Choosing To Be Contrarian On “The Chosen”

Promotional image from “The Chose” (Angel Studios)

Way back in 1965, George Stevens took the Biblical story of Jesus to the big screen, and the ensuing film The Greatest Story Ever Told became something of a Hollywood legend for the very earthly reasons of it’s budget. One of the most expensive movies ever shot in the United States, with a who’s who cast and cameos by dozens more, and even a good old fashioned studio lawsuit, Stevens reportedly shot enough film to wrap around the Moon to try and get his Biblical epic to be the Next Big Thing. It was a flop at the box office, panned by critics, and today is mostly forgotten about except for the occasional listing for over-the-top filmmaking, although it did garner five Academy Awards mostly for the sheer audacity of it.

While Biblical epics were not uncommon in Hollywood, and 1950’s Hollywood was awash in them, for every “Ben-Hur” or “Ten Commandments” that set a high bar with their filmmaking, treatment of matters of faith, and that made good financially, there were several “Esther And The King” and “King David” disasterpieces. The modern era has also proved hit or miss for what now are mostly referred to as “faith-based” films. While Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” hit a religious nerve and drove box office sales to the heavens, other efforts like Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah” and a re-make of “Ben-Hur” were crucified at the box office by an uninterested audience.

So, for a Biblical epic to find major success, and mostly on its own, and to be crowdfunded to the tune of $40 million without any major studio or media help, sounds like something of a modern miracle. But it isn’t a miracle; it is the business model of “The Chosen“, which has become something of a phenomenon. The Wall Street Journal details the rise of “The Chosen” both in audience and in its unique business model:

The success of the series is a powerful reminder to Hollywood that faith-focused projects can sometimes become breakthrough hits. But what makes “The Chosen” even more of an outlier is the way it is supercharging the crowdfunding model to sustain production through multiple seasons. Though “The Chosen” is free to watch, viewers have poured $40 million and counting into its production budget, enough to pay for three out of a planned seven seasons. The costs of building the new production facilities, on a 1,200-acre camp owned by the Salvation Army, are being covered by a smaller group of the show’s fans.

Producers say viewership was sluggish when the first season premiered for a fee in 2019. But the audience spiked when they made the series free on a “Chosen” app, now the show’s main distribution hub, and viewers continued to multiply during the pandemic’s lockdown months. The show has been translated into 50 languages, and is licensed to video services from Amazon to Peacock. Producers estimate that its 16 episodes have been viewed 312 million times. Now the “Chosen” audience is set to converge in person in movie theaters.

Starting Dec. 1, about 1,700 theaters will feature screenings of a “Chosen” Christmas special, including musical performances and a new episode in which Mother Mary (a series character played by Vanessa Benavente) flashes back to her son’s birth. Distributor Fathom Events, known for one- or two- day releases of classic movies, live opera and other specialty fare, expanded the “Chosen” event to 10 days. Ticket sales are approaching $6 million so far, putting “Christmas with ‘The Chosen’” on track to be Fathom’s bestseller ever, according to chief executive Ray Nutt.

There are two parts to the story of the “The Chosen.” The first is the mold-breaking production and crowdsourcing. Generally speaking, this strikes me as a fine thing, letting folks not only be a part of their entertainment but to actively support and invest in things they want to watch. As long as such crowd sourcing is on the up and up and everyone involved is transparent this is a fine model that should, theoretically, allow passion projects to find life outside of a Hollywood that seems rather bereft of fresh ideas as of late. The second part is that whether you want to call it Biblical, or “faith-based”, or whatever else, Christian programing sells in America when done well and it connects with the intended audience.

But this isn’t a review of “The Chosen” because, while I’m curious if the business model holds up and/or is replicable, I am not going to watch it.

I don’t watch direct interpretations of Biblical events in film, tv, or other media. You can call that contrarian, or curmudgeonly, or whatever else but it is another “c” word that is the most applicable: consistency. I haven’t watched a film or show portraying Biblical times and characters in a long time and am not going to start now. That wasn’t really a conscious decision, nor can I pinpoint exactly when it happened. It was solidified right around the time “The Passion of The Christ” was becoming the biggest thing in American Christian entertainment since the advent of televangelists.

Let’s pull up and park right here before we continue for a disclaimer that I pray you will hear me carefully on. The following opinions on faith are mine and mine alone. The fact I don’t write about my personal faith a whole lot is mostly to not besmirch that faith with an association with my various sins and failings. I’m with Johnny Cash, in that I claim only to be a “c- Christian” trying to muddle through as best I can. But though I’m not publicly overt with it, I do take it seriously. I’ve studied religion and theology for the better part of 20 years now, both academically and just because I enjoy it. I’ve often mentioned I learned more about leadership and managing people studying religion than anything else because you learn the nature of people, how they think, and what motivates them. While I don’t get anything from or partake in the things I’m going to talk about here doesn’t mean I think no one should, or shouldn’t get something spiritual from them. Those sorts of things are between them and their God, and short of either asking my opinion on the matter I’ll keep it to myself. As are the beliefs of other folks of other religions or lack thereof. I have, and forever will, adamantly uphold their right to worship or not as they see fit, as is the right of all folks everywhere, as is their right to disagree with me.

Now, having said all that, about Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of The Christ.” I have never nor ever will watch it. It is one of the few movies I’ve drawn such a line on. This was by far the minority opinion in my circles of Christian friends both at the time and currently, but I am unmoved in my opinion. Hindsight has taught us much about Gibson himself and folks can factor his truly appalling behavior and frankly bizarre personal religious beliefs however you want. But even before that, I greatly disliked churches bringing him in to promote the film in person, and the scenes of churches renting out whole theaters to shuffle the faithful through the box office. I get it; it was about Jesus, it was moving to folks, it was marketed to them since the major studios wouldn’t touch it. Folks connected with and got much out of that movie and many will testify their faith is the better for it, and good for them. But call it contrarian or whatever else you want, that was the point where I was out on faith via major motion picture and I won’t bore you with the ins and outs of my particular issues with it other than the standing policy has been observed mostly before and religiously since.

So, no, not going to watch the portrayal of Jesus in “The Chosen” either. Nothing personal against what Dallas Jenkins and company are working on down there in Texas. For what it is worth, I abstained from his father’s “Left Behind” books and films that were all the rage way back when in the non-biblical times of the 1990s as well for many of the same reasons. The holes in Jenkins’ co-author Tim LaHaye’s eschatology game, not to mention plot development, not withstanding I felt then as I do now that raging popularity just doesn’t feel like a good path for working out your faith. I wish him well and hope “The Chosen” audience feels they get their money’s worth. I really do hope this business model turns out to be a positive thing in entertainment as a whole. But the Christian faith survived and thrived for nearly 2,000 years without any more audio/visual enhancement than folks talking to each other, so call me old fashioned but I’ll stick to that. At least for my own personal faith, there isn’t any need for an app for that, let alone a movie or tv series.