Biblical Epics: Sacred Narrative in the Hollywood Cinema Book

List of stills vi

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction: Theorising the Biblical Epic 1

Part 1 The Old Testament Epic 25

1 Jewish questions 33

2 Questions of narrative 42

3 Henry King's David and Bathsheba (1951) 70

Part 2 The Christ Film 91

4 The lives of Christ: the greatest story every screened 98

5 'Abide with Me': Cecil B. De Mille's The King of Kings (1927) 110

6 'Son of Man': Nicholas Ray's King of Kings (1961) 127

7 An American pastoral: George Stevens's The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) 139

8 From Main Street to mean streets: Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) 149

Part 3 The Roman/Christian Epic 169

9 The poetics of the Roman/Christian Epic 177

10 The Robe and Demetrius and the Gladiators 206

Coda: Victor Agonistes; or, justice done to an unconsidered star 277

Note on sources 239

Index 243