THE FACE OF JESUS

THE FACE OF JESUS is a 69-minute Polish documentary, with two bonus features, which discusses three ancient artifacts, including the Shroud of Turin, plus two 20th Century paintings of a vision of Jesus, depicting the Face of Jesus and what it means to Roman Catholic leaders and believers. If one digs deep into THE FACE OF JESUS, it has a very important message, that the Shroud of Turin, the veil of Manoppello, and the Vilnius Divine Mercy painting of Jesus inspire people to worship and follow Him, but the main movie is too dull and anti-climactic.

Various miracles or near miracles occur throughout THE FACE OF JESUS, particularly when touching the cloth, or veil, of Manoppello by various Christian groups. Of particular importance are a group of nuns that grew up around literal the worship of both the cloth of Manoppello and the Veil of Veronica.

Early on in THE FACE OF JESUS, there are snippets of a lecture at a conference in Warsaw, Poland by a middle-aged woman, described as a “secular [or lay] missionary,” who travels around Europe with a reproduction of the Shroud of Turin. This scene probably has the movie’s most dramatic moment. The woman shows a photograph of the face on the Shroud with the eyes closed, a dead man, and then flips it over to show what scientists say could be the face of Jesus with the eyes open. The woman remarks that the eyes seem to be saying, “See how much I loved you. I died for you.” With that reveal of two rather striking reproduction of the face on the Shroud, the movie’s opening ends.

Having thus seen the “Face of Jesus” both dead and alive, the rest of the movie seems superfluous, almost like an afterthought.

That said, after the lay missionary’s lecture, the movie opens with a brief introduction by a priest in Italy. He says all of the medieval depictions of the face of Jesus originate with the cloth of Manoppello and the Veil of Veronica.

The cloth, or veil, of Manoppello is a thin cloth located in a small Italian village that, it is claimed, could be the actual burial veil that was placed on the crucified Jesus Christ’s head after He died. In 1915, a boy was saved during an earthquake by a mysterious stranger. Fifty years later, the boy, now a priest, saw the cloth and exclaimed that the face is the face if the man who saved him. Another claim about the cloth is that it’s a perfect match for the face on the Shroud of Turin.

The Veil of Veronica is supposedly the sacred cloth that St. Veronica had when she wiped Jesus Christ’s face on it as He walked to Calvary for His crucifixion. The Veil reportedly has been located at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome since 1297, at Pope Boniface VIII’s request. Roman Catholic tradition says that the Veil of Veronica depicts Jesus with open eyes because of a miracle that Jesus performed at the time of His resurrection.

Unless you are a true Christian historian, most viewers will find much of THE FACE OF JESUS boring and created for a limited audience. Imagine how this movie could have been more interesting if the Shroud had been discussed in more detail and the flip-face had been done toward the end of the movie in a dramatic showing of what could be the face of Jesus, rather than placing this scene in the movie’s first few minutes.

Also, with AI and other computer technology, one can further imagine all the points in the Shroud, the Veil and the cloth of Manoppello being introduced into such as computer to come out dramatically at the end of the movie with a face that could be called the Rabbi Jesus, the Risen Jesus, the Face of God. That would be a movie with drama and tension.

Thus, THE FACE OF JESUS could have been a lot more captivating because it touches upon very dramatic as well as incredibly important subject. Also, for example, the woman with the Shroud photograph says it took the power of an atomic bomb to put the image on the cloth, but the movie leaves it at that without saying much more about the Shroud of Turin itself. Another problem with the movie are some funny little sand drawings that accompany the movie’s discussions. These drawings were just that – funny little drawings.

THE FACE OF JESUS is a two-star movie. It has some interesting information for historians of Christianity. Happily, the movie also has no objectionable content. Even better, the movie does have a very important message, that, because Jesus is Fully God and Fully Man, the Face of God is with all of us and all of us are part of the Face of God. The movie not only venerates the Face of Jesus, it also stresses God’s Grace, Christ’s atonement for sinners, faith, prayer, love, gratitude, repentance, and helping the needy. However, it’s a shame that THE FACE OF JESUS seems so uninvolving. It could have been a documentary blockbuster. After all, it is about the greatest story ever told.