- Network: National Geographic Channel
- Series Premiere Date: Mar 29, 2015
Critic Reviews
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Rendered without much embellishment and acted with firmly controlled vigor, Killing Jesus, a TV adaptation of the bestselling book by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, is a fine retelling of the story of Jesus Christ as a historical figure.
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Killg Jesus is for the most part a conventional retelling of the gospel narrative. But it displays great regard for the viewer's intelligence.
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With an efficient and alternately clumsy and eloquent screenplay by Walon Green, Killing Jesus does not vary much from the Via Dolorosa. As a result, the lavish NatGeo treatment works a lot better than it did on the channel’s adaptations of O’Reilly’s earlier books, “Killing Lincoln” and “Killing Kennedy.”
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While covering a good deal of ground, the filmmakers don’t linger over the ordeal of the Crucifixion in the way, say, Mel Gibson did in “The Passion of the Christ,” and the program benefits from that sense of economy. Still, the three-hour telecast (about three-quarters that length, sans commercials) must recover from a truly terrible opening.
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There are a number of bad wigs and beards on display here, but much of the cast surmounts the costuming problems. The pace and the depth of the story might have been helped by extending this film into a two-night event.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 14
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Mixed: 0 out of 14
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Negative: 9 out of 14
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Apr 8, 2015
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Apr 9, 2015