‘Risen’: an earthy view of miraculous events

The result is that, with the slightest misstep, the most pious and well-intentioned film can explode into unintended farce.

The only hope is to devise a brand-new strategy, and that’s what we find in “Risen,” a movie that’s different, not only in its point of view but also in its presentation of biblical events.

To be sure, the movie is ultimately a critique of secularism, but it’s a shrewd critique, one that begins by persuading us to root for the Romans against a mob of Jewish insurgents.

[...] the Jews look like a bunch of scruffy, humorless religious fanatics, while the Romans are efficient, well groomed and ironic.

Clavius arrives at the scene of the crucifixion in its final minutes, and the sight is squalid and horrible — but also, in the most dispiriting possible way, routine.

Caiaphas is worried that Yeshua’s associates might steal the body and proclaim his resurrection, and so Clavius gets the job of sealing the tomb and appointing guards to stand watch.

At least a third of the movie is like a detective story, with Clavius and an assistant questioning witnesses, trying to locate a dead body.

Every biblical epic treats Jesus’ disciples as either gentle simpletons or wooden idols, but in “Risen” they are just normal men, from various ages and backgrounds, trying to process the miraculous.

Bartholomew (Stephen Hagan) is like a proto-hippie, freaking out at the delight of it all, while Peter is a middle-aged no-nonsense fisherman just trying to keep up with events.