Of Jesus Christ, Satan, Mickey Mouse and Sherlock Holmes

Copyright © 1998 Nando.net
Copyright © 1998 The American Reporter

Peter T. Chattaway is a Canadian freelance writer who reports for Christian Info News, a newspaper for the Christian community in Vancouver. Back in February, Chattaway published an article in Bible Review entitled, "Jesus in the Movies."

In that article, Chattaway, whom the magazine describes as a "film buff" and who holds a degree from the University of British Columbia in religious studies, asserted that "Jesus may be the most filmed figure in history."

Many of the articles that appear in "Bible Review," which is a popular cultural little brother to the more scholarly Biblical Archaeological Review, often get embroiled in debates about the historicity of Jesus.

Ever since the renowned Albert Schweitzer -- who forsook a career as a musician and a Biblical scholar to become a medical missionary in Africa -- published a seminal little book called "The Quest for the Historical Jesus" in 1906, scholars of the New Testament have taken up the quest.

If one follows this field of scholarship with little more than cursory attention, one discovers the scholars are now talking about the "Third Quest" for the historical Jesus.

Schweitzer triggered the first quest; the existential theologians who wrote in the wake of the famous Protestant theologian Rudolf Bultmann embarked on the second quest; the third quest is largely the result of the "Jesus Seminar," a loose gathering of theologians, philosophers, teachers and writers who gather periodically to debate the degree of authenticity of passages from the Holy Bible.

But Chattaway was not interested in the theologian's definition of the historical Jesus; he simply asserted that few if any have been depicted in the history of filmmaking as has Jesus.

There's ample evidence to support Chattaway's claim.

Two important reference books, Roy Kinnard and Tim Daly's "Divine Images: A History of Jesus on the Screen" (1992, Citadel Press) and W. Barnes Tatum's "Jesus at the Movies: A Guide to the First Hundred Years," (1998, Polebridge Press), produce a list of about 60 films that have been made about the life of Jesus or related to the gospel accounts of his life, ranging from "The Passion Play of Oberammergau," directed by Henry C. Vincent in 1897, to the 1992 British-French collaboration, "The Favor, the Watch and the Very Big Fish," directed by Ben Lewin. The list includes such notables as "Ben Hur (1907, 1926, 1959)," "King of Kings (1927; 1961)," "Godspell (1973)" and "Jesus of Montreal (1989)."

As Chattaway points out in his article, the 1895 novel "Quo Vadis?" initiated four Hollywood attempts to put the story on film, and Oscar Wilde's 1892 play, "Salome," has been rendered by several filmmakers, one of which, in 1954, had Rita Hayworth performing a stylized striptease. That film was notorious for the liberties it took with the Biblical text. The New Testament tale tells of Herod's daughter dancing so well to please her father that she was granted her fondest wish, which was to have John the Baptist beheaded.

Hayworth's Salome danced to save the life of John the Baptist.

Chattaway also points out that politics often paved the way for Hollywood's depiction of Jesus. In 1916, shortly after President Woodrow Wilson vowed to keep America out of the war in Europe, the movie "Civilization" depicted Jesus as a pacifist. By 1917, when Wilson had his appeals overturned and the U.S. made ready to join the war effort, "Civilization" was re-edited to make Jesus a supporter of war.

The debate that arose over Chattaway's article, however, involved his claim that Jesus was probably the "most filmed figure" in the history of motion pictures.

"Oh, no," wrote Dominick Cancilla, in a letter to Bible Review four months after Chattaway's article appeared.

While expressing appreciation for Chattaway's review of the history of Jesus in films, Cancilla suggested the most filmed figure in history is Satan.

"Satan has the advantage of being able to appear in many guises," Cancilla wrote. He provided several examples and emphasized his conviction by including "any film in which a person is tempted by an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other."

Cancilla went one step further. He asked Roger Ebert, movie critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, if Ebert regarded Jesus as the most filmed figure in the history of filmmaking.

"Mickey Mouse has him beat, hands down," Ebert replied.

As one might expect of the magazine that published Chattaway's article, Bible Review gave the author the last say (at least through June).

Chattaway expressed his doubt concerning Mickey Mouse, pointing out that the Disney character appears in cartoons and shorts that hardly qualify as feature-length films.

He also points out that the Disney company keeps a tight legal rein on its characters while anybody is free to use Jesus in a movie (Incidentally, Disney is among a large group trying to convince Congress to extend copyright to a period of 95 years instead of 75 years, what with Mickey Mouse's 75th birthday looming in five short years).

Chattaway also countered the devil's claim to most filmed by noting that even as Satan appears in many guises, so too has Christ appeared in many guises in film, none of which he included in his cataloging of Jesus in the movies.

Perhaps Chattaway's most stunning revelation, however, (which implies he had it wrong), came from the Guinness Book of World Records for 1998, which asserts that the acknowledged record for most portrayals in film is 211 and is held by Sherlock Holmes!