TITLE: The Nativity Story wants yous AUTHOR: Joe Johnson DATE: 7:05:00 AM ----- BODY:
It happened before. The surprising success of The Song of Bernadette (1943) drove movie studios to pump out a string of films aimed at capturing the Christian – in particular, Catholic – audience. The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) was a great film, but it owes its very existence to The Song of Bernadette. Eventually, the piety movie merged with Hollywood storytelling to produce the CinemaScope wonder of The Robe (1953), culminating in Ben Hur (1959). So its not like a market-driven exploitation can't produce some good work.

Anyone who follows trends in the motion picture industry was waiting for a similar string of films following the surprising success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004). And for some reason, that genre saturation failed to happen. But this December, a new film is being released obviously intent to capture the power and audience of Gibson’s breakthrough Jesus epic.

The Nativity Story is nothing less than a test to see if that audience is still out there and if there really is a pile of money waiting for Evangelical/Catholic-friendly filmmakers. Already, the film is advertising its faithfulness to the Gospels. It is premiering at the Vatican, and notes it's use of theologians and historians. If that doesn't draw you in, it was also heavily filmed in Patera, Italy - home of The Passion (and Pasolini's landmark The Gospel of St. Matthew).

Perhaps I'm too skeptical, or simply bored with historical biblical films. There was an intensity to The Passion of the Christ that made it an original film. Gibson succeeded in creating an project that actually worked best in the medium. But, many biblical films are sheer illustration, like highly-financed replacements of Sunday School flannel boards. Their reverence and solemnity, joined with anachronistic clothing and atmospheric music, don't create a sense of identity but distance and otherness.

Will I see The Nativity? Eventually. But it doesn't appeal to me in the way it should. I eagerly anticipated The Passion. But perhaps much of that had to do with knowing Gibson's work from previous films, shooting in Aramaic and the level of controversy surrounding the movie. The Nativity seems a bit too safe, too obvious and too marketed at an audience like, well, me. And maybe the Gen-X anti-establishment part of me resents that.

The movie will have to hit theaters before we know if there's something special about this new biblically-serious movie. Will church youth groups flock to theaters, bringing all their "unsaved friends" or will critics describe it as a challenging and worthwhile vision? Perhaps it's "unprecedented level of commitment to ensure the authenticity... of the Nativity story" will translate into an significant, devotional experience. But, for some reason I'm much more interested in seeing The Fountain, Apocalypto or, yes, even Rocky Balboa. Perhaps I'm becoming a Pagan. Or maybe The Charlie Brown Christmas Special spoiled me for any other Nativity interpretation.

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