Revival!
Gospel-soul with a rampant imagination
by Michael Augsberger - originally published 2 Mar 2020
Fittingly, no story on stage or screen has been revived as many times as the Gospel. Whether we consider the latest version worthy of any award close to Best Revival or toss it onto the scrap heap labeled "CBS Jesus Miniseries Etc." comes down to these few things, in my opinion.
First, as Christian films traditionally underwhelm in this area, what are its production values? More important, how faithful is it, what kind of imagination does it have about its characters, and how do these two often at-odds demands play out their duel? We crave compelling motivation to fill out the original evangelists' broad strokes, but make Mary Magdalene Jesus's wife and you lose some Biblical scholar cred. Further, what does it add to our millennia-long conversation and countless portrayals of Christ? And, most important, what kind of drama does it stir—content with rote recital of the stations of the cross, or invested in dialogue and action that propels the narrative forward organically?
Revival!, now, strikes a surprising pose. It never strays from acute faithfulness to John's Gospel, yet it has a great deal of imagination. It is a Gospel-soul musical that plays freely with its ideas of setting. A woman plays a vociferous member of the Sanhedrin, whose verbal duels with Jesus usually, but not always, have depth to them. They've even arranged for Lazarus to be killed (for good this time). We have no lip-service diverse cast, but a true one. And a woman, a man, and a teenager each play Satan in one of the film's best scenes. Satan, now a teen "abandoned by my father," eschews the temple and brings Jesus atop the iconic Hollywood sign to tempt him. Cast yourself down, he says, but more creatively and with more conversational logic than we're used to. Christ might be destined to suffer and die, he responds, "but I wouldn't want to be in a hurry."
We go from that back to the theatre stage and audience where the film opened, and there a woman-Satan now tempts Jesus (Mali Music) with her dance number ("Bow"). We are honoring Godspell and Chicago, which also alternates between imagined vaudeville numbers and real life, every bit as much as King James here. Clearly there is a stage production of Christ's life going on, and sometimes we see it play out as if in first-century Judea. The Broadway conceit works remarkably for a host of reasons. Like the Hollywood sign scene, it paves the way for scenes to cross time and space without worry. Often these contain the film's most affecting dialogue, as when the apostles sit in 2020 street clothes, debate each other in our vernacular, and Judas brandishes a pocket knife. It glosses over production-value issues without causing much worry. It's theatre! Some of the CGI cries out, some of the lighting is too red-eye, but chalk it all up to these Godspell players putting on the best show they can.
And it allows that imagination to run rampant. If you're going to pick a Gospel to film, pick John's—monologues that would make any theatre director salivate, asking the deeper questions about divinity and authority, with implied dressing for many characters. As Pilate literally dresses for the fateful trial, he walks back in time from American supremacy to Soviet upheaval to medieval war, each time assuming command. What other film could do this and get away with it?
Each empire stamped out its own threats, which seems to parallel Warren Carter's take on Pilate (Harry Lennix)—ruthless, opportunist, imperial, shrewd. That Pilate shifts, turning up the heat but then lacking conviction in the trial's closing stage, countermands that first, historical take in favor of one that merely says he happened to find himself in Roman Judea. He could easily have been born under another regime, and he was ill-equipped to handle a trial of this magnitude. He is remembered because of Jesus, he is historic only because of Jesus, and even if I disagree that he was a walkover, I can't disagree with that.
All of that intrigues me more than most viewers, likely. I spend the time on it because the film, surprisingly, does, with that extended sequence. Such is its creativity. Yet to be honest, in the end that vivid imagination is mostly a vehicle for showcasing its soul tunes. The music has undeniable power, stemming mostly from the Gospel choir featured in most of the numbers. When they are belting, the soundtrack soars. We hear them for the first time in the opening number, and we want more.
When we stray from full-throated Gospel choir, though—except for a Hamiltonian quasi-rap-battle between Doubting Thomas and the other apostles which reminds us "God bless you" can sometimes be an insult—the songwriting shows its limits. A ballad Jesus sings misses the mark. We find a praise-and-worship song that tries to summon Boyz II Men's spoken verses repetitive and tiresome. Another, "Never Gonna Let You Go," appears as more of a need for a love song, sung during the Wedding at Cana, than any real narrative need. It's good, especially once the Gospel singers come in. It just makes me think the genre itself is driving the wheel instead of the writer.
This wouldn't be cause for concern if Revival! were a jukebox musical that tagged us with hit after hit. But as for a hit among the pleasing Gospel songs, the closest it comes is "Revival", which plays over the closing credits and basically is an all-star combination of the best elements of each preceding song, namely Gospel, choir, and a more poppy melody and structure. With only slightly different lyrics it could have been a fine success at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and if you know me you know I mean that as praise.
As a whole, Jesus movies suffer from the same issue my student productions often did. Skits could be uproariously funny, dramas watchable if not truly moving, but they usually demanded an inside knowledge of Notre Dame life and customs. Production values come with repetition and schooling, maybe more importantly with budget, but the real lack back then was experience of conflict beyond our residence life councils and an authority beyond our professors. Rarely, a talented undergrad would come up with something that required no dorm allegiance to understand. It's difficult to be universal—and this is all the more reason to exalt something like Parasite.
And so it's ironic that purportedly the most universal of all human organizations, the Christian church, struggles to universalize the Greatest Story Ever Told in so much of its film output. So, so much is dependent on previous knowledge that few non-Christians would have. It does not mean we can't assume the audience can piece things together. But it does mean we should be wary of throwing Herod a cameo to kill the baptist that we'd seen on screen for all of ten seconds. Who weeps for John? Who cares about Herod? That limits the film's reach, sure. For all its imagination, Revival! still ticks the boxes of the narrative in order to present its fine Gospel music instead of forging a powerful story the way, say, Jesus of Nazareth does.
Of course, it is not really trying to do that. It's trying to grant an experience to believers, a specific experience of being reborn in faith. To non-believers, it's presenting the Gospel music for its own benefits. I suppose one can listen to it the same way Catholic school kids might argue to their parents that they listen to "Blurred Lines" or DMX—saying you don't hear the lyrics, but damn, that music is catchy. And there is enough diving into the depths of character that we can ask some pointed questions of Revival! A lesser film would cower under the interrogation light.
Two point five of four Gospels
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*TriCoast Entertainment will release REVIVAL onto various digital & DVD platforms March 3 (Amazon, iTunes, FLIXFLING, Vimeo on Demand, Vudu, FANDANGO, Google Play), Walmart, Target and Best Buy.
**For more information, please visit: https://revivalthemovie.com/
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