Day 28. November 8, 2006
Movement 3. Jesus Christs
Lecture 14. The Silent Cinematic Lives of Jesus (Part 1)
In the late 19th century, Victorian Americans had discovered that Jesus could instruct and inspire through literature. As the 20th century dawned, Americans found that Jesus could perform in moving pictures too. Stage performances, pantomimes, dramatic readings, tableaux vivant, and stereopticon productions presaged the first moving picture experience encapsulated in the nickelodeon's inexpensive, crude, and brief performances. Early purveyors of nickelodeon entertainment quickly realized that stories about Jesus could expand the technology's appeal to more middle class audiences. Then Jesus jumped to the silver screen. A 1905 French import, The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ, the first large-screen cinematic production, depicted in a series of tableaux vivant major episodes from Jesus' life. In 1913 Sidney Olcott sought historical authenticity in the first full-length cinematic life of Jesus, From the Manger to the Cross, some scenes of which he shot in the Holy Land. D. W. Griffith followed Birth of a Nation (1915) with a cinematic apology, Intolerance (1916), an anthology that included scenes from Jesus' life. Toward the end of the silent era in 1923, America first received Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (remade three decades later) complete with a 40 minute epilogue about a bad son, a good son, and the fallen woman the good son redeems through Bible reading.