Auferstanden

"I have seen two things which I cannot reconcile: A man dead without question, and that same man alive again." Clavius (Fiennes) is a Roman Tribune who has just been told to go complete a crucifixion where a Sentinel has refused. The next day he is tasked with making sure the body stays in the tomb. When he arrives in the morning and finds the tomb empty the course of human history is changed forever. Many of these religious themed movies fall in a trap of becoming too cheesy and too in your face for a main stream audience. This one is an exception. As expected there are some very religious aspects to this, but its never in your face or distracting enough to make you feel like you are being preached to. In fact even though everyone knows the story of this movie they never use the name Jesus. The movie is movie of a detective/missing body movie that a religious epic. For that reason the movie is main stream, watchable and something I did like a lot more than I expected to. Overall, a religious movie for the masses that feels like an actual movie and not a Sunday school lesson. I give this a B.

With nothing else to see, I went, somewhat reluctantly, to see the new Biblically inspired, movie, 'Risen' (which, as you can see, got good reviews on IMDb). Ostensibly about the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, it's more a logical investigation imaginatively laid atop a history lesson, a key miracle of the New Testament, and a logical examination of rational thought challenged by inexplicable events. Told from the perspective of a Roman Tribune sent to investigate how Jesus' physical body disappeared from it's tomb, it's a story well told, seems historically authentic, and I (a lapsed Catholic/agnostic/skeptic) recommend it highly. It was also an interesting exercise in memory, as I strained to remember what I remember from hours of Catechism, and yearly celebrations of Good Friday, Easter, and the Feast of the Assumption...which turned out to be...not much.

There are parts which recall 'Life of Brian', it's a little bit long, the disciples resemble the inhabitants of the hippie commune in 'Easy Rider', Bartholomew is completely over the top, and the actor who plays Christ is iffy. But, then again, he is tasked with the impossible role of being man and God (just what expression would you choose if you played Christ?) without descending into camp farce. All in all, he does OK.

Joseph Fiennes plays the Tribune with authenticity, honesty, and an openness which allowed me to put myself in his place...how does a rational man deal with fundamental challenges to his heretofore solid as a rock, world? When do you surrender to faith when all the 'reason' in the world suggests that reason has little to do with it all?

It's a good movie, well worth seeing.

With the most recent Biblical movies that Hollywood has come out with, Noah and Exodus, the main complaint, at least from the Christian viewer-base, was that they didn't stick to the accuracy of the Bible; in this film they do - so it has that going for it, if you're a Christian.

At the top of the IMDb page it lists this movie as Action, Adventure, and Drama; but in reality it's pretty much just drama. There is a 3 minute action sequence at the beginning and that is about it. It's not bad that it's Drama, but it is a slower paced movie - I only point this out because that is one of things I like to know when going into a movie.

The movie itself wasn't terribly exciting, but for the Christian audience, who like to see portions of the Bible "brought to life", I think it will find a decent viewer ship. That being said, if it's Friday night and you're looking for a fun movie, then this probably isn't it.

Thankfully, this isn't another "God's Not Dead" where they smack you in the face over and over again with how awesome Christians are and how terrible atheists are - it basically just sticks to a fictional storyline of what might have happened to a Roman centurion who is in charge of finding the missing body.

The bottom line is this movie is the very definition of "good" to me, not bad, but not great...just good.

For a fallen-down Catholic boy like me, seeing Risen, a take on the weeks after Christ's Resurrection, should have offered me a year's supply of cynicism. As it turns out, the film was a pleasant trip back to the days when I did believe, when awe was a companion of my faith.

This uninspired Biblical thriller shows a powerful Roman tribune, Flavius (an underplaying to good effect Joseph Fiennes), ordered by Pilate (Peter Firth) to get rid of the Nazarene, and after His resurrection, find Him, and kill Him again. With restraint, director Kevin Reynolds makes even me a brief believer because the actors, from Cliff Curtis (Yeshua--Jesus) to Mary Magdalene (Maria Botto), play their roles with a natural affection that's supported by no swelling music or dazed looks.

But it's Fiennes who impressed me most: As he plays a character who is probably meant to be a surrogate for doubters like me in the audience, he actually makes us believers for the moment. So dedicated he is to proving this Messiah a hoax that his growing belief becomes a balm for our disbelief.

Beyond this nicely played worship is a set that looks like it came from a hundred other "B" movie sword and sandal epics. Yet, the underplayed plot, which pretty much follows the New Testament depiction of Christ's resurrection, has a quiet charm that reminds us of the Biblical text that needs no resurrection: It is with us forever.

I really liked the perspective of this movie. It's told largely through the eyes of a Roman tribune, Clavius - played by Joseph Fiennes. As the movie opens, Clavius is leading Roman soldiers in battle against a group of Jewish zealots led by Barabbas. Immediately after, he's sent by Pilate to oversee Jesus' crucifixion and then, after the body disappears and rumours of Jesus' resurrection begin to spread, Clavius is sent to find out the truth- specifically, to find Jesus' dead body to put an end to this nonsensical story that has the potential to be a real nuisance to the Romans. This was a different kind of take on the Easter story. It's told through skeptical eyes rather than through eyes of faith. It's mostly believable. It makes sense to me that the Romans would want to investigate these claims of resurrection. From a Christian perspective it's a stark reminder of how small and seemingly weak the original Jesus movement was - scattered, frightened disciples under constant threat, but increasingly emboldened by the growing realization of what had happened. Fiennes was very good as Clavius - a Roman who obviously doesn't believe in Jesus as the Messiah or in his resurrection but who finally has a dramatic experience when he discovers the disciples in the upper room. It was interesting to have Clavius form a sort of partnership with the disciples - sharing their journey to Galilee and experiencing the risen Christ along the way, to the point at which you'd have to say that he was converted. Jesus (or Yeshua as he was called in the movie) was played by Cliff Curtis. Yeshua's dialogue was somewhat limited (what was important in this context was not his words, but others' experience of him) but I did like Curtis' take on Yeshua. Yeshua came across as jovial and good natured; humble and compassionate. Strangely in a movie about the Easter event, Yeshua wasn't central enough to the story for Curtis' performance to rank among some of the fine actors who've played Jesus over the years, but given the limitations of the role in this movie I thought he did well.

The basic concept (inserting a Roman tribune among the disciples) means that there were several liberties taken with the biblical story. There was, for example, a healing miracle performed by the risen Jesus - but there's no record of such a healing in the New Testament. The movie also (and unnecessarily) buys into the wholly inaccurate portrayal of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute. I saw no reason for that except perhaps that it gave an opportunity to insert some humour when Clavius burst into an establishment and asks the men inside "who knows Mary Magdalene?" - to which all the men put up their hands. OK. A quick laugh perhaps, but hardly worth perpetuating the false portrayal in my opinion. For the most part, though, the basics of the biblical Easter story were maintained, and the crucifixion story - while not as graphic as in, say, The Passion Of The Christ, was respectfully shown and appropriately difficult to watch.

Two other scenes that stood out to me as especially dramatic were one of the guards at the tomb explaining to Clavius what happened at the moment of resurrection with a mixture of shock, terror and wonder, and also the moment that Clavius burst through the door of the upper room to find the disciples but also coming face to face with the risen Yeshua - whom he knew was dead.

I liked the setting of the movie. It seemed very authentic to the time period and geography. Overall, this was a very well done movie, and for those who have a play list of sorts of movies they like to watch at Easter, this is probably deserving of a place on that list. (8/10)