Imaging the Divine: Jesus and Christ-Figures in Film.

Soukup, Paul A.

IMAGING THE DIVINE: JESUS AND CHRIST-FIGURES IN FILM. By Lloyd Baugh, S.J. Communication, Culture, and Theology. Kansas City, Mo.: Sheed and Ward, 1997. Pp. x + 337. $24.95.

Baugh leaves two important questions unanswered in this study of filmic portrayals of Jesus, the Christ. Providing a subtext to the structure of the entire book, the questions eventually challenge the reader to examine personal assumptions as well as the author's.

Most basically, B. examines representations of Jesus--literally in the case of biblical films and metaphorically in the case of Christ figures throughout the history of cinema. To accomplish this task he combines the tools of film study (narrative techniques, montage, framing, sound, intra- and extra-"textual" material) with those of theology (primarily hermeneutics).

B. follows more or less the same method throughout. Within the confines of an auteur approach, he introduces a film, summarizes the plot and treatment, notes its critical reception, and discusses the larger factors that may have influenced the director: the cultural, economic, and political situation of the film. Only then does he offer an analysis and critique of the picture. In this way, B. provides a treasure trove of information about the films. However, the method runs certain risks, not least the intentional fallacy and the contradiction between auteur approaches and political-economy approaches. To compensate for these, his more detailed examination of the films rests on an analysis of each film's component parts.

After a historical overview of biblical films, Part 1 treats nine films in depth: King of Kings (Director: Nicholas Ray, 1961), The Greatest Story Ever Told (George Stevens, 1965), Jesus Christ Superstar (Norman Jewison, 1973), Godspell (David Greene, 1973), The Life of Brian (Monty Python, 1979), The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese, 1988), Jesus of Nazereth (Franco Zeffirelli, 1977), The Messiah (Roberto Rossellini, 1975), and The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964). B. finds only the last of these satisfying as a representation of Jesus, rejecting the others as unfaithful to the biblical text. Herein lies the first important unanswered question of this book: What constitutes fidelity in "translating" the Bible to another medium? Clearly B. has some criteria in mind when he evaluates his chosen films, but these criteria vary. Some films leave out portions of the gospel narrative, he tells us; some add elements; some distract from the content by focusing on the actors; some change the tone of the Gospels; others misinterpret by taking too popular a reading. Of course, it is easier to indicate why a film does not work, but the question of what defines fidelity deserves an answer. Perhaps we should also ask a related question: Do any of these films even attempt a faithful portrayal of the Gospels, and should they not be judged as films rather than as biblical expressions?

Part 2, principally examining ten films, poses the problem of the Christ figure. Such figures, analogical or allegorical representation of Jesus, have appeared in literature for hundreds of years and in films almost from their beginning. To show the range of possible depictions of the Christ figure, B. examines in some detail Jesus of Montreal (Denys Arcand, 1989), La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954), Nights of Cabiria (Fellini, 1957), Babette's Feast (Gabriel Axel, 1987), Out of Rosenheim (Percy Adlon, 1987), Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins, 1995), Shane (George Stevens, 1953), A Short Film about Love (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1988), Decalogue Six (Kieslowski, 1988-89), and Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966). In addition he looks at Christ figures in other films of Robert Bresson and in films of Andrei Tarkovsky.

Though he provides an initial discussion of Christ figures and Jesus figures as well as a chapter on typical guises of the Christ figure (the saint, the priest, the woman, the clown, the hero, the outlaw, the child), a second unanswered question appears: How should the viewer judge the adequacy of a filmic Christ figure? To his credit, B. does provide considerable information and a number of typologies of these figures. But what really counts as one? With so many possibilities, what makes up the defining quality? Should it be intratextual or based on something extrinsic?

The unanswered questions serve to engage the reader in the overall premise of B.'s argument. Taking as his subject "the most popular art" of our culture, B. demonstrates where it succeeds in communicating theological truths and where it fails. By not telling us why it fails, he asks us as readers to give our answers to his assumptions about fidelity and figuration.