Jesus of Montreal

Daniel Jimenez

Dr. Das

1/19/17

                                                             Jesus of Montreal

         The film Jesus of Montreal is interesting story of a group of actors that are cast to perform an updated version of Jesus' life. The way that the cast comes together and the environment in which they perform have a strikingly similar resemblance to Jesus' life here on earth as reporter in the New Testament. This is especially true of the main character, Daniel Columbe, who seeks to alleviate all actors in Montreal from being mistreated and overlooked by standing up to the challenges presented by the church and the corrupters of the industry.
One of the first similarities in Daniel's "role" to that of Jesus was in the way he gathered those around him. When Jesus gathered his disciples, he required that they leave their families and jobs to follow him, dedicate their lives to his mission. Much like Jesus, Daniel goes across the city to find a group of actors that will help him put on the show. In each case, Daniel interrupts them from their work, whether it is waitressing or dubbing porn for the French speaking audience, and tells them that he wants them to help him create the play. In both cases, those that leave their current jobs to follow the one that seeks them, doesn't know what they are leaving for. The disciples had no promises or expectations on what to expect when they left and it was a very big risk for them to follow him. Not only was it risky, but they did it without asking any questions, "Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him" (Mark 1:17-18). This is the same for Mireille, Constance, Martin, and Rene as they leave their jobs for an uncertain economic future of producing a play. They too seem relatively confident in their opportunity to work with Daniel. After working together for a short time, the group becomes very close and seems to be together very often, even for midnight drunken walks. The most important part of each group is their faith in the leader they are following and serving. They see and believe in them so much that they can't leave. In this way, Daniel very much resembles Christ because of his undying passion for his work and those he cares about.
Another circumstance in which the movie resembles the life and actions of Jesus is when Daniel appears in court after he lost his temper and destroyed thousands of dollars’ worth of filming equipment. The repercussions and fines that Daniel faces are quite stiff, but he doesn't appear scared or even fazed, much like Jesus who faces death. It is this calmness and brutal honesty that resemble the actions of Jesus in the presence of authority. When Jesus appears before Pilate and Herod, he consults no one. He answers the question that affirms his guilt as the Son of God. Though it is not a crime that has been committed by him, it is a willing confession to what the other party wants to hear. "They all asked, are you then the Son of God? You are right in saying I am" (Luke 22:70). Jesus admits his guilt and in the same manner, Daniel pleads guilty and doesn't say otherwise. Another interesting piece of information is the fact that Daniel doesn't want legal advice, he seems to want to be guilty because he believes in what he did was right. I believe that these two examples of the movie are the most important when comparing its events to those of Jesus' life. These fascinating parts of Jesus' character are his ability to make people follow and believe in him and his honesty and grasp of what he was sent here to do.

             Another example that demonstrates Daniel having a similarity to Jesus was when he died after that accident on the cross and the doctors ask Constance and Mireille if they knew of any family of Daniel and they both did not know if he had family or not. This is when you notice that nobody actually knows of his past or any family that he has. The doctors ask for his body so that they can donate his blood and organs to others that can benefit from it, this is another similarity to Jesus and his Miracles that he performed. He gave sight to a blind woman by giving his eyes to her, gave a man life by giving him his heart, and helped others but giving his blood to the ones who will need it.

           Looking back to the court room scene with the lawyer, this scene can be interpreted to when the devil asked Jesus to worship him and he will give him the world. “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me” (Matthew 4:8-9) the lawyer is telling Daniel that the whole city can be his if he will allow him to take over his career and help him be a huge actor. Daniel does not take this offer and decides to stay a small-time actor.

            The interesting part behind this movie is basically how their entire play is debunking the entire bible. At the beginning of the play they talk about how Mary had a non-virgin birth of Jesus. They then talk about how Jesus was not actually Christian at all but Jewish and had a circumcised penis (not exactly sure how they knew that) they go on to talk about how artist first used to paint Jesus as a youth looking man with a clean face but then later added on a beard because the beard back then represented power and Jesus was believed to have power. This also open the play by talking about how the only information we have of Jesus are from his disciples that they pieced together a century later and disciples can lie and embellished things. They talk about how no one knows where he was born or at what age he passed away at. The Jewish say that he was a false prophet named Yesha Ben Panthera or also known as Jesus. They talk about how he grew up in Egypt and learned the art of magic and became a talented magician which is how he was able to perform certain miracles that were just allusions. They preached that Jesus was not a divine man but merely just a normal man without powers but who had authority, Daniel (Jesus) says “I am the son of man” which is really enforcing that he was not divine at all. Even though the play takes a lot of shots at the biblical story of Jesus, it also does a good job of preaching the world of Jesus too, they still talk about a kingdom that awaits us all and even say “those with riches will have a difficult time entering the kingdom of god because your heart lays with your riches” they also preach that the kingdom of god is with inside you. They take more shots at the bible by talking about how crucification did not start with Jesus but it started 6 centuries before Christ was even around. They also state that when Jesus died after being crucified he did not come back after a couple of days but came back 5-10 years later as a completely different person but he was still able to convince his followers it was him. They then say to go and seek salvation within yourself because nobody can help you with that and that life is not very difficult but rather simple if you just look to help others out. Even though this was only just a play and it was only meant to preach a different and non-traditional way of the church it was still a representation of Jesus’ followers preaching his word and it is another parallel of Daniels life and the life of a Jesus because Daniel’s friends are preaching what he wanted them to preach.