The portrayal of Christ in cinema has evolved alongside the twentieth century’s changing understanding of faith, doubt and human suffering. From a sacred icon to a vulnerable, questioning human being, each director has offered a different answer to the question: Who is Christ – God, a victim, a revolutionary, or a man confronting his own destiny?

In Cecil B. DeMille’s The King of Kings (1927), Christ is still almost an icon — exalted, distant and inspiring reverence. In Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), he becomes a stern preacher who challenges the established order.

In Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Christ emerges as a figure in the midst of an inner crisis, experiencing fear, exhaustion and loneliness. Zeffirelli, by contrast, seeks a balance between the human and the divine in Jesus of Nazareth (1977), creating one of cinema’s most recognisable portrayals of Christ.

Scorsese goes further in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988): his Christ is tormented by doubt and dreams of an ordinary human life. If destiny is predetermined, what becomes of free will and the meaning of sacrifice? In Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004), physical suffering takes centre stage: the viewer is invited not so much to contemplate the sacrifice as to experience its pain.

The history of Christ on screen thus becomes a history of cinema itself: from icon to human being, from symbol to psychology, from faith to doubt, from the spiritual to the physical.