Mary, the mother of Jesus, was notable for one very important reason. That means God chose her (and Joseph) to raise His children.
The new Netflix movie “Mary” is unremarkable. There are many reasons (from heaven).
My hopes were dashed when Mary, looking straight into the camera, announced, somewhat defiantly: “You may think you know my story.” Trust me. you don't. '
First, let's get this straight. Mary was not born more holy than anyone else. She was an ordinary girl with a heart that pleased the Lord, as evidenced by her reaction to the angel Gabriel who gave her the news that would change her life forever. From this reaction, we can infer that her family was probably religious people. They arranged her engagement according to cultural customs. And her betrothed Joseph proved himself worthy by his kind intentions towards her, even when he thought she had betrayed him.
You can read the entire story in Luke 1:26-38 and Matthew 1:18-25. I encourage you to do so because it's the real story. Netflix could have made a beautiful movie that tells a story full of drama, mystery, fear, hurt, and love, but director DJ Caruso and executive producer (televangelist) Joel Osteen have no idea what to do. I chose to tell a different story. Unbiblical story.
And it's not even a good unbiblical story.
non-biblical non-epic
Bible-based movie scripts range from straight Bibles (such as 2003's The Gospel of John) to fantasies that are so wildly spun off from the Bible that the message and meaning of the biblical text is completely distorted. They range from a wide range of depictions. , Darren Aronofsky, for messing with “Noah”).
Somewhere in between was my intention to place Dallas Jenkins' multi-season series about the life of Jesus, The Chosen. Although the story is firmly rooted in the Bible, Jenkins uses a variety of (not always (I don't have one) I try to flesh out this story with historical and cultural context. These efforts are often successful. Sometimes not so much.
I was hoping that “Mary” would be like a good episode of “The Chosen One,” but sadly, my expectations were dashed almost from the first moment of the movie. Mary said, looking at the camera a little defiantly. my story. Trust me. you don't. “
If a movie that advertises itself as an “epic Biblical” story is trying to tell the “real” story from the beginning, then it's no longer Biblical (and probably not even epic).
Isn't that something special?
The entire premise of the film is the completely imaginary idea that Mary was not just a humble teenage girl, but was special even before she was born.
This is evidenced by the angel Gabriel visiting her parents and telling them that they would have a special daughter who would belong to God and that their childlessness would soon end.
When she was a child, a swarm of butterflies followed her, and people looked at her and felt something. Her parents eventually explain her status and tearfully hand her over to the temple to serve God as part of a group of strange underage girls temple helpers, but I don't think that's true. I'm pretty sure (there's certainly no mention in the Bible of girls being taken down to live in temples because it doesn't seem to be culturally acceptable).
Also, the costumes the girls are wearing resemble those in The Handmaid's Tale, which is a little creepy.
Reality check: Mary didn't know she was chosen until it was time to find out. You can imagine it was a difficult situation because her family didn't know until she told them.
Then again, if the filmmakers had stayed true to the scripture rather than the script, they could have made for some powerful cinematic storytelling.
As for the script, it's packed with foreshadowings of elements from the life of Christ, including a disturbing scene in which the evil king Herod blinds the Jewish high priest by forcing a crown of thorns on his head. He looks at Maria and feels something again)…something).
Eventually we move on to the real story of the angel Gabriel visiting Mary, but the film only lingers on the Bible for a bit before transitioning into an action movie.
The scene also depicts a mob of Jews hating the Romans rioting and attempting to throw stones at Mary because she was pregnant out of wedlock. Joseph is a full-fledged action hero who bravely fights out of this and other situations and ultimately brings Mary to Bethlehem.
In the movie, they weren't there to follow the Roman census (the real reason they went there – see Luke 2:1-5), but because he “has family there.”
hallucinations of hollywood
And it is here that the plot line of the film is fully revealed. They make their way through the crowded streets of Bethlehem, looking for a place to stay. why? He just said he had family there. Mary then asks Joseph if they are all gathered together for the census, but he ominously tells her, “No, this is something else.”
And he found out what it was when a woman said to him: “We're all here because the Messiah will be born here!'' And indeed, later scenes after the birth of Jesus seem to depict crowds of people coming to see Mary and the baby.
Mary was a pious “nobody.” He was exactly the kind of person God would be pleased to use (and bless). And very few people were reading the Old Testament looking for the Messiah.
No one in Bethlehem expected to be present at the birth. The angels, the ragged shepherds and the wise men (they did Study the scriptures) followed the stars.
There was no crowd. Most people, and of course the religious authorities, were caught up in conflicts with the oppressive Romans, jockeying for position and preoccupied with domestic politics. When the Savior arrived on the scene 30 years later, most people didn't know about it. They certainly weren't interested in the humble teenage girl from Nazareth at this point.
Osteen Approved
“Mary” continues to spiral into nonsense.
King Herod was furious that there was a new king of the Jews and ordered all the male children in Bethlehem to be killed (which actually happened). He then asks them to bring back only one baby with problems alive (that never happened, so why would it? In real life, he kills all babies) I thought I was solving the problem).
Also, don't fall into the hole in the huge section where the brutal Roman soldiers could not find the same baby, even though the huge crowds come to visit Mary and the baby.
We haven't even gotten to Joseph's final action hero scene, where Mary kicks in a window in action hero fashion and the baby Jesus is thrown out the window while Joseph fights off a platoon of fully armed Romans trying to set fire to the ground. do not have. The roof inside the basket.
Some of the dialogue is silly and self-helping, like when Elizabeth tells Mary to “believe in your inner strength,” which is exactly what a pious Jewish woman in first-century Israel would tell anyone to believe. That's not what I'm saying. That's what a televangelist like Osteen would say. )
But despite the silliness of the action scenes, the film's real damage is that it perpetuates the myth that Mary was no ordinary person.
She was chosen by God for a divinely appointed mission, and God gave her everything she needed to accomplish that mission and bring glory. But the angels did not announce her coming, nor did the butterflies follow her. She was born into sin like any other human being, but like other saints, she was saved by God's grace through faith. Just like all of us who call him Lord.
