Review of The Gospel According to St. Matthew

"Il Vangelo secondo Matteo" is, to put it simply, a masterpiece of unrivalled monumental beauty. I recommend this movie to anyone, religious and not religious alike, but particularly to the latter since this movie may actually provide them with a glimpse of what is so superb about the gospel, however one looks at it. I think that in order to fully appreciate this magnificent creation by Pasolini, one has to have an understanding of what earthly monumental beauty is about - in other words, one has to have a full understanding of what the 1500 and 1600 meant to Italian culture and Italian aesthetics. During the deposition, Mary is a mother, and Jesus is a son, earthly characters depicted in the way Caravaggio may have depicted them. Pasolini presents the Gospel in all its natural beauty, an earthly and heavenly masterpiece at the same time, like Michelangelo's Genesis in the Sistine Chapel. It is impossible to understand Pasolini's aesthetics in this movie (as well as in Accattone) without an understanding of the achievements brought about by Italian figurative arts of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

As far as the comparison with Zeffirelli's life of Jesus Christ goes, I will say that I do not think Pasolini can be put on the same level as Zeffirelli, not even with regard to his worst movies, which are nevertheless far above anything Zeffirelli has ever produced.

Pasolini's account of the Gospel is a revolutionary experience. In terms of its religious insight, it stands at least on the same level as Dreyer's "Ordet", or Bresson's "Diary of a country priest".