Episode Five: The Gospel Road, The Hollywood Jesus, and The Troubadour of the Anawim

Episode Five: TheGospel Road, The Hollywood Jesus, and The Troubadour of the Anawim

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For this fifth episode, we have followed the star of the East all the way back to 1973, where, fittingly, we find five very different Jesus films and at least five very different Jesuses vying for our attention. For the most part, however, our focus will be trained on just one of those five: Robert Elfstrom’s The Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus Told & Sung By Johnny Cash. Approached from a variety of angles, the film is framed against the backdrop of the faltering revival of the Hollywood Jesus Film inaugurated by the release of Nicholas Ray’s King of Kings in 1961; situated within the context of Johnny Cash’s burgeoning mythos and especially in light of the spiritual re-awakening that presaged his recovery from years of steady substance abuse in the late 1960s; and read with and against the other Jesus Films released that year, Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell principal among them. The episode also explores the film’s innovative use of sound and song, its complex marriage of competing Christologies, its many formal eccentricities, and its navigation of the various inconsistencies on evidence across the four gospels. In addition, a bit of genre theory, some chat about the book of Isaiah, some stuff on those monumental prison albums… so on and so forth.

 

Bibliography

 Lloyd Baugh, Imaging The Divine: Jesus and Christ Figures in Film. Wisconsin: Sheed & Ward, 1997.

 Steve Beard, “Man In Black” in Spiritual Journeys: How Faith Has Influenced Twelve Music Icons. Edited by J. Boyett. Lake Mary: Relevant Books, 2003. pp.1-28

 Richard Beck, Trains Jesus and Murder: The Gospel According to Johnny Cash. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2019.

 Johnny Cash and Patrick Carr, Cash: The Autobiography. California: HarperOne, 1997.

 Johnny Cash, Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975.

 Paul Laird. “The Fascinating Moment of Godspell: Its Cinematic Adaptation in the Shadow of Jesus Christ Superstar and Leonard Bernstein's Mass” in The Oxford Handbook of Musical Theatre Screen Adaptations. Edited by Dominic McHugh. New York: Oxford, 2019. pp. 229-252.

 Peter Malone, Screen Jesus: Portrayals of Christ in Television and Film. Plymouth: Scarecrow Press, 2012.

 Steve Neale, “Questions of Genre” in Screen Vol. 31, No.1 (Spring 1990). 45-66.

 Richard Walsh, Reading The Gospels In The Dark: Portrayals Of Jesus In Film. Harrisburg: Trinity Press, 2003.

 

 Web Resources 

 Bible Films Blog

 Time Magazine -  “Top10 Jesus Films”

Johnny Cash’s FBI File

 

Audio Clip Sources

The Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus (1973, dir. Robert Elfstrom)

 

Music

 Various selections from The Gospel Road by Johnny Cash (Columbia, 1973)

 Johnny Cash - “Thisis Nazareth” / “Nazarene” (1969)

 Johnny Cash – “SanQuentin” (1969)

 Alabama Sacred Heart Singers - “Present Joys”   (1942)