The Magdalene Review

Tonight I watched the claymation Gospel story, The Miracle Maker (2000). I’ve watched a lot of Jesus movies in the last couple of months, and I can honestly say that I enjoyed this one more than most. It is, apparently, much more difficult to look and act pretentious when you are a claymation model, much to the movie’s credit. The characters were accessible, both for adults and children, and although a consistent message of love was conveyed throughout the film, it never felt preachy or overly pious. Punctuated by good humor and moments of real depth, I found myself engrossed in the movie and eager to see how it would present the end of the story.

Surprisingly, Mary Magdalene appears in the very first scene, in which we meet Jesus working on a building project in Sepphoris. Mary Magdalene is apparently the resident crazy lady, much to the entertainment of some and the consternation of others. Haunted by demons of mental illness, we eventually see what Magdalene sees; distorted faces and growling voices, an asymmetric world akin to what one could imagine a bad acid trip must look like.

About a third of the way through the film, as she runs from her terrifying visions and finds herself atop a garbage heap, a commanding presence appears in the person of Jesus. He directs the demons to leave Mary in a powerful animated sequence. Fractured by howling specters that rise from her body, Mary collapses as they leave her. Healed, she remains in Jesus’ embrace as the light of day dawns, and then makes her way back down into town. Mary Magdalene has much to be grateful for, and she follows him thereafter.

At the cross, she appears with Jesus’ mother, and together they watch in horror as he dies. In contrast to the his mother’s relative silence, Mary Magdalene wails with grief, and after Jesus’ body is taken down, placed in clean linen and entombed, she returns to the cross. Clutching it, she weeps alone.

Here the movie takes an interesting turn. Wracked with grief, Mary spends the night wandering. We are reminded of her life at the margins of society before she was relieved of her demons. At dawn she discovers the empty tomb, and as she sits alone, crying, she speaks with a “gardener” who stands behind her. When he says her name, she turns, and sees Jesus. She embraces him and he tells her that she no longer has to hold onto him. Sending her off with news of his resurrection, one senses that given her history and her night of wandering, things can’t possibly go well when she delivers the message. In fact, this is the case. The reason why Simon Peter disbelieves her is that he thinks she has once again gone mad.

I am reminded here of 19th century rationalists whose views of Mary Magdalene’s witness of the resurrection were colored by her identity as one formerly plagued by demons. Susan Haskins, in her book, Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor (New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1993), had the following to say about 19th century Jesus scholar, David Friedrich Strauss:

Strauss mocked the fact that Christianity had been founded on the ‘ravings of a demented and love-lorn woman’; Mary Magdalen’s ‘impetuous temperament’ accounted for her return to the tomb, ‘she having been formerly a demoniac’. (Haskins, p. 330)

Ernest Renan took a similar approach in his 1863 book, Vie de Jesus:

Had his body been taken away? Or did enthusiasm, always credulous, in certain circumstances, create afterwards the group of narratives by which it was sought to establish faith in the resurrection? . . . Let us say, however, that the strong imagination of Mary Magdalene played in this circumstance an important part. Divine power of love! Sacred moments in which the passion of one possessed gave to the world a resuscitated God! (Haskins, p. 331)

So much for visiting the tomb out of devotion. Interpreted this way, Mary Magdalene’s ardor has more to do with madness than dedication.

Questionable interpretation of Mary’s witness aside, The Miracle Maker is an excellent Jesus film to watch with the family, though the scene with Mary’s demons might be a bit scary for younger viewers. An all-star cast provides voices for the characters, with Miranda Richardson, best known to me in her role as Black Adder‘s Queen Elizabeth, plays Mary Magdalene.

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Update (04/10/06): Matt Page over at Bible Movies Blog posted a great review of The Miracle Maker this morning. I think he’s really on the spot with his observations, and I recall having some of the same thoughts while I was watching. Check it out!