This past weekend, a new movie came out based on the birth of Jesus called The Nativity Story.  Perhaps you’ve read some reviews of it in the paper or on-line – the response seems mixed, with some hailing its authenticity and how deftly it handles such a well-known story, while others criticize it for having all the substance and excitement of a Hallmark card.  So what do I think?  I just can’t believe it took someone 2 ½ years after The Passion of the Christ to put out another Biblical movie!

In case you haven’t noticed, we live in a copy-cat, money-driven world, where the success of the Backstreet Boys spawns boy bands N-Sync, 98 Degrees (and embarrassing Christian versions like Plus One), the success of Survivor begets reality shows such as Big Brother, The Apprentice, and hundreds of other knock-offs, and, well you get the point.  One successful gross-out teen comedy means that ten more will be in production the following year.  One garage-rock band that sounds and looks like they belong in the underground New York club scene of the late ‘70’s means that record labels will be scrambling to find five other bands that look and sound just like them.  One talent competition means that every network needs to produce its own version.  The rule seems to be “let’s ride this cash cow until we’ve milked it for every dollar and everyone becomes so sick of it that they want to run screaming at the very mention of Nick Carter (or The Strokes or So You Think You Can Dance!).”

So, when The Passion of the Christ came out of nowhere to gross $370 million at the box office, I cringed while I celebrated, because I knew it was only a matter of time before Judas:  What Really Happened or David and Bathsheba:  A Tale of Forbidden Love hit the big screen.  It’s very simple to movie execs – if Christians are an untapped audience just waiting to see the Bible brought to the big screen so that they can turn it into an evangelistic crusade and buy enough tickets to make the movie into a blockbuster, then let’s give them more and more Bible movies!  The Christians are happy, the movie execs make lots of money – everybody wins!  (In retrospect, the creators of the Left Behind series really screwed up by making their initial book into a mediocre movie starring Kirk Cameron in 2001 that was largely ignored by the general public.  Surely if they had waited until after The Passion of the Christ, their books would have been turned into a series of high-budget thrillers starring Orlando Bloom).

A few weeks ago I received a whole stack of bulletin inserts from somewhere promoting The Nativity Story and giving churches all sorts of ideas on how to get people into the theater to see and discuss the movie.  I’m not sure what to think about it.  On the one hand, movie-makers are clearly the story-tellers of this generation, and it makes sense to use the medium of movies in order to tell Biblical stories that more and more Americans are unfamiliar with.  On the other hand, I don’t like being marketed to, nor do I like my church being turned into a “target audience.”  In the end, movie studios are in the business of making money, and they will exploit whoever they have to in order to ensure that their film succeeds (by the way, I decided not to include them in the bulletin). 

Of course, there is a down side to the Biblical movie trend.  The success of The Passion of the Christ also means that we will surely see more movies that take irreverent views of Jesus in the coming years (not even considering The DaVinci Code, which was released in March of 2003 as a book).  I recently read that Paul Verhoeven, director of such cinematic “gems” as Showgirls, Robocop, Starship Troopers, and Basic Instinct is reportedly developing a movie called Christ, the Man that will explore the idea that Jesus was merely a mortal.  Verhoeven had been a member of the Jesus Seminar, a research team that attempted to figure out what part of the Gospels Jesus actually said, and in the process concluded that the only historically accurate words were “bless you” and “can I have a drink of water” (just kidding, although they did gut out most of the gospels by the end of their seminar).  So brace yourself – for every Nativity, there’s sure to be Mary and Bartholomew, the Boy next Door:  How Mary REALLY got Pregnant.  And after all the copycat movies have come and gone, the average American will probably be even more confused about who Jesus really was, or which stories are really true.

 So, if Biblical movies are your thing, by all means go and enjoy The Nativity Story.  I’m sure it will help you consider an old story in new ways.  But make sure you show up early enough to see the previews of coming attractions – I hear there’s a great movie called Adam and Eve:  Don’t Eat that Apple! coming out next summer starring Jim Carrey as Adam, Gwyneth Paltrow as Eve, and Chris Rock as the talking serpent that you just HAVE to see.    
 

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