Judas

A bad movie, this "Judas". Decidedly that, a terrible movie. It hurt my innards to watch the stilted interactions between the pretty, oh so pretty Jesus and his dark, troubled... I don't even KNOW what, Judas.

It hurt in a strange way, though... the kind of dull, stinging pain that makes you cry out in rage, rend your garments, roll on the floor in agony, then stand up, eat a handful of popcorn and resume watching the movie.

First of all, it's well-known that this movie butchers the Gospels, omits important events, and generally portrays the Savior as a dysfunctional imbecile who plays second fiddle to the troubled Judas (You can tell he's troubled, because he wears dark clothes!), and the only reason it was released at all was so ABC could hopefully ride the "Passion of the Christ" tidal wave and gain some decent ratings for a change. It's clear that the director and writers badly, badly wanted this movie to make an impact on the people, but these people have never heard of nuance, and instead practically force-fed the viewer the "proper" opinions. Never a good way to make a film.

Instead of echoing the poignant performances of "The Passion", the performances in this movie seemed to be channeling Johnathan Schaech's other "menacing, but misunderstood" character from the movie, "That Thing You Do!". I saw far too much of Jimmy in Judas.

I will say, however, that this movie could be a great ally in the fight for the right of gays to marry. Why, Jesus Himself was gay, according to this movie! The "dramatic" scene leading up to Judas' grumble of "Damn you, Jesus" was far too reminiscent of a lovers' spat in a Lifetime movie.

This movie is appalling. It is a deplorable attempt to show Jesus as a lunatic with disciples that are bumbling "bumpkin" idiots. Whoever made this film and put it on the air (especially 1 week after the Passion by Mel Gibson), is trying to sway christians and especially jews that Jesus was not the Messiah. Why would disciples be laughing, burping, sticking their stomachs out as if gluttons while with Jesus. Anyone who reads the bible knows that Jesus was in no way anything like that and neither were his disciples. This movie is a travesty. Completely disregards Jesus's sacrifice. Why tell the story and not tell it right? SInce when is Judas such a godly man? Sure he was human and he obviously felt guilty for turning Jesus over to authorities. But he hung himself because he knew that when Jesus died he was responsible for turning him in. He realized he was the Messiah and his guilt was overwhelming. Mr. Johnathon Schaech's portrayal of Jesus was mocking to Christians and Messianic Jews (jewish believers). This was the most deplorable depiction of Jesus I've ever seen. As a believer in Jesus as the Messiah, it made me sick to my stomach to see Jesus portrayed in such a manner. I close on a comment for Mr. Schaech, the casting director, producers and directors of this film that this was a horrible and ghastly depiction of Jesus and you should take a good look at the bible and realize how wrong you are about this man Jesus.

This well-written film by Tom Fontana uses colloquial English to weave together the theme of power against the humble. Judas vs. Jesus. It is difficult to imagine how the disciples went out two-by-two, but it all seems reasonable in the humorous, but inspiring story of Judas and James bringing a lady back to life. The music underscores the power of God in scenes like the call of Matthew when Jesus pays a poor man's taxes and asks Matthew to follow Him.

The film explains why Judas originally took the money by giving Judas a mother who needed a funeral. It was clever signal to Judas when Jesus says, "Did you come with swords to capture me, as though I were a common thief?" Many things are explained by the expanded role of Pilate's wife and Flavius. For example, Claudia knew about the custom of releasing a prisoner for the Passover and because Flavius was under arrest, Judas had to identify Jesus.

How can a person get a video of JUDAS? I hope it will be shown next Easter and with more advertising than last March.

Its good intentions are obvious. New perspectives about familiar events, a nuanced story and a subtle portrait of Judas . The only sin - it is not exactly credible. it seems an improvised project and , after so many films about same subject, a too cool Savior can be a great mistake. And, unfortunately, it is it. Sure, many reserves about script and acting, about not the inspired dialogue, but the error remains something perceived as a sort of superficiality looking for give a decent image of a friendship and a controversal character. It is not a rehabilitation, not a good explanation. It is only an exercise, not bad, to define obscure aspects . The story has not exactly coherence. The resurrection of Lazarus is awfull .The effort of Johnathon Schaech works not very well, the temptation to give a modern version to a sacred story is , at the end, not the most inspired idea. And the Lord, he seems too much with a young hippie or a rock star in early career. The good point - Bob Gunton as Caiaphas. But, sure, the film remains a nice try.

Jesus appears to be a surfer who's searching for but can't find the beach to go hang ten. Judas, dressed in black, is an emo who wants to get like totally rad against the Romans and hang ten all over their face. The rest of the cast are card board cut-outs; it's hard to figure out who is playing whom.

The movie appears to be well meaning, but it just goes all wrong. First of all, it takes all its source material from forgotten scripture, the Gospel of Gnarly. The writers come up with stuff that doesn't fit with known scripture, and to say the writer took poetic license is being nice. Jesus comes across as confused, wimpy, and suffering from severe sleep deprivation. Judas just yells and screams at him, so that they can launch a military campaign of two men to overthrow the Roman Empire.

Judas is always mad, and it makes no sense that Jesus would have called this guy as an apostle in the first place. From then on they bicker, with Jesus always sounding like a 1st grade teacher, and Judas sounding like a cross between Fred Flintstone and General George Patton. The fact that the acting is weak makes these awkward characterizations even more bizarre. Events from the passion are tossed and turned, out of context, and out of logical chronology.

This should only be viewed as a novelty, as a case study of just how far a story can stray from source material.