The introductory scene of Son of Man represents the conflict between the power of good and evil that is present in the world, especially during the time of Jesus. This idea of a cosmic war has been lost in the development of our “Americanized”Christianity. It also reminds us about the context in which Jesus lived and the political power struggle that was apparent. The phrase that is repeated throughout the movie, “This is my world,” tells us that Jesus knows what is going to happen and that it will be messy, but he is willing to do it anyway. The Jesus character preludes to this political battle by preaching that “all authorities are not divinely instituted and those who follow me will have peace.”
The crucifixion and resurrection scenes function as an expression and uncovering of corruption and violence. There are examples of quotations and paraphrases from the New Testament texts, but these scenes stand to represent a cross-cultural translation instead. This translation is central to the interpretation of the film because the death of Jesus is caused by a culturally specific weapon during a major theme in Africa. The scene of him walking with the angel children represents that in order to be righteous we need to be like children, innocent and authentic.
This film pulls from Mathew, Mark and Luke mostly, but I gathered that Luke’s Jesus was represented more. Luke emphasizes the role of women as followers of Jesus and in this film there are five females disciples of Jesus. Also, Luke’s Jesus draws on the concept of equality, “blessed are the poor.” One of the goals of the film seems to be to reawaken the idea that the poor/humble will be raised and that the rich will be lowered. This is a tough concept for this century because the majority of the population is living comfortably. The poor people today are not the same as during Jesus’ time and by using Africa as the culture in this film it opens our eyes to a lower standard of living. This film is meant to jostle our “Americanized” view of Jesus and Christianity. It creates a reality that is different from our white, Western image of Jesus and makes us open our eyes to a new way of thinking about Jesus and the gospels.
The crucifixion and resurrection scenes function as an expression and uncovering of corruption and violence. There are examples of quotations and paraphrases from the New Testament texts, but these scenes stand to represent a cross-cultural translation instead. This translation is central to the interpretation of the film because the death of Jesus is caused by a culturally specific weapon during a major theme in Africa. The scene of him walking with the angel children represents that in order to be righteous we need to be like children, innocent and authentic.
This film pulls from Mathew, Mark and Luke mostly, but I gathered that Luke’s Jesus was represented more. Luke emphasizes the role of women as followers of Jesus and in this film there are five females disciples of Jesus. Also, Luke’s Jesus draws on the concept of equality, “blessed are the poor.” One of the goals of the film seems to be to reawaken the idea that the poor/humble will be raised and that the rich will be lowered. This is a tough concept for this century because the majority of the population is living comfortably. The poor people today are not the same as during Jesus’ time and by using Africa as the culture in this film it opens our eyes to a lower standard of living. This film is meant to jostle our “Americanized” view of Jesus and Christianity. It creates a reality that is different from our white, Western image of Jesus and makes us open our eyes to a new way of thinking about Jesus and the gospels.
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