Yet another Hollywood attempt at a Biblical epic
The new biblical drama film Mary Magdalene is the latest American blockbuster film to revisit the ‘whitewashing’ that has plagued films of this century, most notably of recent times were Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings and Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, where A-list Caucasian Hollywood actors are cast in lead roles in order to maintain the market value of the film while ignoring historical accuracy. This trend continues in Mary Magdalene, although for the most part the film is saved by the graceful Joaquin Phoenix, who plays Jesus.
Phoenix’s humble, quiet approach to portraying the biblical icon is to be commended, as it clearly lends an inexplicable grace and sensibility to the film that is seemingly lost on every other character, namely the eponymous character Mary (played by Rooney Mara), a young woman disillusioned with her loneliness in a male-dominated world. While I personally am opposed to the insistence on casting American actors in roles that should go to Middle Eastern actors to preserve authenticity, I cannot deny the soft-spoken brilliance of Phoenix’s performance.
In terms of the overall quality of the film, I cannot help but leave the cinema decidedly disappointed with the movie, and it draws me back to earlier generations of Hollywood biblical films of grand superiority, among these would be Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah (1949) and Nicholas Ray’s King of Kings (1961). These films did not try to force themselves into the limelight of politics, they simply illustrated faithful adaptations of the biblical legends in an innocent and yet creatively expansive way.
While it may be praised by some as an ambitious attempt at being recognised as a contemporary political drama, this film simply does not live up to its anticipation, and yet Phoenix’s mesmerising performance is something that stays with you well after the credits roll. For viewers looking for a more interesting (although still very Hollywood) biblical film, I will highly recommend Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth (1977) miniseries.