Although mostly forgotten these days, THE JUDAS PROJECT, which asked “What if Jesus Christ came for the first time in 1993?,” was very likely the most ambitious evangelical film of the 1990s. Predating future religious hits, it bucked evangelical movie trends by attaining mainstream distribution, playing in movie theaters in September 1994 (alongside NATURAL BORN KILLERS and TRUE LIES).
THE JUDAS PROJECT was actually completed four years earlier. Its inspiration was “a vision” experienced by writer-director James H. Barden, who claimed that with this film “I wanted Christians to fall in love with Jesus all over again, and I wanted non-Christians to meet him for the first time.” Filming occurred over a reported 14 year period in and around Savannah, GA, with special effects by STAR WARS’ legendary Richard Edlund. Its eventual release was four-walled (self-distributed) by Barden, starting in southern church venues and culminating in the aforementioned 1994 theatrical run. The film wasn’t a “success” by any means, but paved the way for later evangelical hits like APOCALYPSE (1998) and THE OMEGA CODE (1999).
Those films were notable for the fact that they nearly played like actual movies. THE JUDAS PROJECT doesn’t, resembling an especially cheap 1990s TV product. That’s evident in the opening scene, depicting the Jesus stand-in Jesse (John O’Banion), a supposedly normal young man, getting betrayed by his pal Jude (TWO EVIL EYES’ Ramy Zada). Flash back to “Two Years Earlier,” with Jesse astonishing a group of people by restoring a drowned swimmer to life.
We next see Jesse preaching to a flock of gullible folk. He quickly amasses a small band of followers, including Jude, who aligns himself with a crooked religious leader (Richard Herd) in exchange for 30 pieces of silver, and Pete (Ray Holtman), who Jesse predicts will deny knowing him three times, prior to Jesse being killed. Before those things can occur Jesse leads his flock to a mountain, above which the clouds part and the voice of God emits, informing them “This is my son, with whom I’m well pleased. Listen to him.” Jesse also performs the miracle of the bread by feeding a semi-large crowd with just two loaves of bread.
Eventually Jesse’s antagonists, who’ve tried to lure him into becoming a media personality and gotten rebuffed, come after him. As predicted, Pete denies knowing his friend three times and Jesse gets crucified in a beachside shack, leaving his flock to deal with life without him. But of course, he’s not gone for long.
This was the first and only film directed by James H. Barden, and his unsuitability for the job is evident in the clumsy and amateurish filmmaking-issues that tend to recur in evangelical films but are especially noticeable in THE JUDAS PROJECT. Its Biblical bonafides are also questionable, with only a portion of the gospels dramatized, and done so with very little imagination. Even the special effects, the one aspect that should work, are unimpressive, having been copied (poorly) from Richard Edlund’s work on the climax of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (as were the effects of 2001’s MEGIDDO: THE OMEGA CODE 2, another failed evangelical epic).
Most obnoxious of all is the gooey sentimentality that pervades the film. There’s so much hugging and crying among the largely male cast (no Mary Magdalene stand-in is offered) that the film comes to feel downright homoerotic, which I’m guessing was not Barden’s intent.
Vital Statistics
THE JUDAS PROJECT
Hemdale Home Video
Director/Screenplay: James H. Barden
Producers: Ervin Melton, James Nelson
Cinematography: Bryan England
Editing: Noreen Zepp
Cast: John O’Banion, Ramy Zada, Richard Herd, Gerald Gordon, Jeff Corey, Sue Amick, Steven Anderson, Richard Arnold, Ari Barak, Nancy Duerr, Ray Holtman, J. Michael Hunter, Slavitza Jovan, Leon McBride, Laurens Moore, Dean Whitworth, James Wiggins, Joseph Alex