“Behold the Man!”

Abstract

Films depicting the life of Jesus of Nazareth appear simple and easily readable, and this understanding of the films as mere dramatic interpretations of the gospels contributes to a lack of attention to issues of social identity. This study addresses the gap in critical inquiry, locating a profound anxiety about gender at the center of these religiously oriented films. Close readings of five mainstream American films reveal that the texts are structured by binary oppositions with other characters that position Jesus as the epitome of a divine masculinity defined against femininity, homosexuality, and hypermasculinity. These binaries are loaded with a discourse of ethnicity that links Jesus’ counterfactual whiteness with notions of masculinity and spiritual goodness. Though the films construct a relatively stable set of prohibitions on Jesus’ masculinity, they leave his gendered persona murky and undefined, providing little guidance about what ideal, transcendent masculinity can or should be.