From the Manger to the Cross

An account of the life of Jesus Christ, based on the books of the New Testament: After Jesus' birth is foretold to his parents, he is born in Bethlehem, and is visited by shepherds and wise men. After a stay in Egypt to avoid King Herod, his family settles in Nazareth. After years of preparation, Jesus gathers together a group of disciples, and then begins to speak publicly and to perform miracles, inspiring hope in many of his listeners, but also arousing some dangerous opposition.

I see some people have poo-pooed this film, saying it was not very innovative (the camera never moves, making it more of a stage play). And that may be so. Also, it is certainly true they hardly took advantage of filming in Palestine... why travel so far for so little? Robert Osborne and the National Film Preservation Foundation consider this film to be the most important silent film to deal with the life of Christ. In 1998, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. I think it has value because it happens to be so straight in its telling. Although the Gospels do not change, the way we read them does, and this really captured the sentiment of the time. We can look back 100 years on and see how we have changed... not much, as it turns out. And the reason for the "not much" is because of films like this that have really cemented the imagery.