Heavy-handed Christ metaphor

Most films in the 50’s and 60’s USA had heavy religious treatment in my opinion. They really seemed to drill it home because a majority of the country was very Protestant and writers felt like they had to include Christianity so that they wouldn’t be accused of NOT being Christian.

I love this film but that’s the same reaction I had with an eye roll. He was hardly a Christ figure, but they wanted to make him Some kind of sacrificial figure, I hated it and it would have been so much better if they had eluded to that like a piece of art would do rather than slapping a Christian stamp on it.

Try watching it again. Why would they have laid him out like that if they weren't going for that metaphor? They did it by accident? Of course, they were trying to undercut the gospels, in that he became a mythic figure, one that his "disciples" spoke of after his *ahem* departure in awed tones, bigger than life -- and with all the accuracy of fishermen talking about the little fish they caught which grew in size with each retelling. It plants a none-too-subtle seed in the mind of the viewer. "Yeah, I suppose it could have happened something like that."

You're probably under the mistaken impression that because it had Christ-like parallels that it was pro-Christian. Far from it. The vast majority of movies, even in the '30's, disparaged faith. Before you argue reflexively, what is guaranteed whenever you see a layman who carries a Bible and quotes from it? He's nuts or evil. Guaranteed. It's happens so often it's an overworked trope. This denigration is just a bit more subtle, and with no Bible verses. But for it to work, you DO have to notice the parallels, so they're heavy-handed. People were more biblically literate back then, is all.