Once in a while, a movie’s commercial appeal is as culturally significant as its artistic merit—or, as is the case with “The King of Kings,” more so. A children’s version of the New Testament, the animated film is based on a work by Charles Dickens that was written as a gift to his children— “for everybody ought to know about Him,” Dickens wrote. He was among the most devoted of parents. Which will be the target audience for a Jesus story of less-than-electrifying velocity.
But kids are the point here. Likewise, the successful business model of Angel Studios, which is based on the general paucity of family-friendly and faith-based theatrical movies that the Utah-based company has made its specialty. “Cabrini,” about the American saint, was a terrific film; this critic didn’t see “Song of Freedom” because, lacking a professional obligation, he avoids features about child sex-trafficking. But in the days leading up to this review, an email announced that Angel’s latest had already generated nearly $8 million in presales, was opening in 3,000 theaters on April 11 and would be the beneficiary of a “Kids Go Free” campaign, by which each adult purchase will earn a free child’s ticket. There certainly seems to be a hunger for what Angel is selling.
The Life of Our Lord, which Dickens wrote at around the same time he was writing David Copperfield (circa 1849) was published only after the last Dickens child had died (in 1933). It is a primer on Jesus (voice of Oscar Isaac), drawn from all four books of the Gospels but sometimes from stories that appear only in one book (the resurrection of Lazarus, for instance, in John). The storytelling conceit here is that Dickens (voice of Kenneth Branagh), during an engagement performing “A Christmas Carol” on the London stage, is confounded by his children, notably the chronically misbehaving Walter (Roman Griffin Davis). The boy is fixated on the tale of King Arthur, perilously swinging around an exaggerated dagger that he pretends is Excalibur but which, per director Jang Seong-Ho, becomes a recurring visual signifier of Constantine’s sword and the cross of Jesus. Dickens decides to tell Walter a better story, the one on which the legend of King Arthur was based. (This I had never thought about, but why not?) Together, they will travel through Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem.
No one falls physical victim to the big-eyed Walter’s not-so-adorable shenanigans (Dickens is a rather lenient parent), though a viewer will be reminded of the violence of the New Testament despite its downplaying here. In this film, when Peter cuts the ear off the Roman soldier arresting Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, it is the least gruesome of amputations; the four-days-dead Lazarus emerges from his tomb looking slightly confused, but otherwise no worse for wear; the Crucifixion itself is not pleasant, but hardly excruciating. Some audiences confessed to having had a spiritual experience during Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” precisely because it was gruesome, and therefore must have been genuine, and thus representative of Christ’s actual suffering. “The King of Kings,” parents will be relieved to hear, is mercifully free of any such cinema verité. Your spiritual results may vary.
“The King of Kings” does follow Gibson’s lead by giving no quarter to the Pharisees, portraying the Jewish leaders and their high priest Caiaphas (Ben Kingsley) as quasi-demonic conspirators against the Son of God, which doesn’t require much of a stretch from the way the Jews were characterized in, say, John. (“Then Pilate [Pierce Brosnan] handed Jesus over to them to be crucified”). Still, the temple leaders are almost gleefully villainized in this gentle introduction to the life of Christ, which otherwise takes great pains to protect its young audience from mayhem and confusion. (They’re never told which Mary is which, for instance.) When it comes to the Jews, however, the historical, political and even divine motivations surrounding the Crucifixion seems to require of the filmmakers not much subtlety at all. Why do these people hate Jesus? What’s all this shouting about blasphemy? It seems prudent to warn parents that, should they bring their brood to “The King of Kings,” they might be facing some questions.
