Biblical Studies Commons^™

The Roles Of Violence In Recent Biblical Cinema: The Passion, Noah, And Exodus: Gods And Kings, Kevin M. Mcgeough

Journal of Religion & Film

When The Passion was released, its extremely graphic violence horrified critics and scholars of religion although its success at the box office indicates that this, if anything, made the story of Jesus more appealing for viewers. Now that more time has passed and expectations surrounding levels of acceptable violence in cinema have changed, it is worth reconsidering how cinematic violence is used as reception strategy in Biblical cinema. Considering The Passion with more recent Biblical films, Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings, it becomes apparent that violence is not only used to expand laconic Biblical narratives but to invest …