blessed

This film was such a blessing to my wife and I, it is about time we see a film that depicts Christ as a joyous loving savior that is excited to be in the midst of his creation. You see him delighting in all things, especially in his people the Jews. We are finally given a glimpse of a Lord that has compassion on his people and is not afraid to be corny, to step out and touch the leper, it is like he is saying "BE HAPPY, IT IS OVER I HAVE FINALLY COME. I AM HERE. I AM IS HERE. THE GREAT I AM IS HERE. THE CURSE WILL BE BROKEN REJOICE, REJOICE!!!

So when you get to the scene that makes those that will believe - live (the crucifixion). It will rock you, because you see someone laying down there life, someone that truly does not deserve this payment. Christ the perfect sacrifice. It is a great film, and you can never go wrong when media is being spoken word for word, and this is word for word out of the book of Matthew.

Sincere effort but a bit over the top performance by Bruce

I watched this Matthew DVD with eager expectation, since I really liked the Acts DVD set.

The good points:

It is word-for-word from the NIV version, thus the movie is very faithful to the Bible. The actors, for the most part, are fairly decent.

The not-so-good points:

a) The depiction of Jesus

I know that Jesus smiled and laughed and probably was not as serious as Robert Powell in Jesus of Nazareth, but Bruce's depiction was a little bit too much. Yes, Jesus was happy but sometimes he was serious, angry, and disappointed. He most likely didn't walk around with a huge grin on his face all the time. Bruce's Jesus was continuously gleefully happy and whenever he talked to people, he always touched them on the face or hugged them. After watching this movie for an hour, I felt somewhat annoyed or irritated at this depiction of Jesus. It was distracting to me.

b) Scenes of narration by Matthew which interrupts the flow of the movie

Richard Kiel's narration is great but often times, his narration scenes break up the flow of the movie. There would be scenes of Jesus talking to his disciples and then it changes to Richard Kiel playing Matthew as he talks to his family, and then back to Jesus & the disciples. This was also pretty distracting. At other times, I wanted certain scenes to be shown where Jesus would be talking to his disciples (i.e. Matthew 24 -- the Olivet discourse), but what we get instead is Matthew narrating the text in a house to his family members.

Some of the background to the scenes didn't make too much sense. When Jesus tells some of his parables, the scenes show Jesus soaking by the river with the disciples. Where did they think of that as a backdrop? It would be much better to have Jesus speak to the disciples sitting down.

c) Mary the mother of Jesus at the end

When Mary cries over Jesus's dead body, she has a sizeable nasal dripping coming out of her nose. This was pretty distracting, to say the least!

As you can tell, I was somewhat disappointed by this movie. It could have been much better.

I highly recommend The Gospel of John instead of this one. The actor (Henry Ian Cusick) and narrator (Christopher Plummer) are excellent and the movie is expertly directed by Philip Saville; it flows much better as a film than this one of Matthew.

Many Biblical Bible Series Matthew given as gifts...

Of all the movies I've seen about the life of Christ, including the recently released "Gospel according to John" by the same company, this one stands out the most in my mind. This portrail of Jesus is one of a living man, not a stiff person who merely died on a tree. It helped me tremendously in my understanding of the Bible, so much so, I have bought the DVDs when they're on sale here to give to friends.

The costumes and acting are very well done, and the actor who plays Jesus helps the viewer realize that his life was not only about the sacrifice for all, but about love. This is the New International Version word for word. Not one word is interjected into the script, and it's absolutely amazing that it could be acted out with such continuity. Even the "begats" (the lineage part most of us skim over) had some memorable moments.

I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about the life of Christ, or who is tired of hearing that God is all about punishment and wrath. "What you have done for the least of these you have done for me". "I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you".

You might even get the impression He has a sense of humor.