One of the real flaws of cinema is that you can never really understand the entire story. Even with brilliant writing, phenomenal acting, realistic effects, and moving music, the film inherently presents a “fourth wall,” or restriction of interactions. “Based on a true story” films are often just that: based on real events that take place in front of the people depicted. With this in mind, it is impossible to fully cultivate someone's life story, filled with their thoughts and emotions, their impulses and struggles, the mundane and the excitement that life presents to them. each of us every day. The movie American Sniper, while wonderfully acted and suspenseful, could never fully capture the pressure of real-life sniper Chris Kyle. How, then, can a film “based on the true story” of Jesus Christ, at the center of an entire religious community, be relegated to the 138-minute film length? In truth, this is not possible, but the message of this man's life can be conveyed thematically. The Bible and the film Son of God can be summed up by the premise that Jesus, the all-powerful son of God the Creator, was a humble man. The theme of modesty is commendable, but critics have lambasted the film for not adopting the same modest behavior depicted in the Bible. To show exactly where these criticisms lie, a side-by-side comparison of the film's source material and the film itself will be cross-analyzed to fully grasp the nature and dangers of the adaptation, and why the humble Lamb of God could lose that glow. on the big screen. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The first scene to analyze should be the first miracle that Jesus shows Peter, the fisherman. The context is that of Jesus of Nazareth, a grown man, who comes across a struggling fisherman who has been at sea day and night with barely a fish to show for it. Jesus, according to Scripture, boards his boat and tells him to cast his nets "on the right side of the boat and you will find some" (John 21:6, NIV.) Peter obliges and reaps an incredible catch due to the capacity of Jesus to manipulate life and perform miracles. While in the rest of the passage Peter confesses that the man standing before him is truly the Lord, the film offers a different perspective. Peter and Jesus cast the nets, bringing in an incredible quantity of fish, and Jesus asks Peter to join him. In true overused classic trope fashion, Peter asks, “to do what?” to which Jesus responds, looking towards the distant horizon, “to change the world”. Jesus (played by Diogo Morgado) does not illustrate modesty as the text does. Even though he appears to be a humble soul in the film, there is something very egregious about his use of miracles that contrasts with his behavior in the Bible. He is determined to show the people that he is the son of God, but he does not want to boast. His intentions are good and in the text he does not boast but tells Peter to bring the fish to feed his disciples later. The film, however, offers a hammered and stereotypical “we are going to change the world” moment that only adds this shy pride that is uncharacteristic of Jesus as he appears in the text. Jesus' intentions are to change the world, but he accomplishes this by performing philanthropic acts for people and teaching about God and Heaven. In the film, he basically performs magic tricks and implores the crowd to follow him. In the Bible, people follow Jesus because they feel he isreally connected to God, whereas in the movie they are charmed by his magic tricks and sophistry, so they follow him through the desert. This state of humility is radically different from the text and is a glaring point that critics rightly despise in the film. Something more despicable in the film is the depiction of Jesus. Of course, few people know exactly what Jesus looked like. The time of Jesus is estimated to be between 1 CE and 25 CE, which certainly doesn't help historians. This means that a person's birthday falls "in the first year of their birth." Regardless, the era Jesus was a part of did not place any value on art or painting in Jerusalem, unlike the Roman Empire which valued art and aesthetics. The tyranny of the empire troubled the people, and as such, only thought about practical things, like harvesting enough food to survive future generations and themselves. No one actually sat Jesus down and painted his portrait. Many historians believe that due to the region of the world in which Jesus lived and traveled, and a few choice words from his disciples, Jesus was quite different from his depiction in most works of art. His geographical location suggests that he was a man with dark skin and black features. The Bible confirms this several times in the New Testament, saying that “his feet were like burnished bronze…” (Revelation 1:15, ESV) or that his skin was like “topaz” (Daniel 10:6, ESV. ) While the director shouldn't be faulted for choosing a lighter-skinned actor to play Jesus (after all, his divine features are rather whitewashed in most historical and modern works of art), it is the lack of modesty in his appearance that draws criticism. to review this film. The Bible often describes that Jesus wore very modest clothing, and the Scriptures state that: “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair, gold jewelry, and fine clothing. Rather, it should be about your inner self, the enduring beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great value in the eyes of God. (Peter 3:2-4, NIV) Diogo Morgado looks like a L'Oreal model, dressed in bright dresses and flattering sandals. His clothes are quite clean, which would require a lot of attention to detail. No matter how charismatic, generous, compassionate and approachable he seemed, he had Fabio Richardson's hair, milk-white teeth and an aura of cleanliness in a place of plague and sand. Some say the divine powers that be kept his good looks from being ruined, but for anyone who maintains that clothes don't make the man, he certainly doesn't act like that in the film. Aside from not acting particularly modestly or dressing simply, the film itself was very lavish instead of humble. In film, the atmosphere created by a camera angle, score, and lighting can dramatically change the mood or tone of the scene. The film draws primarily on the well-known stories of Jesus Christ as he lived, died and resurrected. Again, as stated in the introduction, it's no small feat to take a person's life and emotions and make a watchable biopic of it. However, the problem with speeding things up for the sake of pace is that there has to be some sort of paraphrase. Jesus and the characters in the film do not take line-by-line inspiration from the Bible. The scenes involving miracles do not show skeptics or onlookers denying what they saw, but rather a wave of amazed people who accept that what they saw is God in a true.