Risen (2016)

Nothing to do with RPG games, this is actually a religious movie set three days after Christ was crucified. A roman military officer named Clavius (played hilariously enough by Joseph Fiennes whose brother Ralph Fiennes actually played Jesus a long time ago)was there when Jesus was crucified and walked away soon after the day was done, thinking this would be over. Naturally, this is far from over.

Soon after Clavius is ordered by Pontius Pilate to find the body of Jesus Christ, lest anything radical happens. Clavius begins the search, eventually hearing that some woman named Mary Magdalene claims Jesus is alive. Turns out the movie is actually a Film Noir set in Roman times. It has a gritty no nonsense protagonist, an intriguing mystery (no clue if this movie is ambiguous or not), a gritty tone, multiple dead ends, hell Mary Magdalene may even be a type of Femme Fatale. All it needs is some kickass Jazz score to go along with it.

Honestly, people should be making these types of Christian movies more. It has an interesting plot, its looks good, and Joseph Fiennes himself described the movie as having a Chinatown type of feel to it with Clavius echoing Chinatown's own Jake Gittes.

Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s9g7s8hH9Y

One of the few Christian movies I want to see.

I'm looking forward to this.

Meanwhile, let's get the predictable joke out of the way:

"Forget it Clavius. It's Jesus of Nazareth"

edited 26th Oct '15 8:16:35 AM by Quag15

^ "I'm his son!" *slap* "I'm his father!" *slap* "I'm his son!" *slap* "I'm his father!" *slap* "I'm his son and his father!"

edited 26th Oct '15 11:43:58 AM by 1upmushroom

A new spin on an old story. Could be interesting.

Hopefully it won't go too evangelical in its approach to the point where it ruins its great concept.

It's not really ambiguous. Fiennes is talking to the resurrected Jesus in the second trailer and he's stunned to see him in the first one.

Huh...Oh well, I'm sure it won't diminish the quality of the movie a whole lot unless they really shove that aspect in our faces.

Yeah. I am stoked for the Zealot battles. I do wonder what happens to him since the first Roman Christian according to the Bible was a centurion named Cornelius.

There are quite a few possibilities here.

1. The most basic is to have Clavius be the first in an act of Artistic License – History

2. Another way is to have Cornelius be the first in some way and have Clavius convert after.

3. Clavius becomes the first by technicality but Cornelius takes the credit either intentionally or not (ex. Clavius could just more modest than he seems).

4. Clavius becomes the first Christian roman soldier, but pretends not to be in order to keep his head.

5. Clavius at first believes hat jesus truly has come back but then becomes a skeptic once more, believing that what he saw was merely a hallucination or a trick of some kind.

Opens in about 10 days and there's not much buzz. I hope this doesn't get buried. I guess Hail, Caesar! helps keep it timely?

edited 8th Feb '16 10:45:45 PM by fusilcontrafusil

It's possible Clavius converts and has a Meaningful Rename to Cornelius for some reason.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

That would be a clever thing to do.

Clavius could just be his first name or a nickname. Romans had some long, confusing names.

By the way, the movie seems to be receiving mixed-to-positive reactions. It has 61% on rotten tomatoes, currently. The main criticisms seem to mostly be that the movie itself is bland and predictable to some people, while the main praise seems to be the original take on the biblical story and Joseph Fienne's acting.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

Yeah, someone mentioned how surreal it was to see a preview for Risen just before Hail Caesar.

From what I've heard, the film seems to be a bit preachy during the second half but to be fair, it apparently isn't that bad. Others have said that the first half is something more like a Police Procedural (with Pontius Pilate as Da Chief and Tom Felton as the rookie cop being assigned to the more experienced Clavius as a partner) which is something I can totally get behind because I'm a sucker for those type of things.

I saw it and that's pretty spot on, with the addition of Caiaphas being, metaphorically speaking, an interfering thorn in the side politician.

Spoilers Ahead:

Concerning predictability, the movie takes the Gospels and, well, gospel, so assuming you are familiar with what went down way back when, you're going to know how the story ends. The only point of ambiguity throughout is the fate of Clavius.

Backtracking a bit, this combination of Police Procedural and Bible works out with the first half of the film making it ambiguous over whether Yeshua - They call him Yeshua even though everyone else is refered to by their westernized English names - really did rise from the dead or not. The idea isn't taken seriously by Clavius and they quickly provide alternate explanations for what happened. Anything that could be construed as an outright miracle is explained away someway or another.

Right up until Clavius meets Yeshua face to face during a raid in the Apostles meeting. After that it's completely clear that He is risen and this sends our Roman friend into shock which leads him to tagging along with the Apostles through every part of the Gospels that takes place between Doubting Thomas and the Ascension to Heaven, with a couple Clavius critical scenes in between. At one point it looks like history is going to be derailed because the Romans are hot on the Apostles trail and about to capture them but Clavius managed to lead them to safety and gets his old second in command to keep quiet long enough for them to flee.

Speaking of Doubting Thomas, Seeing is Believing is something of a theme. The Apostles admit they were flakes who didn't really believe He had risen until after he appeared before them. Clavius sees him and still isn't sure whether be believes or not. He even says as much to Yeshua during their only one-on-one talk and just like with Thomas He talks about how much harder it will be for those who come after and never see him to believe.

The very last lines of the film still keep it ambiguous over whether Clavius believes or not. When another character asks him if he believes Yeshua is God after all the things he saw and experienced he replies with a pause between his words, making it unclear if he's saying two sentences or just drawing out one: "I believe. I can never be the same." or "I believe... I can never be the same."

edited 6th Mar '16 11:23:36 AM by Parable