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The Gospel According to St. Matthew Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 16 Reviews)

A Starkly Beautiful, Stunning Work of Art
What do you get when a gay Marxist Catholic makes a film about Jesus? You get a stunning work of art that nevertheless remains true to its canonical gospel source! I decided not to watch Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" after reading so many reviews, laudatory and otherwise, that created an impression of a prolonged, morbid if not sadomasochistic, preoccupation with the brutalization of Jesus' body. At the same time, being aware of the late Pasolini's ideology and having heard his 1964 "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" described with words such as "naturalistic" and "humanizing," I feared it would amount to a materialistic, reductionist political piece. I was wrong. Rather, this black and white film focuses on the human drama of the Christ event without discounting the possibility of its transcendent aspects, relies not at all on special effects, and is photographed in such stark beauty that almost any still from it could hang in a gallery. If you appreciate the visual composition of Ingmar Bergman's movies, that alone would be reason to see this film that easily equals or exceeds those works' visually arresting quality. The cast members are also exceptional, especially those who play Mary as a young girl and Jesus. The opening shot of the Mary character's gazing straight ahead at what turns out to be Joseph conveys such a depth of mystery, sorrow, serenity and soulfulness through facial expression alone that this image could become a modern Mona Lisa. Pasolini's Jesus perfectly paces a role that would be too easy to overact or emasculate. In equal measure he expresses fearlessness, compassion, conviction and controlled fire, and I couldn't look away from him. The soundtrack effectively employs primarily classical or baroque music along with a smattering of American gospel-blues, and here Pasolini deserves an additional bonus point for using Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was The Night Cold Was the Ground."

The second gem of Pier Paolo!
Visionary account of the multiple Jesus conflicts related with ambition, greed and above all social injustices. Shot and immersed in the same spirit that his spiritual predecessors of the Italian Neo Realism : Roselini, De Sica and Visconti tough impregnated of a strong definite politic position. Acclaimed in Venice; it is a status film after his supreme achievement: Mama Roma.

Filmed with non profesional actors, it possesses an intelectual vigor that has resisted the acid taste of time, widely.


Picture too dark
The video of the Gospel according To St. Matthew is of poor video quality. While this is a public domain film, there still should be a half decent video available.

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