This is exactly the kind of stultifyingly studious Bible movie that The Passion of the Christ is a shock-art response to. Often a word-by-word adaptation, The
Gospel of John features a narrator who actually tells us “And then Jesus said…” before each line of dialogue. All of it makes for a punishingly redundant translation of one of the
gospels, a three-hour production seemingly intended for very small children or the very dull.
