The Gospel of John

This film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Amazingly, it avoided all of the mistakes made in most other attempts to tell this story. The Bible's presentation of the story of Jesus is based primarily on four narratives--each stamped with its author's own personality and unique perspective.

Many previous films have sampled more than one of the Biblical narratives on the life of Christ. Also, they needlessly added scenes not found in the original sources. The authors of those screenplays in merely sampling from several sources, lost the unique focus of each respective author and diluted the overall effect of the story.

This film is based on John Goldsmith's screenplay which deftly avoids all the laughably silly cliches of previous film versions. Goldsmith's screenplay is based on only one man's perspective, that of Jesus' disciple John. Many stories with which the viewer is familiar, such as the nativity, are missing from John's gospel and therefore also from this wonderfully complex and yet lucid screenplay. Jesus' words are not here presented as pious platitudes, but occur within a context where Jesus responded to those around him.

The dialogue is solely based on the Good News Bible (also known as Today's English Version) Christopher Plummer very ably supplies the verse by verse narration from the same source. His delivery re-enforces the clarity of what is on the screen. Most of the other actors were not known to me--which I felt helped. (What part could one give to an actor who previously portrayed a drug dealer?)

Jesus is brilliantly portrayed by Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus the man with human emotions, Jesus the visionary resented by the religious establishment of his day. This Jesus did not refer to them for his authority. Cusick, convincingly portrays Jesus the carpenter as a handsome, masculine, very charismatic man. Cusick is very much equal to the task. I spoke very briefly with Cusick after the screening, thanking him for his portrayal of a part that is loaded with hazards--all of which he avoided. I hope we see a great deal more of this fine actor.

The music by Jeff Danna is wonderful--well beyond what I could have hoped for.

One friend of mine at the screening expressed his concern that this film in portraying Jesus' death at the hands of the Jewish establishment might make it vulnerable to accusations of Antisemitism. I reassured him that in its earliest days, Christianity was a sect within Judaism. Almost all the people portrayed in The Gospel of John were Jewish. It was not until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70 that the Christian sect became predominately Gentile.

Director Philip Saville has done an enviable job directing a project that was fraught with artistic traps.

I hope this film receives very wide distribution. Even Christian conservatives should be very happy with it.

I have seen "King of Kings", "The Greatest Story Ever Told", "Jesus of Nazareth", "The Jesus Film", "Jesus Christ, Superstar", and now, "The Gospel According to John." This, to me, is the most scriptural presentation so far. The acting was superb considering the actors had to contend with a dialogue that was taken straight out of the Bible. The actor who portrayed Jesus (Cusick) gave a very refreshing portrayal of Jesus, the man. I especially liked it when he smiled! I remember Max von Sydow's and Robert Powell's portrayal of Jesus and they were too "somber"...

It seemed like I was reading the Gospel of John while watching the film. Though the movie was quite long (the gospel account has 21 chapters!),I was never bored.

I loved this movie, and I am actually a Muslim. The fact that the screenplay is so word for word faithful adds alot to the movie. And the acting and directing are fantastic. The film does a wonderful job of making you feel what life was like for Jesus, his disciples, and those he came across. I hope there will be such films made of the other gospels soon.

I have seen all the Jesus movies and all are a little bit too stylized. This movie I felt was real. It is verbatim, and it shows what the day to day living was like for Jesus and his times. I especially liked the carpenter scene. I have always believed that Jesus was as an ordinary man until the time was right. That he would have had to work for a living. That he would have fulfilled all of his father's commands, including the one which state that we had to toil for our bread. I felt the frustration but loving patience of our Lord, as he tried to convince his people, the Jews, that he was the one and that their hour was now. He succeeded in splitting the Jews into believers and non-believer and that condition exist to this day not only for them but for all who hear the message. Jesus is personal and approachable. I am looking forward to the PASSION, since this movie is about the last 12 hours of Jesus's life amongst us. To be told in a 3 hour movie also. I just hope the Gospels are all made an illustrated with the beauty, simplicity, faithfulness and Love of this movie.

Henry Ian Cusick does a fantastic job of capturing the kindhearted, casual, loving Jesus any of us would want as our friend. It reminds me of that drawing of Christ laughing!

In some of the older portrayals, Jesus comes off as wooden, isolated and somehow above everyone else. Not here! Jesus smiles at others' limited understandings, but with compassion, as if he wants to teach them something by his very presence.

The best special effect had to be the walking on the water. Beautiful photography throughout - Filmed in and near Malaga in Spain, it does Jerusalem and Israel proud!

Please consider inviting your friends to see this film. It has so much to offer and it gets the point across - Jesus is the Savior of the world!