Mary and Joseph

I saw on DVD tonight The Nativity Story. There was much I didn’t like about the movie—the garish yet darkish yellow light used in every scene, the messy, unpleasant look of many of the characters, Ciaran Hinds’s rendition of Herod as a stereotypical “low-talking” modern villain (modern movie makers seem incapable of imagining that even an evil king would still look and carry himself and speak like a king, not like some bum hiding in the shadows), and numerous odd choices such as the casting of a terribly sickly looking old man as the stand-in for the shepherds abiding in the field. Yet the core of the movie is fine and good and it adds something precious to our understanding of the Gospels. Namely we see the simplicity and humility of Mary and Joseph as they receive their calling, begin to embrace it, and become loving and supportive partners in this joint enterprise. They are joyously yet anxiously aware they that have been chosen for something great and that they have this “job” to do, bringing the Son of God into the world; yet they themselves are without ego, without “attitude” of any kind. They are simple, unpretentious, modest, and true, models of true humanity in relationship to God’s guiding spirit, responding appropriately to each situation. It is astonishing to see these qualities in the lead characters of a contemporary movie. One can imagine that the parents of Jesus were really like this.

A reader writes:

I disagree somewhat with your description of Ciaran Hinds’s performance as Herod. I felt he was kingly, if also an oily villain.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 04, 2007 01:58 AM | Send