The Lost Tomb of Jesus is a documentary which makes a case that the 2,000-year-old "Tomb of the Ten Ossuaries" belonged to the family of Jesus of Nazareth.
An incredible archaeological discovery in Israel, this changes history and shocks the world. Tombs with the names Maria, Jesus son of Joseph, Mariamne e Mara, and Judah, their son, are found and an investigation begins.
The Last Temptation of Christ (or The Last Temptation; Greek: Ο Τελευταίος Πειρασμός, O Teleftaíos Peirasmós) is a novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1951. It follows the life of Jesus Christ from his perspective. The novel has been the subject of a great deal of controversy due to its subject matter, and appears regularly on lists of banned books.
The central thesis of the book is that Jesus, while free from sin, was still subject to every form of temptation that humans face, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust. By facing and conquering all of man's weaknesses, Kazantzakis argues in the novel's preface, He struggled to do God's will, without ever giving in to the temptations of the flesh.
In its movie adaptation, The Last Temptation of Christ is arguably Martin Scorsese's most passionate work.It is very rare that a film comes along and has the power to change the way someone thinks. Martin Scorsese's epic masterpiece does just that. What happened if Jesus Christ was given a choice in whether or not he was crucified and died "for our sins?" What if Jesus wasn't as perfect as the myths make him out to be, and was instead a human being, who was almost cursed with the idea that he was the son of God? The main reason that the fundamentalists right wingers have come out so strongly against The Last Temptation of Christs is that the film depicts the dual nature of Christ as fully devine and fully human. Other than a brief moment at the end of the film in which Christ ponders what might have been had he lived a normal life, the film is not anti-Christian in the least. As one critic put it, "ironically, The Last Temptation of Christ probably would have drawn more people to Christianity than years of annoying pamphlets and systematic brainwashing." Scorsese's direction is very bizarre and creates a film that is extremely surreal.This is the most intelligent film about Jesus to ever be created.
The Passion of the Christ is a 2004 film co-written, co-produced and directed by Mel Gibson. It is based primarily on biblical accounts of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, events commonly known as "The Passion". The film’s dialogue is in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew, with subtitles. It was filmed in Matera, Italy and Cinecittà Studios, Rome.
To produce The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson spent some forty to fifty million dollars of his money to finance and advertise it. Aside from being its co-producer and director, he is the co-screenplay writer with Benedict Fitzgerald. Given the heavy Christian message, the very explicit violence, and the polyglot soundtrack (Aramaic, Latin, Hebrew), it was difficult to find an American distribution company; the film was completed before Newmarket Films agreed to release it in the U.S. Equinox Films was the Canadian distributor, and Icon Films the British and Australian distributor.
In The Passion: Photography from the Movie "The Passion of the Christ", Gibson says:
"This is a movie about love, hope, faith, and forgiveness. He [Jesus] died for all mankind, suffered for all of us. It's time to get back to that basic message. The world has gone nuts. We could all use a little more love, faith, hope, and forgiveness.
It was me that put him on the cross. It was my sins [who / that put him there]".
Gibson makes an appearance in the film, in close-up only: his hands nail Jesus to the cross.
Cast Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott
Ben-Hur (1959) is MGM's three and a half hour, wide-screen epic Technicolor blockbuster - a Biblical tale, subtitled A Tale of the Christ.
Director William Wyler's film was a remake of the spectacular silent film of the same name (director Fred Niblo's and MGM's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)). Wyler had been an 'extras' director on the set of DeMille's original film in the silent era. MGM's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), featuring a cast of 125,000, cost about $4 million to make after shooting began on location in Italy, in 1923, and starred silent screen idols Ramon Novarro and Francis X. Bushman. This figure is equivalent to $33 million today - it was the most expensive silent film ever made. Both films were adapted from the novel (first published in 1880) by former Civil War General Lew Wallace.
This remake was inspired by the fact that three years earlier, Cecil B. DeMille and Paramount had remade the 1925 version of his film as a successful 50's epoch Biblical tale titled The Ten Commandments (1956). The heroic figure of Charlton Heston (an iconic and righteous Moses figure) would again be commissioned to play the lead role in this film of a Jewish nobleman (the Prince of Judea) - after the role was turned down by Burt Lancaster, Rock Hudson and Paul Newman. In the plot, prince Judah Ben-Hur was enslaved by a Roman tribunal friend (with a homosexual subtext provided by co-writer Gore Vidal), but then returned years later to seek revenge in the film's centerpiece, a chariot race. Ultimately, he would find redemption and forgiveness in the inspiring and enlightening finale.
The colorful 1959 version was the most expensive film ever made up to its time, and the most expensive film of the 50s decade. At $15 million and shot on a grand scale, it was a tremendous make-or-break risk for MGM Studios - and ultimately saved the studio from bankruptcy. [It was a big dual win for MGM, since they had won the Best Picture race the previous year for Gigi (1958).] It took six years to prepare for the film shoot, and over a half year of on-location work in Italy, with thousands of extras. It featured more crew and extras than any other film before it - 15,000 extras alone for the chariot race sequence.
Ben-Hur proved to be an intelligent, exciting, and dramatic piece of film-making unlike so many other vulgar Biblical pageants with Hollywood actors and actresses. Its depiction of the Jesus Christ figure was also extremely subtle and solely as a cameo - it never showed Christ's face but only the reactions of other characters to him.
It was one of the most honored, award-winning films of all time. It was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Actor (Charlton Heston - his sole career Oscar), Best Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith), Best Director (William Wyler), Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Score, Best Film Editing, Best Color Costume Design, Best Special Effects, and Best Screenplay (sole-credited Karl Tunberg). It was the first film to win eleven Oscars - it lost only in the Screenplay category due to a dispute over screenwriting credits (Maxwell Anderson, Christopher Fry, and Gore Vidal were all uncredited). Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) are the only films to tie this phenomenal record, although unlike this film, they came away without any acting Oscars. Many felt that Heston's performance was inferior to other nominees in the Best Actor category: Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot or Laurence Harvey in Room at the Top, and James Stewart in Anatomy of a Murder.
The chariot race sequence in the Roman Circus (an amazing replica) is one of the most thrilling and famous in film history. [Homage was paid to it with George Lucas' pod-race in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).] The site of the race, the Circus Maximus, was constructed on over 18 acres of backlot space at Cinecitta Studios outside Rome, and the filming of the sequence took over three weeks. Except for two of the most spectacular stunts, both Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd did all their own chariot driving in the carefully-choreographed sequence. There are contradictory reports about the fatality of a stuntman during the dangerous scene in the film, yet no published discussions of the film mention the accident, and Charlton Heston's 1995 autobiography In the Arena specifically stated that no one was seriously injured (beyond a cut on the chin) during the filming of the scene.
Awards: Academy Awards Best Motion Picture, Best Leading Actor for Charlton Heston, Best Supporting Actor for Hugh Griffith, Best Director, Best Set Decoration, Color — Edward C. Carfagno, W. A. Horning, and Hugh Hunt, Best Cinematography, Color, Best Costume Design, Color, Best Special Effects, Best Film Editing — John D. Dunning and Ralph E. Winters, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and Best Sound
Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture, Drama, Best Motion Picture Director, Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for Stephen Boyd, Special Award to Andrew Marton for directing the chariot race sequence.
BAFTA Award for Best Film, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Picture DGA award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Motion Picture
In 1998, the film ranked #72 on the American Film Institute list of the Best American Movies of All Time, and #56 at AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers. In 2001 the film ranked #49 on the American Film Institute list of the Most Thrilling American Movies. In 2004, Ben-Hur was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2005, the music score of the film ranked #21 on the American Film Institute list of the Best Score of American Films. In 2007, AFI listed Ben-Hur at #100 for AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition).
Directed by Simcha Jacobovici
