Pasolini's Jesus, Matthew's Words

Pasolini’s The Gospel of Saint Matthew presents Pasolini’s Jesus with Matthew’s words. An antiesht, gay, Marxist making a Jesus film, especially in the 1960’s, is certainly a novelty – Pasolini’s film does not disappoint. While the text is taken and restricted to the Gospel of Matthew, the on screen presentation is what makes Pasolini’s vision unique. It is not just that Jesus takes on an activist, Marxist persona, but we find a dramatically human Jesus in a visually striking landscape.

Praise

The Biblical epics of the 1960’s tended to place Jesus in sweeping vistas with dramatic views. Pasolini’s presentation is equally striking, though for different reasons. The harsh Italian landscape with its dilapidated villas creates a sense of foreignness, antiquity, struggle, and poverty. The scenery induces a deep sense of pain and trouble inherent in the lives of the common people. Certainly this is in line with Pasolini’s Marxist ideology, but the film is no cheap ploy or propaganda piece. One is invited into the suffering and scarcity of the characters on the scene in a a particularly organic way. The cinematography invites the viewer to see Jesus in a new light. If this film and its agenda had been filmed by a director of less skill it would have become intolerable to watch. Pasolinin is able to present a controversial understanding of Jesus in a very acceptable way by using only the Biblical text as dialogue and scenery/other chapters to really push the agenda inherent in the movie.

This film also affords an intimate look at many characters. Close up shots and long silences from the lack of dialogue allows Pasolini to invite the viewr into the lives of the characters. The opening scene has a well done close up of Mary with cuts to the adolescent Joseph. The emotion and passion is unmistakable. The Biblical account does not give Joseph’s initial reaction to Mary’s pregnant state. Pasolini cannot have a dialogue in this case, so he uses good acting and cinematography to tell the story. So often mediocre film relies on dialogue and effects to drive the plot. Pasolini’s film is remarkable because it uses the understatement of black and white film and the skill of his actors and crew to move the plot. This is even more remarkable considering that none of the actors are professionals. This film is note worry simply from these technical aspects of filmmaking.

Pasolini also adeptly navigates the tension between a human and divine Jesus. Pasolini does not shy away from showing miracles, though they happen in abrupt and disjointed ways. The teachings of Jesus are also central to the film, namely the Sermon on the Mount. The divine Jesus of the virgin birth and miracles is shown alongside the mortal, moral teacher. Few other Jesus films where crafted in such a way as to preserve such a tension. Pasolini is likely able to maintain this dual identity by adhering closely to the Gospel account.

Critique

The Marxist influence and agenda of the movie, while not abrasive, is rather idiosyncratic. While the cinematography and visual action on the scene is enthralling, it is occasionally disjointed from traditional understandings of the life of Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount is traditionally viewed as a teaching on how to be a good moral agent. Pasolini's presentation makes it into a sort of 'call to arms' in which a social transformation is central. The Sermon on the Mount becomes more about social activism and societal reform than it does about how to live one's life before God. Much of the film could be collapsed into this sort of understanding. By the end of the film the viewer comes away with an idea of how to be a good citizen in the world, but not necessarily how to be a faithful person before God.

The historicity of Jesus is also uniquely challenged in this film. Pasolini is much more concerned about the impact of Jesus than about the Jesus of history. While using the Biblical text, Pasolini's visuals re-write the Jesus story in profound ways. Jesus amongst the poor masses and the influence this had is more important than the complex and confusing character seemingly portrayed in the Gospel. Pasolini's Jesus is a Jesus without ambiguity. The viewer knows who Jesus is and what Jesus is about, its only the disciples that seem to misunderstand Jesus' social message. This stands as a weakness in Pasolini's presentation because part of the power of the Jesus narrative is its ambiguity. This ambiguity and indistinctness of Jesus' activity in history could lend itself to a very deep plot. What we receive on the screen, is rather superficial in that there is little development to who Jesus is or what Jesus is about.