The Gospel According to St. Matthew, is a movie that not only is way older than me (1964, movie- 1982, me) its also Italian made. Supposedly back in 1965 or something this film was nominated for an Oscar or two. I say supposedly because I didn't do any research myself to confirm the truthiness of the Oscar nomination. While on vacation a couple of weeks ago I was given the opportunity to watch this "classic" film. As I was reading through the subtitles (remember its in Italian) of this seemingly slow moving movie I had never realized how little I understood about other perspectives of the Gospel. I know that there are many out there but most of those that I am aware of circle around an American point of view, or at least English. Not only is there a cultural perspective that is slightly different but there is also a religious perspective that made this movie look different from other biblical movie interpretations.
Most Jesus movies do not center around one of the gospels but rather a collection of points from each gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John). This Italian interpretation was solely from the Book of Matthew, which was quite different to me. My friend @ strangecultureblog.com, did the research that I did not on the director and the back story of this film. It was truly a slow moving movie, and on my own I would not have watched it. However I may have found a new interest/talent as I watched this movie. The "mystery science theater" mock was flooding out of me in a way that I never knew was possible!
All in all I was glad to have watched it. I would maybe not recommend that run to your computer to put it on your netflix cue but as a Christian I would recommend that you stretch yourself to watch, or read something from another religions or another cultures view on the Bible. Its something that not only could help your Christian "world-view" which seems very popular to have these days, but I believe it to be something that can help you to look at the scriptures with a fresh, more open mind and see that maybe there is more in the Word than what we (American churches) have traditional interpreted.
