SUMMARY:
“Risen” is the story of a Roman Tribune named Clavius who is stationed in Jerusalem. Having just condemned a rebellious Jew at the behest of the Jewish people, The Governor, Pontius Pilate is being pestered by the Jewish leaders concerning the man’s followers.
They claim that the man, Jesus, has a group of followers who may steal his body once he is dead and try to claim that he has miraculously come back from the dead and then incite the people to revolution. Pilate, fearing civil unrest, orders Clavius to oversee the completion of the crucifixion, already underway, and guard the body until the threat of theft has subsided.
He sets a guard over the executed criminal’s grave, however the body is still stolen and the quest to discover the thieves is on. After several encounters with disciples of Christ, Clavius comes face to face with a miracle and must reconcile what his eyes have seen and what his mind tells him must be true.
MY THOUGHTS:
“Risen” is being marketed as a sort of ancient biblical detective story but I have to say, it fails completely on that front. At the heart of a detective story is a mystery, but anyone who knows the biblical story of Christ (most people), knows that he is going to find out that the body wasn’t stolen at all, but that Jesus rose from the dead.
The Resurrection is one of the most well known events in human history, even by those who don’t believe in it. Having a detective story about discovering Jesus rose from the dead is like having a detective story about a person trying to find out what happened to the Titanic and coming to the conclusion that… (insert dramatic music here)… It Sank!
That doesn’t make it a terrible movie but it’s usually a red flag to me when a movie fails at its stated purpose.
It’s difficult for me to land on a solid opinion of “Risen.”
On the one hand, it is far superior to many offerings in the Christian Film Genre and it especially stands out when compared to other modern retellings of Biblical Era stories.
The production values (costuming, sets, props, graphics) are above what I would expect from the typical low budget attitude toward Christian films. Sure there are a few issues here and there (a particularly fake looking flock of birds) but overall, the visuals of the film seamlessly transport you to the era of Christ.
The acting is of a higher quality than most Christian Films as well. Joseph Fiennes (“Enemy at the Gate”) does a fine job as the Tribune tasked with guarding the tomb Jesus is laid in, and most of the supporting cast is serviceable as well. Acting to me is one of those things that many times you don’t notice unless it is absolutely fantastic or horribly abysmal. For the most part, the acting in this film is unremarkable, with a couple unfortunate standouts, namely Stephen Hagan who portrays the disciple Bartholomew.
His performance is so over the top I struggle to find words to describe it. He seems so much like a modern American Evangelical (which he isn’t) he sticks out like a sore thumb in a film full of people doing a good job of representing ancient people groups.
Another weakness is the directing of any sequence which isn’t set in a room between two people talking. Anytime we venture into the city, around corners, up and down houses, or especially in the opening action sequence of the film, the sequences are choppy at best. I don’t think this is probably the fault of the editor, it was probably forced on them by the direction.
You can almost feel that just around every corner is a bit of the modern world they had to cut around. The director is relying mostly on medium and close shots to hide the smallness of these scenes. He can’t very well shoot them with wider shots because you would see that it’s 10 guys attacking 5 guys. By shooting it tight the director tries to make it look like a much larger battle.
Owning the smallness of the events could have made them more personal and provided an opportunity to really connect with the characters but it feels like the film is trying to hide the small scale from you. It’s another red flag when a film is struggling to own what it is and try to convince you it is something else.
The main weakness of the film, however, is in the story, and story is my main passion in filmmaking. This is why “Risen” is a difficult film for me.
I want to like this movie so much more than I actually do. It checks so many of my boxes. The setting, the story, the message, they are all right in line and reminiscent of two of my Top 50 movies of all time “Ben-Hur" and “Quo Vadis”.
Yet, the story feels hollow. It’s a shell of the movie I want to watch and I can even see places where the filmmaker is trying to make more than what ended up on screen.
For example, look at the main conflict of the story. “Where is the body?”
In “Risen,” Clavius is trying to track this body down but he finds Jesus risen with almost 45 minutes left in the film. The main conflict of the story is over. The majority of the film up to that point is obsessed with finding the body so it seems the film should roll credits once the mystery is solved, but it doesn’t.
Clavius follows the disciples and Jesus around for 45 more minutes, till Jesus ascends and then… yeah. That’s pretty much it. Now the movie ends, even though we haven’t gotten almost anything more than we had 45 minutes ago.
If in the earlier parts of the movie we saw Clavius struggling with an issue that wasn’t wrapped up when he found Christ and if that issue was actually exacerbated by finding him, then the story could have continued with strength.
I actually think this is what the director was going for but I think he didn’t succeed and it will be lost on many people. Clavius at one point says that what he longs for is “one day without death.” The problem is, that is the only time he seems to feel that way and it’s one of the last lines of the movie. It comes too late for you to feel like it is a real part of his character.
If we had seen in the opening sequence, when fighting the zealots, that Clavius hated fighting; if he resented the fact that the only solution he had was killing the zealots and even considered granting mercy to them but had his hand forced; if later we saw him grieving over a fallen comrade, then when he starts hearing about the possibility of a life without death, it would be moving.
We would might think “This is what he’s been looking for.” We would understand why he chases Jesus down even after he knows he’s alive and asks how he could have this life without death. We would wonder when faced with a choice, which he would choose, the life a soldier, killing, or the life of a disciple.
But this never gets drawn out. He doesn’t ask Jesus those questions. Jesus asks him what he wants and he answers “A day without death.” It feels so empty when he says it because none of his actions have backed up the words he now speaks.
Without some theme tying the beginning of the movie to the end, it just sort of meanders around once he meets Jesus. He shows up here and there, having encounters with disciples and Christ but they don’t have any common thread throughout them all so you are left feeling unsure why the movie is still going.
Verdict
This really disappointed me because I actually kind of like this movie but that’s as far as it goes. I wish it had been more.
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