The Nativity Story (2006)

Joseph: If I claim this child as mine, it will be lying. I would have broken a law laid down by God.
Mary: I would never ask you to lie.
Joseph: If I say this child is not mine, they will ask what I'm going to do. If I accuse you...
Mary: There is a will for this child greater than my fear of what they may do.

Director:  Catherine Hardwicke
Producer:  Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Toby Emmerich, Cale Boyter, Tim Van Relim, Mike Rich, Catherine Hardwicke
Main Cast:  Keisha Castle-Hughes, Oscar Issac, Ciarán Hinds
Runtime:  101 minutes

Many years before the birth of Jesus Christ, the book if Isaiah (written around the 750 BC mark) foretold the coming of the Messiah “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” And also quite specifically the book of Micah, again written in a similar time foretold not just the Messiah’s birth but more specifically where He would be born “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”
The movie in review today is very relevant for the celebration of Christmas cause it is a day set aside (much like Easter) I, as a Christian, celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  So what better time than to post a review of a film that is directly about the birth of Christ.

There are not too many movies that feature the historic event of the birth of Jesus Christ with only King of Kings (1961) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) instantly coming to mind but they dealt with not just the birth of Jesus but also his ministry, crucifixion and resurrection whilst The Nativity Story just deals with the time before Joseph and Mary were betrothed/engaged up to the birth of Jesus, so it is quite unique in that way.  Thankfully It is not cheesy (for example the movie about the book of Esther in the Bible called One Night with the King which, sadly, is really bad) nor does it take too many liberties but tells the story in a simple yet honest way.  

The movie begins with Roman soldiers obeying the command from king Herod to go into Bethlehem and kill all male children 2 years old and younger in fear of what that prophets said that a King will arise and rule Israel.  The film then shifts one year prior to these events and tells the story of the circumstances that led up to when Jesus was born.  How Mary was told she was going to be with child, her engagement with Joseph, the wise man, the trip back to Bethlehem in order to comply with the censor and of course the seeming threat to Herod that caused him to issue the decree to kill all males under the age of two.

Overall this is certainly one of the better productions and to my knowledge one of the only ones that deals pretty much solely with the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.  There are no real big names in actors or actresses yet the film comes across quite well and even the production is very well done along with the recreation of the old towns and cities.  From a biblical point of view there isn’t really much to knock about it, at least nothing of great importance.  It seems to be a reasonably accurate depiction of the events as told in the Bible which is a breath of fresh air.  Sure there are “three” wisemen in the movie when the Bible never specifies a number but really that’s not particularly important in telling the main story.  I was impressed when I first saw the film and remain so even now, though some of the acting can seem a little stiff but the story is told very well revealing even the difficulties of such circumstances could bring.

The DVD reviewed is the Australian version and is basically barebones with only a teaser trailer and theatrical trailer included.  The image quality is good and brings us a sharp image to the screen, even in the dark scenes, in its 1.78:1 aspect ratio.  The sound comes in both Dolby 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 flavours and sounds fine, though I am sure the leap to Bluray would be a good boost to both visual and image quality.  The extras as stated above are two trailers.

Overall this is a great movie that brings out the story of Jesus’ birth quite well whilst refraining from that Hollywood fling of razzle, dazzle and odd liberties in storytelling.  Even the scene where the Angel visits Mary is quite calm and ordinary unlike what Hollywood would normally try to do with such things.  It is a great story and well worth watching, though nothing really beats reading the account yourself in the Bible particularly in the book of Luke, but the film does flesh it out quite well.  

On this Christmas day the film serves a good reminder of what the day is all about for Christians around the world and causes us to remember that Jesus is the reason for the season, not some podgy fella in a red and white suit ;)   

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