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- “King Herod” and “Caiaphas and Pharisees” - stills from King of Kings, courtesy of Angel Studios
vs.
- “King Herod” in far left of “The Chosen Last Supper Roman Table”, and “Caiaphas and Pharisees” (left) in “The Chosen Last Supper Part 3”- photographs by Annie Leibovitz, courtesy of 5&2 Studios
Jewish perspective on the controversial “Whodunnit?”: King of Kings more perpetuates inflammatory stereotypes
By Nora Lee Mandel
KING OF KINGS
Directed by Seong-ho Jang
Written by Seong-ho Jang, Hoseok Sung, and Rob Edwards, adapted from The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens
Produced by Seong-ho Jang and Woo-hyung Kim
1 hr 45 mins. Rated PG.
With the voices of: Kenneth Branagh, Oscar Isaac, Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, Forest Whitaker, Mark Hamill, and Roman Griffin Davis.
Release in U.S. theaters on April 11, 2025 by Angel Studios
The two leading producers/distributors of Christian “values-based” films and television went head-to-head in movie theaters this month in time for Easter with new versions of the “New Testament” biography. And through Passover for those concerned how these images could either provoke or calm rising antisemitism in a fraught season. Above are the images in each of the most controversial Jewish characters - “King Herod” and the “High Priest Caiaphas”.
Auteur/entrepreneur Dallas Jenkins’s 5&2 Studios was on big screens first with theatrical previews of his modern American Evangelical The Chosen: Last Supper at more than 2,000 theaters nationally, including my neighborhood multiplex in Queens, NY:
Distributed by Fathom in the U.S., Season 5 of the internationally popular TV series (“shot in cinematic format”, per the publicity) was released in three parts: Part One (episodes 501 – 502) premiered March 28; Part 2 (episodes 503 – 505) on April 4; Part 3 (episodes 506 - 508) on April 11, and all three will continue to run through the month. I viewed and commented on Seasons 1 – 4 of The Chosen, and I will watch Season 5 later in 2025, when it streams on Prime Video, where the earlier seasons continue.
Premiering in 3,200 theaters, also here in Queens, King of Kings is a “faith-based” animated film aimed at children, distributed by Angel Studios, which was the first home of The Chosen before it became a juggernaut on its own. Though this eventually seems comparable to a medieval Catholic Passion Play, it begins like a sequel to Bharat Nalluri’s charming, quite secular 2017 film The Man Who Invented Christmas about the genesis and development of the now familiar tale of the transformation of Scrooge. Papa Dickens (voiced by Kenneth Branagh) performs his theatrical reading of A Christmas Carol, vividly seen through his imagination. “Mrs. Dickens” (voiced by Uma Thurman) suggests that what is known as “The Greatest Story Ever Told” needs to be filtered, as subtitled “A Story Told By Charles Dickens”, to appeal to their very active youngest son “Walter” (voiced by Roman Griffin Davis), who is preoccupied by the exploits of mythic King Arthur, his sword Excalibur, and his knights fighting dragons. Papa Dickens then literally puts the Christ back in “Christmas in his meant-for-family-only manuscript that was posthumously published as The Life of Our Lord. He shows “Walt” where “Israel” is on the globe (presumably pointing to Jerusalem in the then Ottoman Empire), and assures his son it is a story of “angels, a wicked King, jealous rivals, and miracles”, that inspired Camelot.
As the story unfolds in Papa’s telling and “Walt”s immersive involvement in the action, the Dickens parents continually appear as “Mary” and her not at all old husband “Joseph”. The angel prophesying the birth of a “savior, a king” to the shepherds and Wise Men, and warning the new parents to flee is a voice from the stars. (Papa has to explain what “a manger” is, yet somehow “Walt” doesn’t later ask for the meaning of words like “adultery” or “sacrifice”, though maybe he already knows about Lady Guinevere and Sir Lancelot. At the other extreme, a girl among the coached white kids in a concluding promotional coda exclaims “My favorite scene is the Virgin Birth” which is neither referenced nor seen.) The Wise Men tell “King Herod” (voiced by Mark Hamill) the angel’s news. In the animation, this “Herod” is only interested in eliminating any rivals to be King of Judea to call himself “King of the Jews”, and looks a lot like a typically fat, fatuous Dickensian character, with a large, bulbous nose. Dickens would probably have seen that round protuberance as symbolic of Jewish corruption. “Walt” is shocked by his cruel directive against “all those babies”, but Papa provides a vapid explanation that “A king makes the rules”, quickly saying “Herod” died while the future king was growing up far away. Historically, that was “Herod the Great”, and it is one of his sons, Herod Antipas, who is the “King Herod” of a reduced jurisdiction and is very much alive in The Chosen. He is played by Paul Ben-Victor, initially the most well-known and the only Jewish actor in either cast. His portrayal is a wily, Roman-raised politician balancing a potentially rebellious indigenous Jewish population with the demands of the oppressive colonial government, whose luxuries he enjoys.
Papa Dickens goes on a lengthy “Old Testament” tangent when he claims the family later travels to Jerusalem to mark Passover, then chooses to illustrate that holiday to “Walt”, convenient for the film’s marketing calendar. “Walt” doesn’t ask why their son called the temple there “my father’s house”. In The Chosen, the now adult leads conscientious markings of the Jewish seasonal holidays, though as unnamed rituals. His explicitly Jewish followers mostly apply the title “Rabbi” to their leader; the English-language King of Kings uses “Teacher”. In The Chosen, almost all the people around the central figure are individually charismatic Jews, particularly the male apostles whose Jewish names are suddenly changed to the Hellenistic “New Testament” ones, the only names by which they are docilely introduced in the animated film, including “Matthew the Tax Collector”. While that despised profession is one of the complaints hurled at the group in the animated film, The Chosen circumvents the distasteful stereotype of association with money by having the character (played by Paras Patel) be neuroatypical whose arithmetic obsession was manipulated by the Romans, while the leader cleverly moves him over to managing the movement’s finances. “Judas” (played by Luke Dimyan) in The Chosen comes from a business family who thinks in terms of profits, so resents when his suggestions for increasing donations are ignored. In The King of Kings, “Judas” is manipulated by the religious enemies.
Both interpretations emphasize the miracles over the teachings. The Chosen especially features repeated health healings, though the promulgator in The King of Kings expresses regret (as voiced by Oscar Isaac) that is what brings in the crowds, made thrillingly visible though the issues “Satan” thunders will probably be confusing to children. Rather, I was reminded of Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979) where a spectator strains to mis-hear “Blessed are the cheesemakers”. Also in both, the entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey is a calculated re-enactment of a prophecy intended to aggravate The Pharisees as a religious authority.
The growing gatherings mix males and females together is one of the elements that annoys the very gender conscious Pharisees in The Chosen. The King of Kings ignores Jewish women followers like Mary Magdalene, losing her important witness role (taken up by “Walt”), but her earlier life would be awkward context in this bowdlerized version.
The Pharisees are problematic in both treatments -- Papa Dickens doesn’t even explain who they are or what their accusations of “blasphemy” mean (the English dialogue has the central character seem to cleverly change doctrinal testimony under their cross examination). Everywhere they wear phylacteries on their foreheads in The King of Kings and in The Chosen wear tallit (prayer shawls) that emphasize they are observant Jews. The Chosen does show that their religious objections were more political excuses.
Worst in both is the portrayal of “Caiaphas” -- Ben Kingsley (prominently known for his role as a Jew in Schindler’s List) voices who is only identified as “High Priest” in The King of Kings, while Richard Fancy, who is known most for a recurring role on Seinfeld, plays him as the elder head of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin rabbinate. It is repugnant that in The King of Kings “Caiaphas” has a long, chopped-off hooked nose and leads chants in the temple of “We will kill him! We will kill him!” Ahistorically, the barely seen Roman governor Pontius Pilate so passively goes along with their decision that Pierce Brosnan’s voice is barely heard amongst a bloodthirsty, possibly Jewish crowd.
As to who shaped these troubling portrayals in The King of Kings is unclear. Debut director Seong-ho Jang has long experience with special effects for TV and films, and the visuals here are part of the issue. The co-writer is Hoseok Sung, and the film was created by South Korea’s Mofac Animation, so perhaps there was cross-cultural naïveté that faithfulness to a Victorian attitude is no longer be acceptable. (Yet even Common Sense Media just finds this “kid-friendly” religious expression.) Identified as another co-writer, at least for this English-language version, is Rob Edwards, best known for Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, whose “words have helped establish added personality to the characters of The King of Kings while bolstering an inspirational story the whole family can enjoy”, per the official website. (Some parents could be more put off by the sight of a Roman soldier’s whip coming down on an unseen body, or that body fuzzily nailed on to a crucifix and lifted up to hang there, a common Roman punishment in that era.)
The production values, including many of the attractive actors, in the first four seasons of The Chosen made it worth watching, even as it drew ever closer towards Season 5 to a concerning line of rigid retrograde interpretation. I not only cannot recommend The King of Kings, but I specifically discourage families from seeing it for its unnecessary perpetuation of inflammatory stereotypes.
4/14/2025
Nora Lee Mandel is a member of New York Film Critics Online. Her reviews are counted in the Rotten Tomatoes TomatoMeter:
Complete Index to Nora Lee Mandel's Movie Reviews
My reviews have appeared on: FF2 Media; Film-Forward; Lilith, FilmFestivalTraveler; and, Alliance of Women Film Journalists and for Jewish film festivals. Shorter versions of my older reviews are at IMDb's comments, where non-English-language films are listed by their native titles.
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