December 27, 2011
the most beautiful gospel film i have seen...made by an openly gay communist and dedicated to the pope. amazing faces!
Enrique Irazoqui,
Margherita Caruso,
Susanna Pasolini,
Marcello Morante,
Mario Socrate
... see more 
Relating his facts in straight-on documentary fashion, Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1964 Biblical film stars Enrique Irazoqui as Jesus. In it, Christ and his followers are depicted as gentle radicals working... read more
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Flixster Reviews (207)
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June 12, 2009The controversial Pier Paolo Pasolini retells the life of Jesus Christ in a much more honest way than many of the "socially accepted" filmmakers who tried to do the same. Told in neorrealist key, without embellishment nor grandiloquence, and that's where the beauty and the greatn... read more
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February 10, 2012fb1142797643Pasolini's "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" begins as an intriguing tale about an intense preacher in ancient times, but the plot turns less plausible as the film continues and the character gains various magical powers. Too bad. Wonderful locations and hats, though.
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March 31, 2012What little I know of the text is not strayed from here that much; odd, considering the guy who made it had leanings that go against the words in 2 Corinthians :trollface:
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February 19, 2012The Jesus of Matthew doesn't seem like a natural fit for neo-realism, but Pasolini makes it work. The effect is of an authentic, emotional devotion to Christ. Perhaps Pasolini's identification as a non-Christian helped his authenticity?
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November 21, 2009Very interesting version of the story of Jesus. Nicely acted, great score. The filmmakers tackled a lot and did a good job doing so. I did find it a bit too long though. Well produced.
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June 8, 2008Straight bible narrative from atheist-homo-commie auteur Pasolini.
The angry Christ will make you shit your pants. Scary. -
May 25, 2008A cool, spare filmmaking style + the simple, unaltered words of the Matthew gospel = a compelling film that depicts the message of Christ as shocking, radical, urgent, and uncompromising attacking conventional morality and established tradition to replace it with fiercely uncondi... read more
Critic Reviews
October 23, 2007
Don Druker, Chicago Reader
October 23, 2007
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
This highly political interpretation of the passion is as scandalous in its own way as Mel Gibson's but more poetic, more contemporary in its impact, and more serious in its overall morality. Full Review
May 9, 2005
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
The consequence is a crescendo of excitement and involvement with the fervor and passion of Jesus and an accumulating sense of the irony and tragedy of Jesus' suffering, in historical as well as spiri... Full Review
April 9, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Tells the life of Christ as if a documentarian on a low budget had been following him from birth. Full Review
April 21, 2012
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
Pasolini, a gay atheist Marxist, has made one of the most intriguing films about Jesus, cast with unknowns and shot in documentary style. Full Review
March 8, 2012
David Jenkins, Little White Lies
Definitely one for multiple viewings, and arguably up there with Pasolini's best. Full Review
August 21, 2009
Rob Nelson, City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
A defiantly earthy anti-epic, Pasolini's Gospel is a period piece in costume only, placing its rather scruffy, contemporary-looking Christ in the steep southern Italian hills of Calabria. Full Review
April 19, 2009
Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
Beautifully retells a spiritual story without resorting to the overbearing piousness that makes most American Bible films such well-intentioned slogs. Full Review
March 19, 2008
David Parkinson, Empire Magazine
Seen as a Catholic-Marxist statement at the time, nearly 40 years on, Pasolini's cinematic accomplishment still impresses. Full Review
November 24, 2007
Donald J. Levit, ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Pier Paolo Pasolini benefited from the very austerity that underlies the particular and at the same time universal center of this film. Full Review
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