God, Updated: films of the New Testament and Early Christianity

These films vary greatly in content and quality; even more so than Old Testament inspired films. In an irony the Devil no doubt chuckles at, the better films tend to be made by Jews, atheists, and assorted artistic libertines, while the worse ones tend to be made by the sincerely pious. As Lenny Bruce noted, Jesus is never a heavy, husky, big guy, someone who could plausibly be a carpenter and tramp around in the desert for years. However, I have a soft spot for Robert Powell, not only as my childhood Jesus, but also as a kindly man with a shrewd edge. Regardless of the ultimate outcome, his Jesus was fooled by nobody. Some of the better films are not about Jesus and the Apostles at all, but the Early Christians, and their wrestlings with their difficult faith. I elected not to include twee children's stories of animals and crippled shepherd boys discovering baby Jesus, partly because they seemed too far away from actual religion, and partly because there are so freaking many of them.