Christ in the Movies Trivia Quiz

Answer: No

Indeed, not. In fact, though Heater appears at several different points in the film, he is not even credited with the role of Christ. The subtitle of the film 'Ben Hur' was 'A Tale of the Christ'.

Answer: Yes

Indeed, one of the early scenes depicts Christ speaking at the Sermon on the Mount. Some of his words (for example 'peacemakers') are mistakenly misheard by various distant onlookers. 'Life of Brian', which was produced by ex-Beatle George Harrison, it was initially banned in several countries, including Norway and Ireland. Perhaps those countries have something against cheesemakers?

Answer: The Robe

Donald C. Klune played the physical Christ role in the film (again, uncredited). Mitchell was also uncredited as Christ's voice. Other than being a relatively uninspiring epic film, 'The Robe' was the first film to be released using the new 'CinemaScope' technology.

Answer: Donald Sutherland

Sutherland played a train engineer cum Jesus in this 1971 film written and directed by Dalton Trumbo, a member of the Hollywood Ten. This film was the basis for the music group Metallica's greatest hit 'One'.

Answer: King of Kings

This film was interesting in that the dialogue was written by an uncredited Ray Bradbury, and the narration was done by Orson Welles. Some film fans dubbed this film 'I Was a Teenage Jesus' (following titles such as 'I Was a Teenage Werewolf') because Hunter appeared to be so youthful in the Christ role.

Answer: Norman Jewison

The film version of this rock-n-roll musical features Ted Neeley as Christ and Carl Anderson as Judas Iscariot. Perhaps not the greatest film of all-time, at the very least, however, the music is good.

Answer: History of the World, Part I

Again, Orson Welles narrates a film featuring Jesus (albeit in a much less prominent role). Jesus' role in this film is confined to responding to Comicus (played by Brooks) who shouts 'Jesus!' This irregularly funny film also features Gregory Hines, Dom DeLuise and Madeline Kahn, among other all-stars.

This is probably not the most inspirational movie featuring Jesus...except in the inspiration of laughter.

Answer: Willem Dafoe

Based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, this film provoked an incredibly excited response from filmgoers, including some who protested by slashing movie screens. Willem Dafoe's portrayal of Christ is interesting to behold, as is Barbara Hershey's version of Mary Magdalene and Harvey Keitel's Judas. The film is certainly worth a look.

Answer: Max von Sydow

Max von Sydow has the special distinction of having portrayed both Christ and the Devil (aka Leland Guant in 'Needful Things'). 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' probably had the most incredible all-star cast in film history. The cast included: José Ferrer, Pat Boone, Charlton Heston, Angela Lansbury, Martin Landau, Sal Mineo, Roddy McDowell, Jamie Farr, Robert Blake, Shelly Winters, John Wayne, Sidney Poitier, Claude Rains, Donald Pleasence and Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate (he first shaved his head for this film.)

Answer: Greek

This was perhaps one of Mel's mistakes, as the Roman soldiers manning the eastern realm during the time would have been speaking Greek amongst themselves. He also has Christ, played by James Caviezel, utter Latin at one point. There's no evidence that Christ spoke Latin. Regardless, the film is so provocative that no filmgoer should resist for too long a chance to see it, whether a true believer or not. Thank you for playing this quiz, I hope you enjoyed it and will try some of my other quizzes.