Christian Viewpoint: Madcap biblical comedy has strong message at its heart
The Hollywood Reporter describes ‘The Book of Clarence’ (15), which my daughter Beth and I saw in Aberdeen as “quite possibly the funkiest biblical epic ever put on the screen.”
This quirky, inventive movie, written, produced and scored by Jeymes Samuel, combines madcap comedy with moments of deep thoughtfulness and reverence.
Clarence, a contemporary of Jesus in Roman-occupied Jerusalem, needs to get cash, quickly, to repay a debt. Hearing of the attention Jesus is receiving, Clarence sets himself up as an alternative Messiah, generating money through beguiling the crowds with his secular vision and fake miracles.
Clarence is a convinced atheist. “Knowledge is stronger than belief,” he says. “I possess the knowledge that there is no God.” Jesus’ miracles he sees as “little tricks”.
All the Jewish people in the film – including Jesus - are played by black actors, compared with the all-white cast of the epic biblical movies of the 1950s which ‘Clarence’ parodies. And why not, since whatever the colour of our skin, Jesus is one of us? The Roman occupiers of Jerusalem are, in contrast, all white, allowing the movie to critique black experiences of racism at the hands of white law-enforcers.
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I wondered, however ,why there was hardly any reference to the Jewish faith of Jerusalem’s inhabitants, and why there was gratuitous discrimination against those referred to as “gypsies”.
The profoundest story is of Clarence’s gradual awakening to Jesus. Clarence is, fundamentally, a good person. John the Baptist notes “there’s a beautiful soul in there somewhere.” This is evident in Clarence’s sacrificial use of the money his preaching brings in.
He visits Jesus’ mother Mary, researching her son’s “little tricks”. She tells him “My son has never performed a trick in all his life.”
And the sheer presence of that man rebuking the crowds stoning a woman to death, and setting her free, while all Clarence can do (commendably) is to put his arm around her and absorb some of the descending hail of rocks.
And there’s the irony of what happens when Clarence, by this time trying to prove he’s not the Messiah, to avoid crucifixion, is compelled by Roman governor Pontius Pilate to try walking on water.
Jesus has asked Father God what to do about Clarence, imprisoned by the Romans. ““He has not answered yet. But he will.” At the end of the film, we see the outcome of God’s reply, and it is breathtaking.
In some ways, Clarence is a 21st century character, living with uncertainties in a troubled, unjust world. Mary’s words to him come to us as the words of God. ““My dear, dear child, you find faith. Then you will find all the answers you seek.”
