2008 Woodie Awards
The greatest story ever told retold
Colin Covert / McClatchy Newspapers (MCT
Issue date: 12/4/06 Section: Entertainment
How do you make one of the most familiar stories in western civilization fresh again, finding a new perspective on the tale without taking unacceptable liberties with exalted characters? No, we're not talking about James Bond here, but the Bible.
Catherine Hardwicke's lovely film The Nativity Story views Jesus's birth from a perspective that honors the ancient texts without reducing them to a banal procession of Sunday school cliches. Focusing on the emotional impact of the story's miraculous events, the film is reverent and entertaining, familiar in the surface particulars while portraying the characters with a novel degree of humanity. It fulfills our expectations while questioning some common preconceptions.
Hardwicke, whose edgy teen-rebel films Thirteen and The Lords of Dogtown were notably lacking in piety, brings several valuable assets to the project. A veteran production designer, she weaves locations in Israel, Morocco and Italy into a harsh and majestic Holy Land whose architecture, costumes and population look realistically weathered. More important, she understands the feelings of young people overwhelmed by forces beyond their control, precisely the state in which Mary, and later Joseph, find themselves. Not only the look but the emotions are genuine in this film.
Mike Rich's intelligent screenplay sifts through various gospels for maximum dramatic impact. Roman centurions bully the Judeans like gangsters in a shakedown, demanding tax payments that bring many hardscrabble farmers to ruin. Their appointed king, Herod the Great, rules the Holy Land with paranoid brutality, preoccupied with the Old Testament prophecy of a newborn messiah who will topple his reign.
The characters face personal tribulations as well. Mary enters her arranged marriage to Joseph more dutiful than thrilled. When an angel visits her in an olive grove, informing her she has been chosen to bear mankind's savior, her awareness that she'll never know the commonplace joys of motherhood is manifest. Joseph takes some time to digest his destiny, growing into his goodness gradually. Some in their community shun them, attributing Mary's miraculous, and quite visible, pregnancy to earthly transgression.
Catherine Hardwicke's lovely film The Nativity Story views Jesus's birth from a perspective that honors the ancient texts without reducing them to a banal procession of Sunday school cliches. Focusing on the emotional impact of the story's miraculous events, the film is reverent and entertaining, familiar in the surface particulars while portraying the characters with a novel degree of humanity. It fulfills our expectations while questioning some common preconceptions.
Hardwicke, whose edgy teen-rebel films Thirteen and The Lords of Dogtown were notably lacking in piety, brings several valuable assets to the project. A veteran production designer, she weaves locations in Israel, Morocco and Italy into a harsh and majestic Holy Land whose architecture, costumes and population look realistically weathered. More important, she understands the feelings of young people overwhelmed by forces beyond their control, precisely the state in which Mary, and later Joseph, find themselves. Not only the look but the emotions are genuine in this film.
Mike Rich's intelligent screenplay sifts through various gospels for maximum dramatic impact. Roman centurions bully the Judeans like gangsters in a shakedown, demanding tax payments that bring many hardscrabble farmers to ruin. Their appointed king, Herod the Great, rules the Holy Land with paranoid brutality, preoccupied with the Old Testament prophecy of a newborn messiah who will topple his reign.
The characters face personal tribulations as well. Mary enters her arranged marriage to Joseph more dutiful than thrilled. When an angel visits her in an olive grove, informing her she has been chosen to bear mankind's savior, her awareness that she'll never know the commonplace joys of motherhood is manifest. Joseph takes some time to digest his destiny, growing into his goodness gradually. Some in their community shun them, attributing Mary's miraculous, and quite visible, pregnancy to earthly transgression.
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