Filmography of Jesus: An Introduction

Chronological List

Name Index

Books

Submit

The fairly recent centennial of the cinema unleashed a torrent of serious studies and crass celebrations of all sorts. A hundred years of staring is sure to make one bleary-eyed.

The history of the cinema, or rather its "histories", despite a few dedicated studies, still lacks a complete filmography of Jesus Christ and Adult Christianity has enlisted me, and invites YOU, to rise to this mighty task. Most of the historical costume melodramas, the sword-and-sandal, Christian slavegirl-in-peril, sex-and-sadism biblical spectacles, have already been logged and anaylyzed. Even many of the allegorical Jesuses have been collected along with a few select unrealized film projects.

In this issue we present the results of an initial filmography of Jesus with a simple chronological list, an alphabetical index, reference sources, and a submission form for new or corrected entries. In addition, Shelia Sharkey invites you to test your wits against assembled Cine-Christs in Holywood Squares.

Where can one go to locate that zoot-suited Jesus that returned to the American Old West via parachute? The Internet is a barren wasteland when it comes to documenting Jesus' film work, and with the anxious anticipation of Paul Verhoven's announced Jesus film project, we could no longer afford to ignore this vacuum. There's much work to be done and your participation is critical for our success.

Nicholas Ray's 1961 King of Kings featuring Jeffrey Hunter was known in films circles as "I Was a Teenage Jesus" and was once referred to as "the King James Version of Gone With The Wind." Larry Cohen's relatively unknown 1977 God Told Me To, besides giving an early break to Andy Kaufman as a berserk NYPD cop, features a homocidal hermaphrodite Christ played by B-movie veteran Richard Lynch. Little is known of the 'pornographic' Jesus films, Him, I Saw Jesus Die, and The Many Loves of Jesus. If 'the devil is in the details', please fill us in!