‘Resurrection’ Brings Family-Friendly Gospel Story to Streaming in Time for Easter
Photo courtesy of Discovery+.
(REVIEW) An innocent Nazarene on trial for blasphemy. A guilty verdict. A crucifixion. Three days later, a miraculous resurrection.
Christians are familiar with this narrative climax of the Gospels. It’s also the narrative focus of the new movie “Resurrection,” which comes to streaming platform Discovery+ on March 27.
The biblically accurate story begins with the trial before Jesus’ crucifixion and ends as the disciples begin to share the news of Jesus’ resurrection and receive a taste of the persecution that would mark the rest of their lives. Its runtime covers the last few chapters of the Gospels and carries into the book of Acts.
It succeeds as an emotional drama and sticks to the story of the Gospels well, but it’s hindered by a choppy storyline and a need to overexplain its message.
The movie is the latest production of Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, familiar names in Hollywood and the market of faith-based film. Burnett has created and/or produced shows like “The Apprentice,” “Survivor,” “The Voice” and other popular reality television. Downey was a lead in the drama series “Touched by an Angel.”
Burnett and Downey are known for producing Gospel-related content, most notably “The Bible” miniseries that aired on the History Channel. In that series, Downey portrayed Mary, Jesus’ mother.
“Resurrection” begins as a thoughtful character drama. The audience witnesses most of Jesus’ crucifixion from the point of view of his mother, who has crushing grief over the death of her son. Peter is guilt-ridden over his denial of Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea, the councilman who offered his tomb to Jesus, is given sizable screentime; he defends his choice to support the “rebel” rabbi and disciples against those who were hoping to eliminate their influence.
It also introduces an interesting possibility: in the movies, nobles and disciples were aware of Old Testament prophecies in Isaiah that foretold Jesus’ coming, like where he’d be buried and the fact that he would rise from the dead. It would be possible for these characters to know these prophecies given the popularity of communal readings in the Roman Empire, but it’s not a conversation explicitly revealed in the New Testament.
Burnett said in a post-screening Q&A that they hoped that the prophecies would be one major takeaway from the movie, as these prophecies are a popular source of Christian apologetics. It’s also an interesting concept for Christians to consider and discuss.
Similar to many of the productions of Burnett and Downey, the movie is geared specifically to churches and Christian communities. Their films serve mostly as entertaining dramatizations of well-known Bible stories. It’s a goal of the filmmakers that these be used as tools for evangelism, too. Burnett mentioned that inviting a non-Christian over to watch this movie is a way to open up conversation about Christianity that’s less intimidating than inviting them to church.
That means the movie is, at times, more concerned with being a good evangelical tract than it is with being a good movie. It ends with clips of Pope Francis, Portugal’s Christ the King statue and global Christians worshiping — as though it has to prove Christianity’s modern importance.
“Resurrection” is tripped up by its own plot in the second half. While the first half stretches out the three days between Jesus’ death and resurrection, which happens near the midpoint of the movie, the second half jumps from one event to the next too quickly.
Jesus appears to the disciples, aids the disciples in their fishing, reconciles with Peter and ascends to heaven. The disciples go back and forth with Roman authorities, who roughly investigate them for the disappearance of Jesus’ body from the tomb and arrest Peter and John for the healing of a lame beggar. The disciples begin preaching, and the Holy Spirit makes its first appearance at a Pentecost sermon.
It’s a shame that the movie gets so hung up on ticking off the boxes of biblical plot and being an evangelical tool, because the story is a genuinely interesting one.
The movie will undoubtedly be a success among Christian communities willing to pay the streaming service’s subscription fee. If the movie receives enough traction, Burnett said Discovery+ will greenlight more family-friendly Bible content in the future.
Above all, “Resurrection” is a pleasant watch in the Lenten season — and it successfully fulfills the niche of Christian-centric movies that can be enjoyed by the family.
After all, the story of the Bible never gets old.
“Resurrection” is streaming on Discovery+ beginning March 27.
Jillian Cheney is a Poynter-Koch fellow for Religion Unplugged who loves consuming good culture and writing about it. She also reports on American Protestantism and evangelical Christianity. You can find her on Twitter @_jilliancheney.