A detective is summoned to his chief’s office, where he’s read the riot act. Get some results and get them fast – the head of the entire department will be here in a matter of days! Lean on your informants if you have to, just solve this case and solve it now! It’s a scene from a thousand different cop movies, only this time the detective is a Roman tribune, his angry boss is Pontius Pilate, the ticking clock is a visit from Emperor Tiberius and the missing person is Jesus of Nazareth, the risen Christ.
It’s not a bad idea, really, to graft the conventions of a police procedural on to a Bible epic, and for about 30 minutes, Risen, from Waterworld director Kevin Reynolds and Sony Pictures’ in-house “faith-based” unit Affirm Films, looks like it’s going to be a winner. We meet Joseph Fiennes’s Clavius in battle (well, this low-budget affair’s version of battle – 15 guys in uniform v 15 other guys in robes). Rome is having a rough time with the Judean zealots, their blood constantly aboil in anticipation of their messiah. Clavius captures and kills a particularly feisty rabble-rouser named Barabbas. Barabbas? I thought he goes free? Say, when does this movie take place exactly? When the action moves to a hill outside Jerusalem’s city walls, we realize we’re just around the moment most other JC biopics conclude.
Despite what Richard Fleischer and Anthony Quinn filmed decades ago, Risen suggests that Barabbas did not turn his life around and eventually come to the teachings of Christ. In this version he lives barely a day after being spared, which serves the dual function of telling audiences “this ain’t your typical Sunday school picture” and working in a little fan service for those that know all the New Testament’s side characters. Clavius is dispatched to Golgotha to check on the crucifixion. The Roman soldiers, in a modern twist, are not all heartless monsters. The wailing of the assembled women is unnerving, the stench is putrid and they just wish these doomed men would die already. The two thieves are still writhing in agony, but Yeshua the Nazarene (Cliff Curtis) is motionless. Clavius gets a good close look and sees that he is gone. This is important, because it’ll come up later.
Clavius and the apostles fish at night on the Sea of Galilee.
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Clavius and the apostles fish at night on the Sea of Galilee. Photograph: Rosie Collins/AP
Fey wine-guzzler Pilate (Peter Firth) is very nervous about the Nazarene’s devoted followers, and his worst fears are realised when the Jewish high priest Caiaphas comes by to report that Yeshua has gone missing from his tomb. Rumors of resurrection are spreading. Clavius begins his investigation, and unfortunately Risen downshifts into tedium.
After a few moments poking bloated corpses in various Jewish graveyards, Clavius’s police work is mostly interviewing people in a hunt for clues. Despite the elevator pitch, Risen isn’t actually interested in being CSI: Jerusalem. Instead, it’s merely a framework for devotional proselytising. Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene, St Bartholomew and others all make an appearance in Clavius’s chambers to speak with wide-eyed enthusiasm about the Son of Man. (Bartholomew comes across like a benign California Jesus freak, netting most of the film’s few laughs.) As the clock ticks and facts are compiled, Clavius, like Richard Burton in The Robe or Quinn in Barabbas, finds himself on a road to accepting the Word.
The film’s second half is something of a foot chase up to Galilee to meet Yeshua one last time. Stewart Scudamore’s Peter vigorously shouts “Let’s fish!” so many times that even the most literal-minded audiences will recognise this is some sort of symbol. By the 90-minute mark, the budget is all but gone, so Yeshua’s ascendance to heaven looks like something from the first season of Stargate SG-1. But stonefaced Clavius is smiling now, so hopefully that sells us on the power of his teachings.
Risen’s disappointment lies in its turning away from the originality of its premise. When it becomes a straight religious picture, it’s a very bad one. (I can’t wait for Rodrigo Garcia’s fantastic Last Days in the Desert, starring Ewan McGregor, which debuted at Sundance in 2015.) Risen’s acting is poor, the script is weak (the word “crusade” would not be invented for a thousand years) and the film-making is laughable. The first peek of Christ when he’s first risen is, I’m afraid to report, quite risible. The unexpected cut to a closeup is meant to inspire awe, but even the faithful are likely to emit a wee chuckle.
Points, though, for casting Curtis, a Maori actor who at least passes for one born and raised in the Levant. Everyone else, Judean and Roman, is quite British, naturally. The two knuckleheads who get drunk while guarding the tomb sound like Derek and Clive. Then there’s Stephen Greif as Caiaphas, photographed to emphasise stereotypical Semitic features so
It’s not a bad idea, really, to graft the conventions of a police procedural on to a Bible epic, and for about 30 minutes, Risen, from Waterworld director Kevin Reynolds and Sony Pictures’ in-house “faith-based” unit Affirm Films, looks like it’s going to be a winner. We meet Joseph Fiennes’s Clavius in battle (well, this low-budget affair’s version of battle – 15 guys in uniform v 15 other guys in robes). Rome is having a rough time with the Judean zealots, their blood constantly aboil in anticipation of their messiah. Clavius captures and kills a particularly feisty rabble-rouser named Barabbas. Barabbas? I thought he goes free? Say, when does this movie take place exactly? When the action moves to a hill outside Jerusalem’s city walls, we realize we’re just around the moment most other JC biopics conclude.
Despite what Richard Fleischer and Anthony Quinn filmed decades ago, Risen suggests that Barabbas did not turn his life around and eventually come to the teachings of Christ. In this version he lives barely a day after being spared, which serves the dual function of telling audiences “this ain’t your typical Sunday school picture” and working in a little fan service for those that know all the New Testament’s side characters. Clavius is dispatched to Golgotha to check on the crucifixion. The Roman soldiers, in a modern twist, are not all heartless monsters. The wailing of the assembled women is unnerving, the stench is putrid and they just wish these doomed men would die already. The two thieves are still writhing in agony, but Yeshua the Nazarene (Cliff Curtis) is motionless. Clavius gets a good close look and sees that he is gone. This is important, because it’ll come up later.
Clavius and the apostles fish at night on the Sea of Galilee.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Clavius and the apostles fish at night on the Sea of Galilee. Photograph: Rosie Collins/AP
Fey wine-guzzler Pilate (Peter Firth) is very nervous about the Nazarene’s devoted followers, and his worst fears are realised when the Jewish high priest Caiaphas comes by to report that Yeshua has gone missing from his tomb. Rumors of resurrection are spreading. Clavius begins his investigation, and unfortunately Risen downshifts into tedium.
After a few moments poking bloated corpses in various Jewish graveyards, Clavius’s police work is mostly interviewing people in a hunt for clues. Despite the elevator pitch, Risen isn’t actually interested in being CSI: Jerusalem. Instead, it’s merely a framework for devotional proselytising. Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene, St Bartholomew and others all make an appearance in Clavius’s chambers to speak with wide-eyed enthusiasm about the Son of Man. (Bartholomew comes across like a benign California Jesus freak, netting most of the film’s few laughs.) As the clock ticks and facts are compiled, Clavius, like Richard Burton in The Robe or Quinn in Barabbas, finds himself on a road to accepting the Word.
The film’s second half is something of a foot chase up to Galilee to meet Yeshua one last time. Stewart Scudamore’s Peter vigorously shouts “Let’s fish!” so many times that even the most literal-minded audiences will recognise this is some sort of symbol. By the 90-minute mark, the budget is all but gone, so Yeshua’s ascendance to heaven looks like something from the first season of Stargate SG-1. But stonefaced Clavius is smiling now, so hopefully that sells us on the power of his teachings.
Risen’s disappointment lies in its turning away from the originality of its premise. When it becomes a straight religious picture, it’s a very bad one. (I can’t wait for Rodrigo Garcia’s fantastic Last Days in the Desert, starring Ewan McGregor, which debuted at Sundance in 2015.) Risen’s acting is poor, the script is weak (the word “crusade” would not be invented for a thousand years) and the film-making is laughable. The first peek of Christ when he’s first risen is, I’m afraid to report, quite risible. The unexpected cut to a closeup is meant to inspire awe, but even the faithful are likely to emit a wee chuckle.
Points, though, for casting Curtis, a Maori actor who at least passes for one born and raised in the Levant. Everyone else, Judean and Roman, is quite British, naturally. The two knuckleheads who get drunk while guarding the tomb sound like Derek and Clive. Then there’s Stephen Greif as Caiaphas, photographed to emphasise stereotypical Semitic features so
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