Seeing the Word: The Art of Screening Jesus’s Gestures

Abstract This article explores the use of gesture in Jesus films. It particularly focuses on manual gestures and their evolution from the world of art into on-screen motions. Key facets of gesture studies such as gesture fields, phrases, and units are introduced, and detailed examinations from a range of Hollywood films are presented. These include showcasing the various emotions conveyed by open palms and indexical pointing in From the Manger to the Cross (1912) and Intolerance (1916), the importance of deictic gestures for character development and theological messaging in The King of Kings (1927) and Jesus Christ Super Star (1973), the unsettling gestural estrangement in King of Kings (1961) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and the culturally specific nature of emblem gestures in Son of Man (2006). Thus, this study demonstrates how understanding the contextually bound nature and iconographic inheritance of gestures help to interpret the word in motion.