The Life of Jesus movie released in 2017 is a re-mastered version of a movie formerly called Visual Bible: The Gospel of John, released in 2003. The newer re-mastered version in DVD form is in English, but it also has options to view it dubbed in Portuguese or Spanish.

In The Gospel of John movie released in 2015 as part of the “Lumo Project,” Jesus seemed to me to be portrayed as mostly serious, stern, and dramatic. The star of The Life of Jesus (previously The Gospel of John released in 2003) portrays Jesus the way I believe He was. I believe Jesus was serious or stern when the occasion called for it, but generally cheerful.
​In John 16:33, Jesus told His disciples to “cheer up” [World English Bible]. If children were comfortable around Him, it seems likely He was generally cheerful. I don’t think He needed to be dramatic. His words of wisdom, His unfailing virtue, and His ability to perform miracles no doubt had a power of their own.

The script of The Life of Jesus movie contains the entire word-for-word Gospel of John, from the Good News translation. According to Wikipedia, The Good News Bible was called Today’s English Version until 2001. The American Bible Society wanted to overcome the perception that it was a paraphrase rather than a translation.

The costuming and scenery seem very realistic in The Life of Jesus. Some criticize the fact that the man who portrays Jesus, Henry Ian Cusick, does not have a Jewish appearance. I feel that the importance of the way he portrayed Jesus by his acting far outweighs the appearance of his ethnicity. Part of the text of the movie is read by a narrator, but spoken words that were quoted in the Bible are usually spoken by an actor portraying the person that spoke. The narrator for the English version is Christopher Plummer, the star of the popular movie The Sound of Music that was released in 1965.

I found his narration very pleasant to listen to.

Since the movie contains the entire Gospel of John, it lasts about three hours. One offering of the movie, when it was called Visual Bible: Gospel of John, had two discs—one complete version about three hours in length and one only two hours containing highlights only. If you’re watching the re-mastered version called The Life of Jesus, which is three hours long, you could easily establish an intermission following the “Triumphal Entry,” when Jesus enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey and the crowd waves palm branches. Just before the end of the passage about the Triumphal Entry, the text speaks of the crowd coming because word of the miracle of Lazarus being raised from death had spread. The final words before intermission would be those found in John chapter 12, verse 19: “The Pharisees then said to one another, ‘You see, we are not succeeding at all! Look, the whole world is following Him!’ “You could stop right after those words. Then start it back up at chapter 12, verse 20, after your intermission. Chapter 12, verse 20 will begin talking about some Greeks who had gone to the Passover Festival and about Philip and Andrew. Then Jesus begins to talk about the fact that “His hour has come.” That would make Part I about one hour and 40 minutes and Part II about one hour and 20 minutes. One option would be to watch the first part on the weekend of Palm Sunday and the last part on the weekend of Easter. Since the first part would end with the Triumphal Entry, it would work out well to watch it on Palm Sunday weekend.

One person who contributed a review of the movie said it was the “most realistic acting of Jesus” she had seen. Another said he had watched it “at least 10 times” and that it “may change your life.”

If you should have trouble finding The Life of Jesus movie in DVD form, you could try entering it in the search engine of the christianbook.com web site. If you would like to watch an online version, it has been provided via Youtube. You can watch it by clicking on the embedded Youtube link below the Youtube trailer provided below. I could not find a trailer listed under the newer title of The Life of Jesus, but I did find one under the old title of The Gospel of John (not to be confused with the one released in 2015 with the more stern characterization of Jesus). You will find that trailer below, to give you a taste of the quality of the movie.

Videos suggested following these videos are not necessarily endorsed by this website