Originally conceived in 1945 by young businessman and Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright who wanted to privately finance a film about the life of Jesus Christ that was entertaining, biblically accurate, and which could be translated into non-English languages, this film is based very closely on the Gospel of Luke with most of the film’s dialogue coming from there.
This Jesus speaks every sentence calmly and with a certain gravitas that makes it sound like he is trying to read the Bible allowed in church and make those listening realise how important each word is. It is a performance that seeks to be reverent but fails to capture the passion and nuance with which Jesus have spoken to different people on different occasions. The difference between a calm Jesus among followers and angry among Pharisees is rather small.
However, despite the failure of the film to capture the more human, personable aspects of Jesus, the ability of Jesus to change lives cannot be denied. In 1981, Bright created the Jesus Film Project with the goal of accurately translating Jesus into other languages and showing it around the world. Consequently this is said to be the most-watched motion picture of all time having been viewed by several billion people all across the globe, and resulting in more than 225 million men, women and children indicating decisions to follow Jesus. It is incredible to think that so many people have heeded Christ's words in Luke 9:23-24 - "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."
