To give the peoples of the modern world the same opportunity to see the wondrous life-drama of Jesus as was given to the citizens of Judea nineteen hundred years ago has been the object of my endeavors in making The King of Kings. My purpose is, of course, dramatic entertainment; drama in its highest sense as defined in the immortal apothegm of Aristotle. And in this connection I wish to refer to the assemblage of representatives of more than thirty religious sects and beliefs who gathered at the studio last August, opening the film-taking with a service of prayer.
What brought these ministers of conflicting faiths together? Not only all the religions believed in by European peoples and Americans were represented, but also the Buddhist and Mohammedan faiths. It was the first time in history that two of the sects had ever appeared together in public. The reason for their friendly, co-operating presence lay in the belief of these religious leaders that the motion-picture medium possessed the power to carry the story of Jesus to millions who might not otherwise be sympathetic to it, or who would find difficulty in grasping it because of racial or linguistic reasons.
A dozen years ago such an attempt as mine would have been impossible. Movies then would have been regarded as too cheap and banal a medium, whereas today they are associated with the greatest of themes and embody the thoughts of many of the world's greatest thinkers. Twelve years ago the subject would not have appealed for another reason, namely, that religion was a thing conventionally accepted by the great majority of people, but too often disregarded. The World War shook everything to its foundations. Old standards and old ideas would not fit, and new theories and principles were strained after, only to be found worthless. The same people are groping today for a foundation, for proven standards of acceptance. The ideals of the Man of Nazareth have persisted throughout all the centuries, and there is an almost universal demand for the return to greater knowledge of Him and the influence of His mission. The power of the screen as a vital factor in education has been thoroughly proven. Consequently the focusing of this power on the teachings of Jesus will be of tremendous value.
I am not referring only to those who are termed Christians. The fundamental truths brought out through the ministry of Jesus cannot be confined to belief, race, nationality or social position. Whether he believes that Jesus was a divine being who descended to humanity or a human being who rose to divinity, it is not after all tremendously important in view of the fact that His ideals apply to all of us.
Thus it is our earliest desire to offend no one's religious beliefs, but to benefit uncounted millions of the world's population by telling of the Ministry, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus- the greatest story ever told. It was with the utmost humility that I approached this subject, and it was with the deepest reverence that the work of visualizing it was done.
Permit me to illustrate this fact by two or three happenings among the sets or on location which demonstrate the power of the scenes over those who worked in their midst. When we were filming Jesus teaching the Lord's Prayer to the assembled multitude on the temple steps, there followed a moment's silence, after which the set orchestra played softly the Doxology. Moved by the emotion of the scene, one of the players began to sing the words, and immediately the entire group, numbering a thousand, spontaneously chorused the soul-stirring song in unison.
On another occasion, as we were closing our work of representing the beautiful scenes of the Resurrection and the hour approached Christmas Eve, the great pipe organ on the set pealed forth one after another of the loved carols of Yuletide. The actors and actresses forgot themselves and sang these carols as their religious forebears had sung them in front of the churches and homes of Merrie England centuries ago.
The children who were on the set for the six or eight months of our picture-taking received a religious education the equivalent of at least two or three years' plodding attendance in a Bible class. I believe it will be found that, just as appropriate motion pictures greatly shorten the pupils' acquirement of the essential factors of history, geography and other literary studies, so Bible pictures will enable the boys and girls to get the outlines of the Old and New Testament stories in briefest time with the greatest pleasure and delight and with the utmost reverence for the subjects and the arousing of the religious emotions.
At no time in the world's history has humanity so hungered for the truth. Science has declared there is a God. And a groping, eager world, cries, "How may we find Him?"
The answer goes back two thousand years, to a Man who stood with a little band of ragged followers in the midst of bigotry, cruelty and ignorance lighting with the torch of His own life the flame of hope in the heart of man and showing us by sublime Sacrifice- Death and Resurrection- our own Immortality.
Cecil B. De Mille, "The Screen as a Religious Teacher," Theatre, June 1927, pages 45, 76.
© 1997, David Pierce, on editing and revisions (if any)
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