History
The film's origins date back to 1945 when a young businessman named Bill Bright wanted to privately finance a film about the life of Jesus Christ that was entertaining, biblically accurate, and which could be translated into non-English languages. Rather than making a film at that time, Bright went on to found a Christian ministry to reach college students called Campus Crusade for Christ in 1951.
In 1976, with Campus Crusade's influence spreading beyond college campuses to sports, the marketplace and other aspects of society, Bright turned his attention once again to filmmaking. Hollywood's German-born British producer John Heyman approached Bright to fund a project to put the entire Bible on film. The project would eventually be scaled back to just one book of the Bible, the Gospel of Luke, and be financed primarily by Campus Crusade supporters Bunker and Caroline Hunt for a sum of $6 million.
A team of 500 scholars and leaders from secular and Christian organizations began to research historical elements for a film about Jesus. Filming took place over the course of several months throughout the Middle East.
Jesus was produced by John Heyman, a German-born British producer. British Shakespearean actor Brian Deacon was hired to play the critical role of Jesus himself. The part of Mary was played by Rivka Neumann, and the part of Joseph by Yosef Shiloach. 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, revealed in the DVD's audio commentary that Deacon (the son of a Catholic mother and a Protestant father), was so committed to the film and its message that he read several Bible translations a day in order to make certain that he properly presented Christ's teachings. Because Deacon developed pneumonia during principal photography, doubles were used in certain scenes. Eshleman also said that Niko Nitai, who played Peter, became a believer during filming and that the man hired to play Jesus' corpse later entered a seminary.
Some locations mentioned in the Bible, such as the Jordan River and what is believed to have been the home of Simon the Tanner, were used in the film.
After each day's filming was completed, the footage was sent to a panel of biblical scholars for review.
Instead of creating a parallel story for the film or embellishing the biblical account, as is the case with other biblical films such as The Ten Commandments or The Greatest Story Ever Told, the filmmakers chose to adhere as closely as possible to the Gospel of Luke. At the end of the film it states that the Good News Bible (Today's English Version) was used for the filming. Most of the film's dialogue comes from Luke, which was chosen after John Heyman sought advice from clergy and scholars. Many responded that the screenplay should be based on just one Gospel, and that Luke should be used because of its completeness.
Jesus was released by Warner Bros. in the United States. It was not a financial success, losing approximately $2 million. While praising its "meticulous attention to authenticity", critics panned Jesus for being "painfully monotonous" and "little more than an illustrated gospel, with nothing in the way of historical and social context." The Los Angeles Times called it a "...dull Sunday-School treatment of the life of Christ, meticulously but unimaginatively culled from Luke 3-24."
Read more about this topic: Jesus (1979 film)
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