The most watched film in history
By Giles Wilson
BBC News Online Magazine
Forget Titanic. Forget Star Wars and Gone With the Wind. They are small fry compared to the Jesus Film, which has been watched by more than two billion people. And now the people behind it have their eyes on a new goal... Iraq.
There's no swearing. There are no sex scenes. There's some violence, but that is integral to the plot. And ultimately there's a happy ending.
That's where similarities to Hollywood end, though. There's no glamour, no stars, and certainly no Cecil B DeMille.
At first sight, Jesus, or the Jesus Film as it has come to be known, is an unlikely candidate for the title of most watched - and most translated - film. Shot on location in the Holy Land, and with a white British Jesus, it is instead a straight-faced retelling of Luke's gospel. It was made in 1979, by coincidence the same year as Monty Python's Life of Brian.
WHO'S THAT MAN?
Jesus played by Brian Deacon, a Shakespearian actor
Filmed in Israel, mostly with Yemenite Jews in the cast
But how, while it is virtually unknown in the UK and many other Western countries, did it ever receive such an enormous worldwide audience? And how did it get translated into more than 760 languages and dialects, among them Uyghur, Jorai, Karakalpak, Hakka, Mongo-Nkudu and Nosu Yi?
The reason is simply the work of an American evangelical organisation, Campus Crusade. Funded by its supporters and well-wishers, it sends teams around the world, even where they are not particularly welcome. There they record new translations of the film, organise screenings to inquisitive crowds in improvised cinemas, and distribute copies to whoever they can.
Rather than concentrate on places like the UK, its focus is on the far corners of the world, although it has of late been sending unsolicited VHS copies to US households.
Among the crusade's goals are to make a translation for every language. With some 7,000 languages on the planet it has some way to go yet.
By Giles Wilson
BBC News Online Magazine
Forget Titanic. Forget Star Wars and Gone With the Wind. They are small fry compared to the Jesus Film, which has been watched by more than two billion people. And now the people behind it have their eyes on a new goal... Iraq.
There's no swearing. There are no sex scenes. There's some violence, but that is integral to the plot. And ultimately there's a happy ending.
That's where similarities to Hollywood end, though. There's no glamour, no stars, and certainly no Cecil B DeMille.
At first sight, Jesus, or the Jesus Film as it has come to be known, is an unlikely candidate for the title of most watched - and most translated - film. Shot on location in the Holy Land, and with a white British Jesus, it is instead a straight-faced retelling of Luke's gospel. It was made in 1979, by coincidence the same year as Monty Python's Life of Brian.
WHO'S THAT MAN?
Jesus played by Brian Deacon, a Shakespearian actor
Filmed in Israel, mostly with Yemenite Jews in the cast
But how, while it is virtually unknown in the UK and many other Western countries, did it ever receive such an enormous worldwide audience? And how did it get translated into more than 760 languages and dialects, among them Uyghur, Jorai, Karakalpak, Hakka, Mongo-Nkudu and Nosu Yi?
The reason is simply the work of an American evangelical organisation, Campus Crusade. Funded by its supporters and well-wishers, it sends teams around the world, even where they are not particularly welcome. There they record new translations of the film, organise screenings to inquisitive crowds in improvised cinemas, and distribute copies to whoever they can.
Rather than concentrate on places like the UK, its focus is on the far corners of the world, although it has of late been sending unsolicited VHS copies to US households.
Among the crusade's goals are to make a translation for every language. With some 7,000 languages on the planet it has some way to go yet.
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