The thought occured to me that one way to very quickly illustrate the impact that good direction, casting, and acting has on a story (as opposed to writing) would be to compare scenes from the very same story told by different people.
And what story has been told, beat for beat, measure for measure, more often cinamatically than the life of Christ?
Keep in mind, I'm not discussing theology here. I chose this example purely because I knew I could find a bunch of different examples of the exact same scene in the exact same story: something that's actually kind of rare (remakes aside...and you kind of want those to be a little different anyway).
So here's three different depictions of the miracle of the fish (Luke 5:1-11). Let's compare and see what's what here, shall we?
So here's three different depictions of the miracle of the fish (Luke 5:1-11). Let's compare and see what's what here, shall we?
First example: JESUS
(Fun fact about this film: it was released by Warner Brother's Studio at the same time that they released Life of Brian.
Nice little contrast there.)
(Fun fact about this film: it was released by Warner Brother's Studio at the same time that they released Life of Brian.
Nice little contrast there.)
Initial impressions:
-Jesus's blond/light brown hair helmet is a bit much for me, and really distracting (I mean, LOOK at how smooth and manicured that wig is), especially compared to how wild and unkept everyone else's is. I mean, are we supposed to believe that the truly holy are the well manicured?
-Jesus's blond/light brown hair helmet is a bit much for me, and really distracting (I mean, LOOK at how smooth and manicured that wig is), especially compared to how wild and unkept everyone else's is. I mean, are we supposed to believe that the truly holy are the well manicured?
- Peter's reaction to Jesus after his "we've been out here all night" line is more or less along the lines of, "aw...you're so cute. I can't stay mad at you."
He says it like he's humoring a toddler he's fond of, like how I treat my two year old when she does her puppy eyes pout, "No honey, you can't have a cookie....aw, what the heck. Dinner's still an hour off."
- Jesus seems to be passively waiting for something to happen with a bored look on his face. "Hang on guys...should be arriving any second now..."
- For some reason, Jesus starts giving boat loading advice for getting the fish on board and starts saying "that's enough" when there's clearly a ton of room on board. I don't know why this bothered me, but it did.
-Very dated feeling soundtrack that doesn't really emphasize the action. It doesn't build suspense, but rather seems more to lend a sort of fairytale feel. I'd expect the same soundtrack seeing an animated princess walk through a lovely forest and come across an beautiful castle or unicorn migration or something.
- The way the conversion happens is a little strange. Peter claims he's a sinful man, but we're not really shown that. All we've seen of him in this scene (which is the first scene he's in, there's no missing context here) is happily going along with what Jesus has asked, and the line sort of comes out of nowhere...one moment he's happily grinning, and the next he notices Jesus staring at him and gets this startled look and tells Jesus to get away from him, he's a sinful man. There's no set up of why he might think that, he just says the line.
- the "Don't be afraid...from now on, you will be catching men" line from Jesus paired with the dreamy look he's giving Peter comes off kinda like he's making a double entendre. Kinda creepy. I'm guessing it's an example of direction that didn't age well?
- For some reason, Jesus starts giving boat loading advice for getting the fish on board and starts saying "that's enough" when there's clearly a ton of room on board. I don't know why this bothered me, but it did.
-Very dated feeling soundtrack that doesn't really emphasize the action. It doesn't build suspense, but rather seems more to lend a sort of fairytale feel. I'd expect the same soundtrack seeing an animated princess walk through a lovely forest and come across an beautiful castle or unicorn migration or something.
- The way the conversion happens is a little strange. Peter claims he's a sinful man, but we're not really shown that. All we've seen of him in this scene (which is the first scene he's in, there's no missing context here) is happily going along with what Jesus has asked, and the line sort of comes out of nowhere...one moment he's happily grinning, and the next he notices Jesus staring at him and gets this startled look and tells Jesus to get away from him, he's a sinful man. There's no set up of why he might think that, he just says the line.
- the "Don't be afraid...from now on, you will be catching men" line from Jesus paired with the dreamy look he's giving Peter comes off kinda like he's making a double entendre. Kinda creepy. I'm guessing it's an example of direction that didn't age well?
Paired with the previous point, it kinda seems like Peter was trying to fend off a romatic advance rather than admit his need for salvation.
- They don't include Andrew, only Peter.
Second example: The Miracle Maker (starting at timestamp 2:29)
Initial Impressions:
- This is a different media from the other two films I explore because it's stop motion animated rather than live action. Because of the nature of animation, this means that the direction is much more controlled when it comes to gestures and movement than a live action feature.
- This Jesus seems to have a bit of satirical wit. " Oh...um...Simon, Andrew. Go further out " "Why?" "To let you nets down for a catch, of course."
- EPIC eye roll from Peter, along with a barely polite explanation of why that's a really stupid idea. This is a guy humoring some idiot who doesn't know a thing about fishing and thinks he can tell him how to do his job. The grumbling "We could be out here for hours...we could be out here for days." tells us more about that character, and sets up a pretty nice contrast for the actual miracle that occurs.
- Jesus seems to wait for the miracle here, but with a very knowing expression and posture-- almost like a good natured joke at Peter's expense.
-The soundtrack does a pretty decent job of emphasizing the action here, slowly building up suspense until the actual moment.
- Peter's tearful line, "Lord, leave me. I am such a sinful man." is preceeded by a few seconds of him pensively sitting and thinking. There's storytelling through the character's posture and actions here leading up to his conversion. Jesus's response, "don't be afraid, Simon. From today, I am going to make you a fisher of men." seems to be a reassurance and an empowerment. There's also physical interaction between the characters here, Jesus goes over and grabs Peter by the shoulders as he says it. The effect is to make that character more relatable, because we see him relating with other people.
- This is a different media from the other two films I explore because it's stop motion animated rather than live action. Because of the nature of animation, this means that the direction is much more controlled when it comes to gestures and movement than a live action feature.
- This Jesus seems to have a bit of satirical wit. " Oh...um...Simon, Andrew. Go further out " "Why?" "To let you nets down for a catch, of course."
- EPIC eye roll from Peter, along with a barely polite explanation of why that's a really stupid idea. This is a guy humoring some idiot who doesn't know a thing about fishing and thinks he can tell him how to do his job. The grumbling "We could be out here for hours...we could be out here for days." tells us more about that character, and sets up a pretty nice contrast for the actual miracle that occurs.
- Jesus seems to wait for the miracle here, but with a very knowing expression and posture-- almost like a good natured joke at Peter's expense.
-The soundtrack does a pretty decent job of emphasizing the action here, slowly building up suspense until the actual moment.
- Peter's tearful line, "Lord, leave me. I am such a sinful man." is preceeded by a few seconds of him pensively sitting and thinking. There's storytelling through the character's posture and actions here leading up to his conversion. Jesus's response, "don't be afraid, Simon. From today, I am going to make you a fisher of men." seems to be a reassurance and an empowerment. There's also physical interaction between the characters here, Jesus goes over and grabs Peter by the shoulders as he says it. The effect is to make that character more relatable, because we see him relating with other people.
Third example: The Chosen
Initial Impressions:
- This one is from a TV series about the life of Jesus (still ongoing) and almost the entire episode (and an ongoing plotline in the last three episodes ) is a set up leading to this scene. As a result, the set up to the actual miracle is a little quicker than the other scenes we've explored, but I think there's still enough of the story here that we can compare them.
- Peter's attitude here is one of weary resignation, "fine, I'll throw the net, but it's not going to do any good."
- Jesus apparently summons fish in the context of a non verbal conversation between him and Peter, "See? No good." "If you say so." Then the boat tips.
- Jesus doesn't help bring the fish in, he just stands and watches.
Out of the three depictions I've shared, this is the only one where he doesn't help bring them in. I thought that was interesting.
- Jesus apparently summons fish in the context of a non verbal conversation between him and Peter, "See? No good." "If you say so." Then the boat tips.
- Jesus doesn't help bring the fish in, he just stands and watches.
Out of the three depictions I've shared, this is the only one where he doesn't help bring them in. I thought that was interesting.
- Peter's conversion here seems to be very altar-call like. This isn't two men interacting with each other, this is more a repentant sinner recognizing his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Peter falls on his knees, weeping and saying he's a sinner, and actually says, "You're the Lamb of God?"
The primary object of worship and devotion for Peter is Jesus here, which lends a very religious feel that undercuts a straight telling of the story, and leads to a lot of obvious symbolism- for example, Jesus crouches when he asks Peter to follow him, coming down closer to his level.
The overtness of the dialouge and motions in this scene gives the impression that there's a bit of an agenda coming through.
- James and John are named characters in this one.
Out of these three depictions, I think the one in The Miracle Maker is my favorite, followed by The Chosen and JESUS (ironically, the most line-for-line for the original material).
The one in The Miracle Maker seems to tell the story for its own sake without any agenda, and the characters act in a way that seems believable, with distinct, fully formed personalities.
The Chosen seems to be trying really hard to make this moment into a parallel for a certain religious experience, or to promote a moral or message that they think the audience should take away from it. Because of that, the scene suffers (having seen the entire episode, I hold this opinion even after seeing the lead-up that they put into it).
Finally, JESUS manages to avoid trying to shoehorn a particular agenda into the story, but they also invest very little into any sort of character development. It seems more trying to tell the story as accurate to the source material as possible at the expense of making the characters and situations relatable. This rather spectacularly backfires in one or two points where the lack of development in the relationship dynamic between Jesus and Peter leads to an apparent connotation that the directors most definetely did NOT intend (seriously, imagine a sexy soundtrack over the moment of Peter's conversion...it fits WAY too well).
It's interesting that the same story can have such different connotations and impact depending on the individual choices of the directors and actors. A good story is important, but when it comes to such a visual (and in many ways empathetic and relational) media, it becomes just one variable among many.
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