The last film in this
collection of blogs is, actually, a feature length puppet film entitled “The
Miracle Maker.”
Ralph (Voldemort) Fiennes does the voice of
Jesus while others such as William Hurt, Alfred Molina, Julie Christie and more
fill out the cast.
Cool puppetry.
Don’t let the fact that it’s a “puppet film”
scare you from the story. At first blush
you may think it’s for children, but it’s an actually very well thought-out
piece of work. Sure, it has a little “Rankin
& Bass-ness” to it but there are moments where the puppet/Claymation aspect
shifts into beautiful hand-drawn animation.
Plus there are no songs.
This.
Not this.
And speaking of the animation, I can’t begin to
tell you how well done it is. It is just
stunning and it’s hard for me to wrap my brain around the toil and work it took
to put this together. If you just watch
it for the animation alone, it’s worth the price of admission.
Some really good cel animation, too.
As to the story: At last our Jesus doesn’t look like he
stepped out of Esquire magazine. He
actually looks the part of a middle-eastern Jew and it’s obvious that this
Russian/UK co-production put in a heckuva lot of work to create this world.
Okay, maybe a European version of Esquire Magazine.
The film does a great job balancing the
political aspect of the story and the eventual death and, surprisingly, the resurrection
of Christ.
Not John Wayne.
With all the films in this collection, none of
them broach the actual resurrection. The
films just kind of “end” when this is truly the beginning.
Nice detail work.
Sure, as Victor Garber is paraded around empty
New York, or we know “Glowing Christ Arm” is going to come back, or when John
Wayne says his ONE LINE that there is more to come – the screen goes to black
and we all leave the theater or turn off the DVD player and go back to our
chicken salad recipe we’re working on but “The Miracle Maker” actually GOES
THERE.
Why these other films just sort of stop after he’s
on the cross, or has been brought down and placed in the tomb is beyond
me. It’s like they’re completely okay
with “water-into-wine” and “casting out demons” and “loaves-and-fishies” and
even “Lazarus from the grave” but the resurrection? Yeah, not going there. Why?
At least “The Miracle Maker” has scenes that
focus on the resurrection and the disciples’ and Mary Magdalene’s response to
it.
How this film came to be in my collection, I do
not know. I don’t know if it had a
theatrical release here in the states.
And, sure, maybe it was a straight-to-video distribution – but don’t let
that, or its animation, make you think of this film less than what it is. It is well done on multiple levels –
animation, “acting,” voice acting and story.
Trump rally or scene from the film? Hard to tell the difference.
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