Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Reflections on The Bible


 I think I finally have it ~ why movies or tv shows depicting Bible stories are never really satisfactory. They are either totally over the top or so under-played that it is actually bad acting. We either have Moses on the mountain with a flowing beard that can’t possibly be real, raising his arms to the heavens and appearing strong and powerful or stumbling down the mountain with tablets he can hardly lift and practically falling into Joshua’s arms, Somewhere in between there was a man ~ a man who struggled with a vision from God and allowed himself to be guided in a way that set God’s people on their path for thousands of years. 

The desire of movie makers seem to be to create a character that matches the ideal that people have of these Biblical folk or else to show them as so human that regardless they lose their humanity and become caricatures. I think maybe we do better to read the stories, interpret them for our time and place, and let them occupy the movies of our minds and hearts. I will, however, watch the rest of the History Channel’s The Bible - if for no other reason than to see what they do with Mary and Jesus. And probably comment about it here. 

No comments: