Like the Bible itself, Franco Zeffirelli’s epic, ambitious made-for-television Jesus of Nazareth is often experienced in bits and pieces over the years, and is commonly better known in isolated parts than in its lengthy whole.
Viewed as a whole, Jesus of Nazareth may or may not be the best life of Jesus film ever made, but it remains in some ways the standard by which other Jesus films are judged. Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew and Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ may be better films, but no other Jesus film offers an interpretation of the gospel story as comprehensive and definitive as Jesus of Nazareth.
Its key assets, aside from its leisurely running time, are a scripturally and historically literate script, a reverently non-revisionist distillation of key gospel stories, a distinguished and generally apt ensemble cast, and matter-of-fact realism in depicting the miraculous. — Steven D. Greydanus (full review at Decent Films).
Arts & Faith Lists:
2006 Top 100 — #18
2005 Top 100 — #37
2004 Top 100 — Unranked List