100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #8: The Miracle Maker (2000)

Directed by Stanislav M. Sokolov. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Julie Christie, and William Hurt.

The Miracle Maker retells the story of the Gospels for children, blending stop-motion clay puppetry and hand drawn 2D animation to bring Jesus to life. A joint Russian-Welsh production from animation studio Cartwn Cymru, the film actually premiered in 1999 on Welsh public television in the Welsh language before getting a star-studded English voice cast for its global release through Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions. It played theatrically in Europe, Japan, and Australia before premiering on ABC in the United States in 2000.

I wanted to note the film’s wide mainstream television premieres at the beginning of this essay to highlight how much our cultural landscape has changed in the past 25 years. Can you imagine a Jesus movie getting a wide release on either British or American TV today, especially one which portrays him as a teacher of great authority, a worker of true miracles, and by the end the very Son of God Himself?

They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

- Mark 1:22

The Miracle Maker is indeed one of the best depictions of the life of Christ ever put to screen. It puts us, the viewers, in the place of his disciples, gradually revealing to us who Jesus is over the course of his public ministry. We would be forgiven for completely overlooking him at his first appearance; he is merely one of several workmen helping to construct a synagogue in Sepphoris. However, as he begins to teach, his small group of friends grows larger and larger until it seems the whole of Galilee is following him to Jerusalem for the Passover.

This man Jesus does not speak as the other rabbis; rather he speaks with power and authority, whether it be in commanding the demons to come out of Mary Magdalene, or bringing Lazarus back from the dead, or convincing John of his need to be baptized, or forgiving the sins of the cripple before healing him. But even when he speaks with such evident authority, he shows great love, friendliness, and even approachability. People are drawn to him, not just as a teacher or a leader, but as a friend.

Of course, there are those who reject him as well. His evident authority is a challenge to the power of the political and religious leaders around him. This contrast between authority and power is one of the central themes of the film. Those who cling to power seek to control; Christ, the man of authority, seeks to heal and to free. As a result, Christ makes the powerful insecure: the Pharisees and Sadducees fear being shaken out of their complacent prosperity; Pilate fears being replaced by the Emperor if he cannot placate the Jewish people; Herod is explicitly nihilistic about his power, bitterly asking “isn’t all human power an illusion?”. Judas conflates Christ’s authority with power, dreaming of the day when Christ will lead a military victory against the Romans and despairing when he discovers Christ’s true mission. And finally there is Satan, who attempts to corrupt Jesus by offering to trade him power for his authority, but discovers his own powerlessness when he is cast out of Mary Magdalene. The powerful and those who lust for power are confused and enraged by Christ’s authority, since it shatters the idol they built for themselves and exposes it as a mere illusion, subordinate to the authority of God possessed by Jesus Christ.

This authority is clear from the beginning of the film, although Jesus’s divine nature is not. In fact, for a movie called The Miracle Maker his first miracle comes relatively late in the film. It is his teaching which comes first, and the miracles later. This gradual revelation of his true nature is evident in the way his followers address him: first as teacher, then master, then Lord. Finally, after the Resurrection, Thomas is able to fully proclaim the truth of Christ: “My Lord….and my God!” In order to keep this theme of gradual revelation, the film omits Peter’s great confession of Matthew 16, a choice about which I was unsure until I realized what the film was trying to do. Jesus (and the film) is not being subtle about his divinity; after all, the Voice of God proclaims him as “My Beloved Son” at his baptism in the Jordan; Christ screams “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test!” at Satan during his temptation in the wilderness. But his disciples, and by extension us the audience, are very thick-headed about recognizing him. We see him teach with authority; we see him cast out demons; we see him heal the sick; we even see him raise the dead. And yet, when he goes willingly to his own death we feel as if he has been vanquished, squashed by the powers he challenged.

And then he rose.

The way that The Miracle Maker portrays Jesus is astonishingly good. At moments, he seems completely human, as when he is eating with friends at Bethany or in the visible annoyance he displays when the Pharisees try to test him. At others, he displays a power not of this world, a mystery and authority unmatched by any of the powerful figures around him. Jesus in this film is fully divine and fully human, both God Almighty and our brother. We are called to react as his followers did, with a mixture of awe and joy at the wonders he works, but also with a love and familiarity as our dearest friend and brother. Christ inspires no half measures; we must either recognize his authority and follow him, or regard him with fear and hatred.

I must also highly praise the technical work done by the animators of this film. As great as the story is, and as great as the portrayal of Christ is, The Miracle Maker is elevated by the beauty displayed in every frame of the film. To be sure, the puppetry sometimes dips into the “uncanny valley”, but once you cross the valley and suspend your disbelief, you are struck with how alive everything is. The filmmakers put tremendous care into every aspect of their shots; the backgrounds, the miniature sets, the “extras”, the clothing, the props: everything feels just as real and like just as much care was put into designing and animating them as was put into designing and animating Jesus himself. The camera moves dynamically, allowing you to explore the elaborate miniatures and feel like you are actually in Bethany, Sepphoris, or Jerusalem. And the transitions from the 3D puppetry sections to the 2D traditional animation is breathtaking. The 2D sections are used to depict flashbacks, or parables, or moments of intense spiritual and emotional power, and the film blends the two mediums in such a beautiful way that sweeps you right into the emotion of scene. The drawn portions are also not the clean, bright animations characteristic of Disney or Dreamworks at the time; they are rougher, more raw, done in pencil and pastel instead of paint and ink, and inspire awe, wonder, and sometimes terror in the viewer. Taken together, the animation styles serve to further emphasize the authority, beauty, and awesome power of the Gospel story, making The Miracle Maker without a doubt the best portrayal of the life of Christ for kids, and one of the very best for adults as well.