银幕上的《圣经》——综述

唐 玫

（池州学院外语系，安徽 池州247000）

As the No.1 best seller in western world,Bible has been penetrating into every corner of both people's spiritual and material life for thousands of years.Now in this visualized age,it becomes without any suspense one of the most popular screen materials for screen directors.Since the release of D.W.Griffith's Intolerance,more than three hundred screen adaptations have been produced,excluding those which are more or less related to it.Large quantity though,it can still be classified into several categories according to the way in which the Bible is presented on the screen.In the following parts,a number of representative screen works of each type will be reviewed on how and in which aspect the Bible is presented.

1 The Bible as a Direct Screenplay Provider

Most early screen adaptations hold firmly the fidelity to the Bible.They either took one biblical story as the general framework of their script,or pick out several stories from the Bible and combine them into a complete screen play. Cecil B. DeMille's Oscar winner Ten Commandments is considered to be the best screen adaptation of the Bible among those early ones.Besides,Story of Moses is also a widely accepted screen interpretation of the Bible.DreamWorks released a cartoon version of Moses'story in 1998.Named The Prince of Egypt,the epical cartoon made some modifications of the original biblical story.For example,in the cartoon Moses and Ramses grow up together as brothers,and they still care about each other even after the national fight break out between Israelites and Egyptians.Such kind of modifications did not evoke public criticism for its infidelity；on the contrary,audiences thought that it makes the cartoon more humanistic.

In 2004,Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ bombarded cinemas around the world.Actually,several months before the movie came out,the script has already did the same thing to the western critics and religious societies.They condemned it as anti-semitic and unfaithful to the Bible.In the movie,the right eye of Jesus is beaten swollen and nearly shut.The 12-minute's flogging scene is so brutal and bloody that audiences almost have to turn their heads around till it is over.In fact,much less details of the inhumane torturing are recorded in the Bible.All we can find are perhaps only these lines：

So he released Barabbas for them；and after flogging Jesus,he handed him over to be crucified…They spat on him,and took the reed and struck him on the head.(Matthew 27：26,27：30)And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it in his head,(John 19：2)

Nonetheless, Mel Gibson should not be blamed for this“unfaithfulness”,for the movie has achieved its goal—even many non-Christians expressed their admiration for Jesus after watching the movie.The “unfaithfulness” is at most a sort of technique being employed to achieve certain effect that the Bible can never do.

2 The Bible as a Character

Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate is about a satanic bible.He once noted that “The book is virtually the central character of this movie.”(411)Vague as Polanski's claim may be,it is true that all the characters in the movie react to the existence and power of the book,much as they might have done had the protagonist been human.The frenzy to own,possess and maintain control of the book drives most of the characters'actions and finally decides in which way their life is going to end.This seemed inanimate evil Bible is just like Satan himself—vital,powerful and irresistible.

3 The Bible as an Archetype Provider

As we all know that the Bible contains many archetypes,and their presence can,either obvious or obscure,be found in several literary works,the same is with screen works.The Matrix Trilogy,Washowski brothers'biggest box-office success,is a typical instance of biblical archetype.Neo,the protagonist,is chosen to be the savior who is under the mission of saving the last humanity from being ruined.Obviously,the reflection of Jesus'salvation can be found in this story.The doomed hero—Neo,is born to suffer for others people's survival.Same archetypal patterns have been used in Spiderman,Batman and Ironman,etc.protagonists in these movies used to be ordinary but gain a supernatural power accidentally and predestinedly.Then they begin their long and lonely journey as a Messiah.Their difference with Jesus is that they perform the salvation through violence instead of preaching.

In Ice Age II by 21Centry Fox,Manny,Sid and Diego's leading other animals to escape from the flood can be seen as a parallel to Exodus in the Bible,while Jesus'being tempted by the devil serves as an archetype in the sexual comedy Forty Days and Forty Nights in which the protagonist played by Josh Harnett resists all kinds of sexual temptation and finally succeeds in being a 40-day's ascetic.

4 The Bible Being Challenged

Being aware of the religious sensitiveness,most screen directors handled,very cautiously with certain biblical issues during the adaptation.However,exceptions do exist,whether they are intentionally or not.In 1988,Martin Scorsese directed a movie named The Last Temptation of Christ,basing on the namesake novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis.This everlasting controversial movie radically alters the image of Jesus into a man torn between the opposing forces of the spirit and the flesh.He gets married,has children and seems quite revel in the joys of the flesh.This mortalized version revels on of Jesus has been forbidden in many countries for its unforgivable profanity.

A similar alteration can be found in the movie Da Vinci Code which was also adapted from a novel.Despite the fact that the movie possesses certain intellectual depth due to Dan Brown's extensive research on secret societies and symbology,it still aroused public anger especially among the Catholic Church.The Archbishop Angelo Amato even called for a national boycott on the movie during a broadcast interview. (Da Vinci Code Film Vexes Opus Dei,Vatican)In this movie,Jesus was not crucified,but got married and had children with Mary Magdalene.Shocking though,the movie seems quite convincible with its detailed proofs and accurate logic,which even some professors on religion can not deny.Relatively speaking,modification of the Bible in Bruce Almighty seems much milder.Critics believe that the black God (played by Morgan Freeman)embodies the racial equality of the United States.

So far as I have concerned,the prize of the boldest screen adaptation of the Bible must be awarded to Supernatural,a TV movie produced by CW Channel.Each episode of this ten-season-demonhunting TV drama program can be seen as an independent horror movie.Nonetheless,a clear biblical plot runs through all the ten seasons.In fact,the screen writer and the director almost create a dramatic version of the Bible.The two protagonists,the Winchester brothers,are demon hunters.Unfortunately,they killed 66 demons that happen to be the seals trapping Lucifer in the bottomless pit.When the last seal,Lilith,was killed,Lucifer was set free,regained his power and came back to the earth.As a matter of fact,Lucifer's being sealed in the bottomless pit is mentioned in the Book of Revelation：“He seized the dragon,that ancient serpent,who is the Devil and Satan,and bound him for a thousand years,and threw him into the pit,and locked and sealed it over him.”(20：2)As for the 66 seals,especially the last one,Lilith,few words can be found in the Bible.According to related records,Lilith was actually Adam's first wife,but left her husband and mated with Satan.(“Lilith”)The only description of her is in the Book of Isaiah：

And thorns shall come up in its palaces,nettles and thistles in the fortresses thereof；and it shall be a habitation of jackals,a court for ostriches.And the wild beasts of the desert shall meet with the wolves,and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow；yea,the night-monster shall settle there,and shall find her a place of rest.There shall the dart-snake make her nest,and lay,and hatch,and gather under her shade；yea,there shall the kites be gathered,every one with her mate.(34：13-15)

Lucifer,the ambitious Satan,demanded a final battle with God who sent the Archangel Michael to be his representative.The battle,or the apocalypse,also has record in the Book of Revelation：“And war broke out in heaven；Michael and his angels fought against the dragon.The dragon and his angels fought back,” (12：7)But that is before Lucifer's being sealed.The ending of this “apocalypse” is farfetched and dramatic—both Lucifer and Michael fell into the bottomless pit so that the coming of the end of the world was being prevented.

Throughout the ten seasons the most amusing scene should be the secret meeting of all those pagan gods who came back as the seals were removed and now are requiring for their own rights—since they came to the earth much earlier than Christianity,why it is God that makes the final decision on human beings'destiny?Teasing like this can be seen in several episodes：Angel Castile was found drunk in the bar and went to the prostitution house；Archangel Gabriel turned out to be a trickster and had a love affair with an Indian goddess,Kali；God himself was actually the book writer who made up all the stories.Americans really enjoy making jokes on their own religion.Anyway,pretty high ratings shows that audiences like this new “sequel” of the holy Bible.

5 Conclusion

In fact,all the screen adaptations mentioned above is merely the tip of the iceberg.During the last hundred years,religion has always been a faithful guardian,witnessing the growth of movie industry.In a certain sense,the two are dependent upon each other—the former is the latter's inexhaustible material resource while the latter greatly expands the influence of the former.In a word,screen adaptation of the Bible is really a subject worth studying.

［1］Moses,Gavriel.“The Bible as Cultural Object(s)In Cin ema”[A].A Companion to Literature and Film.Ed.Stam,Robert and Rengo,Alessandra.Beijing：Peking University Press,2006.411.

［2］“Book of Isaiah”[DB].Bible(American Standard Version).Christ Note.16 June 2010＜http：//www.christnotes.org/bible.php?q=Isaiah+34%3A11%2C13-15&ver=asv.＞

［3］ “Da Vinci Code Film Vexes Opus Dei,Vatican” [DB].Gale.7 May 2006.Literature Resources from Gale.15 June 2010 ＜ http：//go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve＞.

［4］“Lilith”[DB].Wikipedia.18 April 2010.Wikipedia Article.16 June 2010 ＜http：//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith＞.

［5］Selected Reading from The New Revised Standard Bible[M].Compiled by Li Yi.N.p.：n.p.n.d.