Movies as icons

Watch Jesus the Movie (1999) [DVDRip, 1.33 FS, Eng] - QuincyMKT Disk2.avi in Faith Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
- after a moment of a scene of Pilate with a friend, the video clip shows Jesus giving the sermon on the mount

I've been trying to understand about 'icons' in the sense meant by Charles Sanders Peirce in his writing on Semiotics - a sign that denotes its object by virtue of a quality which is shared by them but which the icon has irrespectively of the object ... The icon has, of itself, a certain character or aspect, one which the object also has (or is supposed to have) and which lets the icon be interpreted as a sign even if the object does not exist.

OK, I don't actually know what that means :) but today as I looked for a video clip from the miniseries Jesus, I wondered if a movie or movie character might have as much of an ability to be an icon as any other religious image. While looking for the clip I found a past review of Jesus at The New York Times which does a good job of describing the film's character of Jesus, a character that for me seems to have become a functional icon. The Jesus in the movie isn't a perfect representation of Jesus, of course, but I can't help thinking that the reason a certain icon resonates says something about the viewer - wonder what this icon says about me.

Here's the review ....

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Devout, Wise and Loves To Dance at Weddings
By Anita Gates
Published: Friday, May 12, 2000

'Jesus'' begins with bad dreams. The son of Mary and Joseph, 30 years old and still holding back from setting out on his real mission in life, has nightmares about the future: wars, crusades and immolations that will be carried out in his name. So really -- as Satan suggests to him later in the wilderness -- what's the point of even preaching the word if that's what it's all going to come to?

CBS's new two-part movie about the life of Jesus is intriguing and strikingly original, a portrait of the clash between politics and spirituality, a mix of biblical tradition and insistent humanizing. There is a special pleasure in hearing Jesus (Jeremy Sisto) use the ''it's not you, it's me'' argument with a young woman who is in love with him (Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus, played with great charm by Stefania Rocca). After he tells her he has to go his own way, without her, he tries to explain: ''My life is not my own,'' and ''It is not you.''

Making the figure of Jesus more human seems to have been the goal of lots of writers and filmmakers in recent years, from the original stage production of ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' three decades ago to Martin Scorsese's 1988 adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis's ''Last Temptation of Christ'' to NBC's pallid ''Mary, Mother of Jesus'' last fall (in which Christian Bale tried to overcome the bad film around him but couldn't). ''Jesus'' seems to have succeeded.

This Jesus is full of life and playfulness. He loves to dance at weddings and in the street. He enjoys wine and a good meal, tells stories over dinner and often nibbles on something while he's dispensing wisdom. One day he starts a water fight with his disciples at a well. He actually smiles during the Sermon on the Mount. And under the direction of Roger Young, who has previously made television films on Moses and Joseph, Mr. Sisto seems completely at ease: confident, strong and sometimes a little bossy. So when he has moments of doubt (great doubt), they are all the more powerful.

''Jesus'' makes multiple points with one incident, as good drama should. Near the beginning of the film, while Joseph and Jesus are on their way home from a carpentry job, the tax collector (employed by the Roman Empire) comes to their house. To Mary's horror, he takes away their goat as payment for what she is told are back taxes. That night at dinner Joseph is outraged. ''When, when will there be an end to the suffering of our people?'' he asks, looking directly at his grown son. Jesus answers, calmly but pointedly: ''Are you asking me? Or are you telling me that I can end the suffering?''

Credit has to go to the efficient, graceful script by Suzette Couture, who has previously written television films about far different subjects, including the Dionne quintuplets and the Tailhook scandal. Ms. Couture gives Jesus a believable home life, but with its own quirks. The Annunciation, for instance, is an old story that the family retells and laughs about. ''I think he thought I was crazy,'' Mary (Jacqueline Bisset, looking radiant and constantly proud) tells Jesus. Smiling, she recalls in a quick flashback the day she had to tell her fiance that an angel had appeared to her and informed her that even though she was a virgin she was pregnant. Jesus gets a good laugh out of this, as always.

After Joseph's death, Jesus decides the time has come for him to leave home. Then, in short succession, come the water-into-wine miracle (it was his cousin Benjamin's wedding), Jesus' baptism, the cleansing of the temple, the Sermon on the Mount, the official choice of his apostles (which feels like the announcement of the Miss America finalists, but in a good way), the walking-on-water miracle and the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

Near the beginning of all this, Jesus undergoes the temptation in the wilderness, so that he can know how it feels to be ''as fragile, alone and little'' as humans. Satan (Jeroen Krabbe in a black suit, although he sometimes morphs into a beautiful woman in a red dress) greets him: ''You don't look so good, Jesus. Are you hungry?'' Jesus is starving and sunburned, with sand in his eyebrows. Satan's virtual-reality tour of the world doesn't make him feel better, and things are only going to get worse.

Politics and power are major elements of ''Jesus.'' Pontius Pilate (Gary Oldman) is a tough cookie from the day he begins his new job as governor of Judea (''the most troublesome province in the empire''). When Herod Antipas (Luca Barbareschi) tries to impress him by describing himself as a personal friend of Tiberius, Pilate replies: ''Strange. I've never heard him mention you.''

The actions of Judas (Thomas Lockyer) are political, too. As Jesus enters Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, Judas's friends ask, ''When will Jesus call for revolution?'' Soon, Judas says. When he learns that isn't the case, he abandons ship.

John the Baptist (David O'Hara) strikes a contemporary note when, preaching at the River Jordan, he reminds his followers, ''Our leaders are weak and sinful.'' The script also lets John explain ritual in terms that fit with 21st-century consciousness. Baptism, symbolic of washing away the lies, he explains, ''signifies that your commitment has already been made.''

The film has flaws. At times there is an awkwardness to the sentiment, and some reaction shots ring false (including Ms. Bisset's during her son's arrest and crucifixion). But overall the cast is in fine form. Armin Mueller-Stahl is a warm but volatile Joseph. Debra Messing, much quieter than her comic ''Will and Grace'' character, makes a sympathetic Mary Magdalene. Patrick Williams's score goes a long way toward setting the film's tone, even if it does get a little overtriumphant in the Ascension scene.

The only people ''Jesus'' could possibly offend are those whose interpretation of Christianity looks upon any enjoyment of the physical senses as a little bit sinful. For the rest of us, the film is proof that every story, no matter how familiar, can be made new. When Jesus leans over to his newly named disciple on his fishing boat and whispers: ''Come with me, Peter. I'll make you a fisher of men,'' the line has an urgency and a soul-stirring excitement that I somehow missed in Sunday school.

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