History

It has long been more popular to make films about the Old Testament

Old Testament

The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...

 than the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

. Many of the tales in the Old Testament are well suited for epic films. They contain sweeping, but relatively straightforward, narratives of good versus evil. They also feature crowd-pleasing massive battles, sword fights, natural disasters, and spectacular miracles. The stories had few enough details in the Bible that they could easily be embellished and modified without any great outcry over Biblical inaccuracy. The peak era of the Old Testament epic was the 1950s and early 1960s when lavish films with "casts of thousands" were regularly made. In the era of the production code

Production Code

The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...

, basing a film on the Bible allowed it to be more risqué than would normally have been accepted. Sex and violence are common in the Old Testament. Figures like Eve

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...

, Delilah

Delilah

Delilah appears only in the Hebrew bible Book of Judges 16, where she is the "woman in the valley of Sorek" whom Samson loved, and who was his downfall...

, and Judith could all be portrayed as seductive temptresses. In tales like that of Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and later expounded upon throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical sources....

 the sinfulness of those to be punished could be lavishly portrayed on screen.

These films were some of the highest grossing during this period with the best known and most successful being Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...

's The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic film that dramatized the biblical story of the Exodus, in which the Hebrew-born Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince, becomes the deliverer of the Hebrew slaves. The film, released by Paramount Pictures in VistaVision on October 5, 1956, was directed by...

. These movies were made in great numbers both by Hollywood and by the Italian film industry, and many of the biggest films were joint American/Italian productions. During this period most of the major stories in the Old Testament were put on film, some multiple times. As well as The Ten Commandments epics like Sodom and Gomorrah, The Story of Ruth

The Story of Ruth

The Story of Ruth is a 1960 American biblical drama film directed by Henry Koster, based on the Biblical account of Ruth. The title role is portrayed by Jewish actress Elana Eden, with Stuart Whitman as Boaz, Peggy Wood as Naomi, and Tom Tryon as Mahlon....

, David and Goliath, David and Bathsheba

David and Bathsheba

David and Bathsheba is a 1951 historical Technicolor epic film about King David made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Henry King, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, from a screenplay by Philip Dunne. The music score was by Alfred Newman and the cinematography by Leon Shamroy...

, Solomon and Sheba

Solomon and Sheba

Solomon and Sheba is a 1959 Biblical epic film made by Edward Small Productions and distributed by United Artists. The film stars Yul Brynner, Gina Lollobrigida, George Sanders and Marisa Pavan, with David Farrar, Harry Andrews, Jack Gwillim, Laurence Naismith, William Devlin, Jean Anderson and...

, and Esther and the King

Esther and the King

Esther and the King is a 1960 U.S.A. / Italian film direction, written, and produced by Raoul Walsh. It is a religious epic. It was produced at 20th Century Fox/ Raoul Walsh Productions, and was released by 20th Century Fox. Joan Collins stars as Esther in this melodramatic, routine Biblical story...

dominated the box office.

In this era the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

 was far less frequently turned into major motion pictures. Unlike the Old the New Testament has few action scenes and little romance. Its tone is somber and earnest. The events are recounted in much greater detail, and the details are much better known by the general public, limiting artistic freedom. During the 1950s most of the films recounting Jesus' life were financed by church groups and played in churches to small but dedicated audiences. These were often film versions of the traditional Passion Play

Passion play

A Passion play is a dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Jesus Christ: his trial, suffering and death. It is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in Catholic tradition....

. The two major studio attempts to make a film of Jesus' life during this period, The Greatest Story Ever Told

The Greatest Story Ever Told

The Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 American epic film produced and directed by George Stevens and distributed by United Artists. It is a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ, from the Nativity through the Resurrection. This film is notable for its large ensemble cast and for being the last...

and King of Kings

King of Kings

King of Kings is a title that has been used by several monarchies and empires throughout history. The title originates in the Ancient Near East. It is broadly the equivalent of the later title Emperor....

were both critical and box office failures.

Also at this time there were some hugely successful films that involved Jesus, but they put him at a distance from the central characters and were based on fictional novels rather than the Bible. These included 1953's The Robe

The Robe (film)

The Robe is a 1953 American Biblical epic film that tells the story of a Roman military tribune who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus. The film was made by 20th Century Fox and is notable for being the first film released in the widescreen process CinemaScope.It was directed by Henry Koster...

and its sequel Demetrius and the Gladiators

Demetrius and the Gladiators

Demetrius and the Gladiators is a 1954 sword and sandal drama film and a sequel to The Robe. It was made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Delmer Daves and produced by Frank Ross. The screenplay was by Philip Dunne based on characters created by Lloyd C...

, Quo Vadis

Quo Vadis (1951 film)

Quo Vadis is a 1951 epic film made by MGM. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist, from a screenplay by John Lee Mahin, S. N. Behrman and Sonya Levien, adapted from Henryk Sienkiewicz's classic 1896 novel Quo Vadis. The music score was by Miklós Rózsa and the cinematography...

and especially the 1959 film Ben-Hur

Ben-Hur (1959 film)

Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic film directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston in the title role, the third film adaptation of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay was written by Karl Tunberg, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The score was composed by...

.

Today the epics of the 1950s that were once some of the highest grossing films of all time are rarely seen and new versions virtually never produced. With the end of the studio system and the changing social climate of the later 1960s the Old Testament Bible epic fell out of favour. The box office failure King David

King David (film)

King David is a 1985 film about the second king of Israel, David. It was filmed in 1984 in Matera and Craco, Italy. It was directed by Bruce Beresford and starred Richard Gere in the title role.-Cast:*Richard Gere as "David"*Edward Woodward as "Saul"...

, released in 1985, is the sole major Old Testament epic released since. Growing secularism and diversity in North America and Europe, along with the ever increasing importance of the international market, meant that the Biblical epic was no longer guaranteed to appeal to a large section of the audience.

With the reduction in reverence and greater interest in experimentation new styles and formats were tried and the focus shifted to the New Testament. In 1966 Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...

 filmed The Gospel According to St. Matthew

The Gospel According to St. Matthew (film)

The Gospel According to St. Matthew is a 1964 Italian film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. It is a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ, from the Nativity through the Resurrection....

in southern Italy with a cast of non-professional actors. Despite Pasolini's atheism and Marxism the film was praised by the Pope for its faithfulness. The revisionist The Last Temptation of Christ

The Last Temptation of Christ

The Last Temptation of Christ is a novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1953. It was first published in English in 1960. It follows the life of Jesus Christ from his perspective...

, the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar (film)

Jesus Christ Superstar is a 1973 American film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice rock opera of the same name. Directed by Norman Jewison, the film centers on the conflict between Judas and Jesus during the last weeks before the crucifixion of Jesus...

, and the parody the Life of Brian were all major films of the 1970s and 1980s. These films frequently generated controversy, but were also financial successes. This era also saw frequent film versions of the Book of Revelation

Book of Revelation

The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...

 such as The Late Great Planet Earth and The Seventh Sign

The Seventh Sign

The Seventh Sign is a 1988 apocalyptic drama film written by Clifford and Ellen Green and directed by Carl Schultz.-Plot:Signs of the apocalypse are appearing, along with a mysterious wanderer. Father Lucci is the Vatican official investigating them...

that had been uncommon in an earlier era.

During this period more reverent works were still frequently produced, but more often appeared as television miniseries or were released directly to video. One exception was 2004's The Passion of the Christ

The Passion of the Christ

The Passion of the Christ is a 2004 American drama film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus. It depicts the Passion of Jesus largely according to the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John...

that had great success in general release. The success of The Passion of the Christ has led to a number of new Bible films being commissioned including "Mary", "Son of Man", "Color of the Cross", "The Ten Commandments" and "Nativity" all of which were scheduled for a 2006 release.
The first book ever written about the subject of biblical movies was "The Bible On Film: A Checklist, 1897-1980", published by Scarecrow Press on November 3, 1981. It was created by Richard H. Campbell on June 8, 1977. Campbell co-wrote the book with Michael R. Pitts. Before this, the idea of doing a reference book about biblical movies and TV programs did not exist. Since then, many similar books have been published, but Campbell's book was the first and is copyrighted as such in the Library of Congress. Contributors to the book include the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (the Oscars), AFI

AFI

AFI, the three letter acronym, may refer to:*AFI , an American alternative rock band**AFI , an album by AFI released in 2004*Air Force Instruction, documented instructions for members of the United States Air Force...

 (American Film Institute

American Film Institute

The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...

) and Ball State University.
See also: List of movies based on the Bible