Gadzooks, I’m behind on my Bible movies. I’ve been meaning to finish my write-up on One Night with the King ever since it opened nearly two weeks ago, and now, Color of the Cross is only two days away from being released. Arrrgh.

In the meantime, check out the stories on the film put out recently by the mainstream media. The Associated Press reports:

“Color of the Cross” tells a traditional story, focusing on the last 48 hours of his life as told in the Gospels. In this version, though, race contributes to his persecution. . . .

What Jesus looked like has long been debated by theologians around the world. Different cultures have imagined him in different ways, says Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University. In Japan, Jesus looks Japanese. In Africa, he is black. But in America he is almost always white, like the fair-haired savior painted by Leonardo Da Vinci in “The Last Supper” in 1495.

This last bit is a fair point. But I would ask whether any American or British film about Jesus has suggested that he was persecuted because he was white, or fair-haired, or blue-eyed, or whatever. For that matter, I would be surprised if, say, the Indian Jesus film Daya Sagar (1985), reviewed by my friend Matt Page at his Bible Films Blog, dared to suggest that Jesus was persecuted for being Indian. Or if that upcoming Egyptian movie about Jesus dared to suggest that he was persecuted for being Egyptian. There is a significant difference between casting local actors in a story that originates in another culture, and revising the story so that it becomes about the culture from which those local actors come.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune reports:

The script anticipates the problem some audience members might have with a non-white Jesus. “But he is black and to say that he is the messiah is blasphemous,” says a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jews’ supreme court.

In fact, Jesus’ ethnicity has been a stumbling block for directors for as long as they’ve been making biblical films, notes Adele Reinhartz. A biblical scholar turned movie historian, her book “Jesus of Hollywood” will be published early next year. For her research, she watched 40 movies with biblical themes.

“Hollywood wants to have it both ways: to show Jesus in a Jewish context but not make him seem Jewish,” said Reinhartz, associate vice president of research at the University of Ottawa.

Franco Zeffirelli, the distinguished Italian director, made a six-hour television series, “Jesus of Nazareth,” Reinhartz noted.

“Zeffirelli’s young Jesus is a little boy with blond hair, blue eyes and a cute turned-up nose,” Reinhartz said.

No argument with any of those observations. And let’s not forget the adult Jesus’s upper-class Oxbridge accent in that film!

Color of the Cross, the new film which asserts that Jesus was black, now has a theatrical release date. Anne Thompson has posted the press release at her Risky Biz Blog; here are some excerpts:

Los Angeles, CA, August 23, 2006 – Nu-Lite Entertainment has announced plans to roll out its controversial new theatrical feature film Color of the Cross in select cities throughout the country beginning October 27, 2006. The company, in association with Rocky Mountain Pictures, will initially release the film in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, DC, Baltimore, St. Louis, Memphis and Detroit. The second wave of cities will follow shortly thereafter.

The first film to ever depict Jesus as black, Color of the Cross questions the universal acceptance of Jesus as a blond-haired, blue-eyed saint…an image literally painted by the interpretation of one man, Leonardo Da Vinci. But according to indie filmmaker Jean Claude LaMarre, the answer is not so black and white. “Color of the Cross is not about dividing people, it is about broadening their perspective,” said writer-director LaMarre, who also stars as Jesus in the film. “I believe that Jesus was black. Through other people’s eyes he may be white, Latino or even Asian. We want to convey that it is not what the messenger looks like that is important, it is the message itself.”

“Re-imaging the perception of black people in a more positive light, especially in Hollywood, was also an important factor in my decision to make this film,” added LaMarre, who personally financed the film’s $2.5 million budget. “I did not introduce race into this issue, Da Vinci did. Is Hollywood ready for a black Jesus? We will see. It was a big risk….but a necessary one.”

In Color of the Cross LaMarre chose to focus on the human pain and suffering that Jesus, his Disciples and his family endured instead of the bloody torture of Christ’s crucifixion as Passion of the Christ did. The politically charged film that is based on the last 48 hours of Jesus’ life is not only the first film to feature Jesus as black but also the first to inject race as a possible factor in his crucifixion. . . .

Fox Home Entertainment, which handled the domestic home video distribution of Passion of the Christ, will release Color of the Cross on DVD following its theatrical release. Fox is also supporting the theatrical release with a seven figure P&A; commitment. Color of the Cross will also serve as the premiere title on BlackChristianMovies.com, a recently launched website that provides quality films about community issues with redeeming and strong moral endings. . . .

There’s a lot that one could comment on here, but for now, I’d just like to know where they got the idea that Leonardo Da Vinci was the first artist to portray Jesus as an idealized male Caucasian.

Thanks to Matt Page for catching the fact that Color of the Cross, the “black Jesus” movie I mentioned here last month, now has a website and a trailer, and is scheduled to be released some time in October (as per the poster) or November (as per the trailer).

Matt has already made just about every comment that I would be inclined to make, so go read his post; but in the meantime, I will add just a couple of supplementary points.

First, while the website claims that “the Bible describes Jesus’ hair as ‘wooly’ in texture”, the versions of Revelation 1:14 that I have read emphasize the colour of his hair there, not the texture.

Second, there is no reason to assume Jesus was black because his family hid in Egypt for a while; that region was full of Jews and Gentiles, and indeed the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures, was created in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

Third, if “Basheeba” is another name for David’s wife Bathsheba — and I have no idea who else it could be referring to — then I have no idea where they get the claim that she was African. II Samuel 11:3 says she was the daughter of Eliam, and the only other reference to an Eliam in the Bible is a reference to “Eliam son of Ahithophel the Gilonite” in II Samuel 23‘s list of David’s top warriors. And, hmmm, note that Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite, was also one of those top warriors — and that Ahithophel the Gilonite was one of the conspirators against David during Absalom’s attempted coup d’etat in II Samuel 15-17. One might surmise that Ahithophel turned against David precisely because of the way David had treated his granddaughter and her husband. But I digress. The point is, I see no basis in any of this to believe that Bathsheba or her relatives were not Middle Eastern.

Like Matt says, I think it can be great to see the life and teachings of Jesus re-imagined and re-contextualized in new settings — modern, black, whatever — hence I am rather looking forward to the South African film Son of Man. But once artists become ploddingly literalistic about their re-imaginings, and once they make a point of basing their films on extremely dubious historical claims, they hinder whatever merits their films might have.

Looking for more information on Color of the Cross, I found this story from last Monday’s Variety magazine:

The success Mel Gibson had in transforming churchgoers into moviegoers with “The Passion of the Christ” has inspired another indie production on the story of the last hours in the life of Jesus Christ.

But “Color of the Cross,” produced on a tiny $2.5 million budget, will feature a black actor portraying Christ.

Nu-Lite Entertainment production hopes to capitalize on the controversy of depicting a nonwhite Christ.

Under a recently inked deal, 20th Century Fox will distribute the film on homevideo, and the pic’s producers say money from that deal will be put toward the marketing effort for the film’s theatrical release in November. No distrib has been signed yet.

One of the producers is the Rev. Cecil “Chip” Murray, who during his 27 years as pastor at L.A.’s First AME Church used his pulpit to become a national religious and civil-rights leader. He said he hopes the film will reverse negative stereotypes of African Americans.

“We really need to do something about the negative imaging of black America,” he said. “Black America is the only culture that worships in the form of foreign symbols. The good that can be done is that it can help lift people’s interest and combat racism and discrimination.”

While acknowledging the potential for controversy, Murray said the notion that Jesus was African isn’t far-fetched.

“It’s more likely that Jesus was black than it was that Jesus was European,” he said. “It’s not an assertion that is a difficult one.”

“Color of the Cross” will star Jean-Claude La Marre, who is also directing and scripted the film. His past pics include African American-themed Westerns “Gang of Roses,” which starred musicians Lil Kim and Bobby Brown, and “Brothers in Arms.” None have made a big dent at the box office.

Recent portrayals of Jesus as black — whether musician Kanye West posing as Christ on the cover of Rolling Stone or the depiction of Jesus as a modern-world African revolutionary in “Son of Man,” which recently preemed at Sundance — have attracted media coverage.

“Our movie is not about dividing Christians but broadening their perspective,” La Marre said in a statement. “For centuries, Leonardo Da Vinci’s portrayal of Jesus has been widely accepted. We are offering an alternative image. There’s room for all.”

Production got under way earlier this year and will resume later this month. La Marre hopes to have a version of the pic to show to potential theatrical distribs some time in April.

Also producing are Jessie Levostre, Marc Porterfield, Michele Gonda and Kenneth Halsband; Marcello Thedford is co-producer.

In addition to Jesus, black actors will also portray Mary (Debbi Morgan of “Coach Carter” and “Woman Thou Art Loosed”), Joseph and Judas, while the rest of the cast will be white or Middle Eastern. . . .

Unless I missed something, there is no indication whether this film will be set in the past or present — although Murray’s assertion that “Jesus was black”, combined with this reference to “Middle Eastern” actors, suggests it will be set in the past, I think.