The Parables Retold

The casting tells you right away that the production team want to show you certain race is all good and others are either not so or a mix-bag at best. There is only one plot-line. The pace is slow. The acting is not bad but is not compelling. Cinematography is average. But I give it credit for trying to relate the ancient stories to modern viewers by putting it in a modern settings. In my opinions it is not so simple because people act in the social and cultural context of the time, it is going to be off in some way when you try to inject presentism to historical events such as "Hamilton" did.

I found this quite by accident through Angel Studios, whom I was familiar with because of The Chosen series, which is also highly recommended.

Set in a (not so distant?) dystopian future, it follows Luke as he's writing the Gospel of Luke and, through his experiences that will become, the Book of Acts in the Bible. Of course, like the aforementioned series, some liberties are taken as action and conversations that do not appear in (or have been updated from) Holy Scripture are included.

Luke and his Biblical companions - members of the Way including Mary Magdalene, James, Barnabas, John Mark and Peter - are on the run or in hiding from the authorities who want to stop the proliferation of any information about Jesus and His teachings. While in flight, five of Jesus's Parables are told, also in modern contexts:

The Sower, The Good Samaritan, The Hidden Treasure, The Talents and The Rich Fool

I'm not sure how I feel about the dystopian environment but am interested in seeing how it plays out, e.g. How well the characters will be developed as in The Chosen, but the Parables are fantastic, every one of them!

"Testament" was filmed on a 50k budget. I love low-budget fantasy, so I thought I'd give it a shot. And interestingly, they made a good series of 5 shorts fit into a coherent whole. And there are enough characters in there to be a good series.

I hope the makers read this, because I intend it as positive feedback for their upcoming series:

We already live in the dystopian future painted in "Testament". If you want the upcoming series to 'hit hard' , do what "Black mirror" does, take a 'topic of the week' (like social media) and turn it up to 11 - to display the dangers it brings to our society (and to Faith in general). To work, a concept like this one can't go half-way. It needs to SLAP.

Testament is self-aware - "A good story can change a life" says a character. The parables ARE evidently good stories, but most people, including atheists, know them by heart (and sometimes dislike them for being so well, "known").

Therefore, whereas "the Chosen" goes courageously off-piste to bring an experience that doesn't feel like Sunday school, Testament ends up doing the opposite - taking a modern day setting to place existing story lines most know by heart - and now we're headed back to Sunday school... NOT enjoyable or bingeable television.

If you're reading this, know that I enjoyed the film and the concept, but I think if you want to be truly successful and go global, you need to:

A) drop the PG rating (The Bible would be rated R if put on film), completely. Opt to make a movie for adults or for children, but not both.

B) forgive the childish 'moral dilemmas of the lady hesitating to return the 20 pound note or becoming straight evil following her lottery winnings. Also, anti-world-government activists are not all nazis, in fact most hate nazis. Also, we're not children.

C) push the parables to their logical extreme to add an element of surprise while staying true to the "goals" of the material, NOT the material itself. I mean, a parable of a treasure is not a parable of a treasure if you know.. there's an actual 'pirate booty'-style treasure in it.

D) drop the black/white morality of it all. The Bible is a brilliant text because even in the book of Jobs it is said not to turn God's teachings into 'simple allegories'. And sadly, this falls into the 'too simple' category.

E) make the cops, cops. They aren't temple guards anymore, they're called 'police'. And to create a paramilitary wing of a non-descript 'authority' doesn't really feel 'modern'. A 'ministry of truth' would link orwellian concepts to the distopian present quite well, sprinkled with some 'brave new world' ignorant blissfulness.

As for 'the adversary', I REALLY liked the "Mr Smith" element of it, but it was let down by his lack of on-screen presence I'm afraid, which isn't helped by the the poor sound recording and make him feel well... not very 'threatening'.

5/10 - Good effort and I look forward to see where this is going next.

Yes, I realize that they were taking the New Testament and placing the actions in some utopian time.

I can't even figure out what was the purpose for making this movie.

It basically is showing how Luke was gathering all his information for his gospel.

Luke's role could have been more of the center and stronger character, for instance, acting more like an inquisitive reporter trying to pull a good story together.

It seemed rather choppy, with the scenes jumping around quite a bit. I know that to pull it together so that it would flow smoothly would require adding much content that is not within the Bible, I'm sure that most people viewing this video are regular readers of the Bible.

The director was trying very hard to include interesting moments, but for me it did not flow very smoothly. I was constantly thinking "where are they going with this?".

For me, the best part was that it finally ended.

Sorry about that, but I feel I wasted two hours.

Was it entertaining? No!

Was it informative? No!

Did it I make ny faith stronger? No!

Did I feel that it showed how the apostles would have felt and acted in today's world? I just couldn't grab that concept either.

We enjoyed the retellings of some of Jesus' parables. They were just different enough to keep us guessing, but they conveyed the points well. And it was interesting to see a modernized idea of the early church.

There were two scenes that might be too intense for children - one of a dead woman and another with a man who is badly beaten. Parents may want to watch before showing it to their kids.

The acting was well done. The story was creative. I would be interested in checking out the Testament series that is supposed to be coming out soon.

It's really encouraging to see people finding new ways for telling stories about Jesus through film.

We are also impressed with the fact that this movie was created on such a low budget. Looking forward to more work from this team. Keep up the good work!