The Untapped Goldmine of Scripture Adaptations
You can make a lot of money writing for the movies. And as far as I can tell, two entities stand above the rest when it comes to generating film plots:
William Shakespeare and God.
Now, in any given year, all manner of Shakespeare gets picked up. The guy’s long dead, and the rights to his plays are free, so why not? Someone somewhere, working with a powerful case of writers block, will decide to abandon their original concept and simply adapt the Bard. But, setting the action in Elizabethan-era England is expensive (what with all those costumes), and it can limit the appeal to a mass-audience. So, many adapters simply move it to a modern place like, say, New York City, where they can stick Hamlet in a high-rise, and let Montagues and Capulets run amok on the West Side.
Tales of ancient Israel, however, rarely get such modern cinematic retellings. And this is puzzling, because stories from scripture are free to adapt and have a wealth of blood, lust, honor and intrigue. Sure, there are plenty of renditions with swords and sandals, but when it comes to moving things to the contemporary, a certain carpenter from Nazareth seems to get all the attention. He’s pretty easy to pick out. Think about all those meaningful camera shots of a stricken hero lying down, arms splayed out, feet crossed. Well, they’re designed to make a Christian audience go, “Oh yeah, director, I know what you’re doing there. It’s like Jesus!”
Try getting a similar reaction from a Jewish audience. Sure, Jim Carrey parted his tomato soup in Bruce Almighty and Steve Carrel built an ark in the sequel, but I’m talking about something more high-minded.
Well, you can look no further than The Jewish Channel for such an example, because we’ve got Samson. The film not only transports the ancient Judge from Israel to Holocaust-era Poland, but also strips him of his physical strength in place of a more compelling emotional perseverance. These twists on the original tale make for great drama. And while director Andrzej Wajda’s magnum work may seem unique for its modern take on a tale of ancient Israel, there are actually a few other American films which have found similar inspiration.
In East of Eden, John Steinbeck reset the story of Cain and Abel in California’s World War One-era Salinas Valley. When Elia Kazan adapted it for the screen, it was James Dean who stole scenes as the emotionally tortured Cal, whose hatred for his brother stems from the cold favoritism practiced by his father, Adam.
In Jacob’s Ladder, director Adrian Lyne revisited the ancient dream of angels climbing to and from heaven and earth, as one man’s purgatorial journey toward acceptance of his young son’s death. That man, Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins), is a gas-poisoned Vietnam veteran who experiences other-worldly visions after being wounded in battle.
Those are three compelling cases for more Scriptural adaptations. So, whose story to adapt next? Well, whoever it is, that story won’t cost Hollywood a dime. When it comes to collecting story residuals, God’s not very business savvy.
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