34 thoughts on “KJB: The Movie”

  1. Second!
    Looks interesting. James hated the Geneva because of its footnotes. The Pilgrims stuck with their Geneva and wouldn’t consider using the AV until it included the Geneva notes.

    1. I think the philosophy of the KJV translators was “Maximum beauty with maximum obfuscation!”

  2. I’d heard of the Gunpowder Plot and knew about the celebration of Guy Fawkes’ Day, but somehow failed to realize that it happened during James’ reign.

    It does look interesting. Who is behind the production? (If a religious group, for example, they may choose not to even mention the scandal of his “favorites” at court.)

    1. Lion’s Gate doesn’t have any religious affiliation that I know of. They do a lot of smaller films, and kind of narrower marketed movies. I can’t think of any Lion’s Gate movies, but I know I’ve seen that a bunch.

      1. Lions Gate has no religious affiliation that I know of. They just produce alot of movies other studios won’t touch – usually violent and gorey movies filled withs sex. They did the SAW movies, Dogma, American Psycho, Hostel, etc. But they’ve done a fair share of normal movies like Altheia (sp?) and the Bee. The first time I remember noticing their logo was when I rented a movie that sounded cool but actually ended up being about a celebrity that was kidnapped and raped on streaming internet video to make money. So I doubt they made this movie out of allegience to the KJV. Most likely, its something they picked up because it wasn’t picked up by anyone else but could be profitable to a nitch market. They are basically Indy.

    2. Although V for Vendetta flip flops Guy Fawkes role in history. Fawkes was not a freedom fighter out to conquer tyranny. He was out to remove the new tyranny and restore the old tyranny.

    1. Well, it does LOOK like a documentary. Thanks for posting this! I am curious to see how well they will portray the history. Looks mildly promising as they did some filming on location (Stirling Castle and Hampton Court).

        1. That’s what caused my eyebrow to raise at the categorization. Ken Burns at least will use photos, and I don’t know all the stuff about KJ that is out there, but I suspect a large amount of it on both sides is kind of suspect. I think it’s really really hard to dogmatically claim a whole lot about early 17th century personal relations, motivations, and minor events.

  3. Adding this to my NetFlix queue now. What a god idea for a movie. It’s like Book of Eli, but with puffy clothing. 😮

    1. I enjoy your sense of humor!! Thank you for making me laugh Bassenco! 😆

    1. Oh yes. John Rhys-Davies has been in pretty much every pre-17th century-set made-for-tv-movie ever made.

  4. I saw it at Family Video last night. Almost rented it and still may rent it this weekend.

  5. Trailers are usually not a good way to judge a movie, so I’m hoping this isn’t going to be what the trailer presents: a simplification of history, i.e. King James good guy, his critics bad guys. I want a film that has the courage to show history in all its complexity. Having said that, I welcome its release if it doesn’t end up being an evangelical tool for the KJV.

    1. I just watched it. It’s not at all a whitewashing of history. It may be a little bit selective, but it deals quite honestly with James’ tragic childhood, his bizarre rise to power over both Scotland and England and his desire to create a unified Church of England. The last point is probably the primary theme of the movie.
      It also mentions (perhaps a bit too briefly) James’ struggles later in his reign, and notes in great detail the fact that his subjects did not think too much of him at the time of his death. There is an extended scene looking at all of the memorials to the medieval monarchs of England in Westminister Abbey, with James marked only by a plaque in the floor. It also fairly points out that the KJV was not very widely accepted by English Christians until many years after James’ death.
      Altogether well worth an hour and a half of your time.

  6. This looks quite interesting. That entire period of history was delicate and fraught with struggle, some resulting simply because of James’s ascension. He was, after all, the son of Mary, Elizabeth’s arch-rival. This seems to put an approachable angle on James’s rise to the throne and path to establishing himself.

    That said, this is just about the worst trailer for a film I’ve ever seen, even for a narrative documentary. Hopefully, the film itself is better presented.

  7. I wonder how fundies would feel about it if they new Lionsgate ALSO produced a little film called ‘Repo! The Genetic Opera’… Fantastic flick, but far from fundy friendly. (6 point alliteration, if you’re keeping score at home)

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