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Unlike other films about Jesus, The Gospel of John goes strictly by the book. This is not always to its advantage. Narrator Christopher Plummer reads John’s "good news" complete over the soundtrack, and that creates some redundancies ("Jesus turned to him, answered, and spoke," intones Plummer as Jesus dutifully turns, answers, and speaks) and a lulling, not unpleasant tedium. The film is very religious, and the tasteful and colorfully appointed images, along with acting that seldom rises above that of a parochial Easter pageant (Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus can be fiery, but for the most part he’s like the Yanni of Messiahs), scarcely ruffle the surface. The occasional flashes of brilliance from director Phillip Saville — his handling of the scene with the woman taken in adultery is especially affecting — thus appear like epiphanies. On the other hand, the film makes it clear that this Gospel is a text, a work written at a particular time and place for a particular purpose. The Gospel of John opens with a disclaimer of sorts noting that Christ and his followers were Jews, that the Romans alone had the authority to crucify, and that the Gospel itself was written two generations after the events described, when the emerging Christian church was seen as an upstart sect contending with the Jewish establishment. John work’s served at least in part as propaganda for that cause, and its seeming anti-Semitism can be seen as partisan rhetoric. Long-winded though it may be, The Gospel of John does turn flesh back into the word. In English with Aramaic subtitles (no, not really). (180 minutes)
BY PETER KEOUGH
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