|
''Son of God'' (also known as ''Jesus: The Complete Story'' and ''Jesus: The Real Story'') is an award-winning British documentary series that chronicles the life of Jesus Christ using scientific and contemporary historical evidence. It was presented by Jeremy Bowen, and its first episode premiered in the United Kingdom on 1 April 2001. The executive producer was Ruth Pitt and it was directed by Jean-Claude Bragard—it took a total of 16 months to produce and cost . A full symphonic score was composed by James Whitbourn. ''Son of God'' featured interviews with 21 historians and other Biblical experts, live action reenactments of the life of Jesus with Leron Livo in the lead role, and computer-generated images of what locations from Jesus's time might have looked like. These images, created by design team Red Vision, were praised by critics and received an Outstanding Achievement Award at the 2001 Royal Television Society North Awards. ''Son of God'' ran for a single series of three episodes, each of which focused on a different stage of Jesus's life. The first episode, "The Real Man", looked at the historical evidence for the existence of Jesus, and documented his life from his birth to his temptation. Episode two, "The Mission", discussed how Jesus became popular among Jews and Greeks, and why the Pharisees of the area might have seen him as a threat. "The Final Hours", the third and final episode of ''Son of God'', looked at Jesus's crucifixion, and presented some ideas as to how the traditional views of the crucifixion may conflict with how it really occurred. The episode concluded with the construction of a computer-generated animation of how Jesus may have appeared. Critical reaction to the series was mixed. While some reviewers praised the programme for being worthy of its publicity by focusing on history rather than spirituality, others remarked that it was dumbed down and went off on strange tangents. The reliability of the facial reconstruction was also questioned. ''Son of God'' first aired in the UK on BBC One during April 2001, where it received a viewership of six million and an audience share of 25%. In the United States, the series was shown on the Discovery Channel under the name ''Jesus: The Complete Story'' as a single three-hour programme, two weeks after its UK broadcast. The show was also licensed to countries including France, Denmark and New Zealand. ==Production== ''Son of God'' was devised in 1999, and was produced and joint-sponsored by BBC Manchester and the Discovery Channel in association with France 3 and Jerusalem Productions. The show was directed by Jean-Claude Bragard—whose previous BBC work had included ''Kicking & Screaming – A History of Football'' and the documentary series ''Panorama''—and the executive producer was Ruth Pitt, who had worked on documentaries such as ''42 Up'' and Channel 4's ''The State of Marriage''. During its promotion, Pitt described ''Son of God'' as "the most complete biography of Jesus that () ever been done". Jeremy Bowen, a former Middle East correspondent for BBC News, was chosen to present the programme for its UK broadcast. Despite not being religious, he was drawn to the programme for its use of scientific and historical information.〔 As well as presenting, Bowen also narrated and scripted large portions of the series. He stated that he brought a degree of scepticism to the show: before the first episode aired, he admitted that he did not think that you could "corroborate anything that was in the Gospels".〔 In the US version of ''Son of God'', which was broadcast on the Discovery Channel and retitled ''Jesus: The Complete Story'', the footage of Bowen was edited out and his narration was redubbed by American actor Avery Brooks. It was also released in this format under the name ''Jesus: The Real Story'', with narration from Tom Hodgkins. ''Son of God'' took 16 months to produce, and cost approximately £1.5 million.〔 It was featured as part of a £253 million season of new television programming on the BBC during the spring of 2001. British conductor James Whitbourn was commissioned to write a complete symphonic score for the series, which was performed by the BBC Philharmonic. The completed programme featured more than an hour and a half of Whitbourn's music. Whitbourn subsequently used the seminal themes from his orchestral score as the basis of his popular choral work, ''Son of God Mass'', for soprano saxophone, choir and organ. Computer graphic images were created by design group Red Vision, who employed techniques similar to ones used in the 2000 BBC series ''Walking with Dinosaurs''.〔 Speaking in September 2001, a spokesman for Red Vision stated that their involvement in ''Son of God'' had been "incredibly successful" for them. Promotional campaigns for both the British and American broadcasts of the series focused on the technology and science being used in the programme, and the special effects that Red Vision had created. In particular, a facial reconstruction during the final episode showing what Jesus might have looked like garnered significant media attention. In the lead-up to episode one, several newspapers, including ''The Daily Mail'' and ''The Guardian'', ran stories speculating whether the computer-generated image could show the true face of Jesus. British television listings magazine ''Radio Times'' featured the reconstructed face on the cover of its 31 March issue under the headline "Is This the Face of Jesus?". This cover and its headline received criticism from some commentators for being sensationalist and misleading. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Son of God (TV series)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|