI as Clavius methodically seeks out Jesus' believers and tries to get them to talk. He thinks he has tracked down the body to a small room. Clavius draws his sword, kicks down the door preparing to fight, and there, sitting in a circle are the twelve disciples with Jesus looking right at him. He knows this is the man he saw dead on the cross days ago, he sees his wounds, yet he is alive. He cannot just go back, so he follows these disciples to Jesus' ascension. Particularly moving is the conversation between Jesus and Clavius as they sit alone at night. What will Clavius do in the end? Watch and find out.
The filmmakers took the time to get so many aspects of the film right. The coin under the tongue of the dead Roman soldiers and the funeral pyres for them, the open grave where the bodies of the executed are tossed, not buried, the horror of an actual crucifixion, and the simple love and joy of the original Christian faith. And they don't try to paint Clavius as some searching soul. He is quite at home in Roman culture, praying to Mars - the Romans had a quid pro quo arrangement with their gods. The mortal offers to do something, if the god will do something. The only thing that stops him in his tracks is seeing something that reason tells him cannot be.
I like how for once Jesus looks like someone who actually was born at the intersection of Europe, Asia, and Africa. He has swarthy skin, and his physique is unremarkable. He is not ugly or handsome, neither tall nor short. Ironically Jesus is played by the New Zealand Maori actor, Cliff Curtis, born half a world away from the setting of the film.
Kudos to the actor who played Pontius Pilate too. He truly captures the essence of a toady politician who has enough conscience to regret doing something he thinks is wrong, but if it is you or his career he will choose his career every time. And the emperor is coming for a visit and Pilate above all wants the emperor to find order in Judea when he arrives. This is the motive for everything he does.
I'd highly recommend this film.