No.
The reason for this is that some Birkenstock clad hippy getting nailed to a tree for asking everyone to be nice to each other isn’t an exciting character.
Compare that to Moses - a dude so badass he killed a slave master with his bare hands, told the Pharoh of Egypt to F off multiple times, unleashed ten plagues and split the Red Sea. And man did he go ape-shit when he found the Israelites worshipping that Golden Calf. There’s a reason he was played by Charlton Heston.
How about The Ruling Class? Peter O’Toole made a great Jesus.
I really liked The Last Temptation of Christ quite a bit. It has very interesting music.
I once saw a really bad one. Jesus was played by this white British guy with perfectly straight and clean teeth, and blow-dryed hair. I didn’t find him very inspiring. Judas was the most Arabic looking character.
Godspell (1973). An Indian summer of sixties flower power, as Jesus preaches the gospel according to today. Songs by Stephen Schwartz include the hit “Day by Day”. One of my all-time favorite movies. Roger Ebert’s review.
Jesus of Nazareth (1977). The best “standard version” of Jesus’ life and ministry. Long, detailed, and quite nice to look at.
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Willem Dafoe gives the best Jesus performance yet.
A second vote for Pasolini’s “The gospel according to St Matthew”
I want to second Jesus of Montreal, fantastic acting and very clever.
Love that movie!
I’ve always liked Joshua. The plot and some of the characters may be corny, but the title character and the basic message are wonderful.
Die Hard with a Vengance?
Oh, wait, that guy was Zeus. Nevermind.
I’ll see your Dafoe and raise you a Glenn Carter. Let’s see Dafoe hold that high note that long.
Another vote for The Last Temptation.
There’s a surpisingly good one that TBN used to play all the time. My friends and I dubbed it Smiley Happy Jesus. It feature the happiest and the most Hebrew looking Jesus I had ever seen in a movie. T
If that’s too much for you, you could instead watch The Animated Passion (“For The Whole Family!”)
I did a double take when I saw this on the DVD shelves at the store this evening.
For all I know, it could be a good, well-done film, but… there’s just something incongruous about it.
Coulda been worse, I guess. It coulda been the Claymation Passion.
(“This is offensive to Christians and prunes!”)
How about the silent version of King of Kings??
Was there ever a Jesus 2 - Electric Boogaloo ?