I have chosen to review the film Jesus of Nazareth directed by Franco Zeffirelli, produced in 1977. I have seen this film beforehand and I chose to review it because it is very captivating and I believe it gives us an accurate portrayal into the life of Jesus Christ according to the four gospels. Due to the film's extraordinary length of 382 minutes, I will attempt to make a concise summary followed by an analytical review of the film of its accuracy as compared to the Gospel of Luke. I chose to analyze it against the Gospel of Luke due to this gospel's size in length and detail.
The film begins by introducing us to the main characters of Jesus" early life such as Joseph, Mary, and the people of Nazareth. Mary is told of her child to come by the angel Gabriel (Lk 1.26-38) and she departs to see her relative Elizabeth who the angel Gabriel also told her was pregnant. Thus, John is born to Elizabeth and Zechariah. Cesar Augustus sends out a decree (Lk 2.1) that the people of Israel should be included in a census. This causes Joseph and Mary to travel to Joseph's hometown of Bethlehem in order to be registered. While in Bethlehem, Mary gives birth to Jesus in a manger and they are adorned with gifts brought to them by the three magi who were following a new star. Joseph and Mary are warned by the three magi to flee to Egypt in order to escape King Herod's wrath. Joseph and Mary flee, and return to Nazareth. At this point, the film jumps ahead to Jesus" life at age 12. Jesus" family make the annual trip to the temple of Jerusalem and young Jesus preaches there at the temple and stays there while his parents leave without him unknowingly (Lk 2.46). We now skip ahead about fifteen years and John the Baptist is introduced as a wild man living on locusts and honey preaching repentance and baptizing those who which to repent. Jesus is baptized by John (Lk 3.21) the Baptist and shortly after John is imprisoned for speaking out against King Herod and is beheaded.