ABSTRACT
The Hollywood star system requires well-known actors to make a film commercially viable, yet not every "star" can play Jesus. Where someone playing Jesus is concerned, there has always been a tendency for the public to be sensitive to the overlap between the actor's professional and private life. In the more sceptical 1960s, things began to change, as the traditional depiction of Jesus' divinity, and the playing down of his humanity, became more problematic. While the theological relationship of Jesus to God, however, could be sidestepped in the allegory or satire, it could not be avoided in the classic biopic, based ultimately as it is on faith-inspired Gospel texts. Even with the liberalization of censorship in the 1960s, however, representations of Jesus continued to give offence or attract controversy. In Jesus of Nazareth, likewise, Robert Powell, in "one of the most reverent portrayals of Christ ever filmed" presents a dignified, haunting, blue-eyed but essentially pacific figure.
