As a later-in-life Christian, I felt confused and anxious when the credits rolled for Netflix’s biblical movie Mary. I immediately ran to my computer to type up my feelings once the credits rolled. I needed to get my thoughts out to the world.
Word of advice from me, a follower of Christ. As you watch Mary, it’s important to have this in the forefront of your mind:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” – John 1:1.
The opening scene shows the most famous people in human history standing together in the desert. Mary is holding the Messiah in her arms as she boldly and courageously says:
“I was chosen to deliver a gift to the world. The greatest gift it has ever known. You may think you know my story. Trust me. You don’t.”
The movie’s director, D. J. Caruso (a Catholic Christian), starts Mary with a firm promise.
This is a promise to show us a divine, feminine, favored perspective of Mary, mother of Jesus, while simultaneously showing the hardship, challenge, and adversity she would have encountered as the fulfillment of the prophet of Isiah.
May I be so bold as to say that I believe that trying to create a depiction of Mary of Nazareth is only possible if you have faith in yourself and in God to help you captivate the Spirit and humaneness of Mary in unity?
I was apprehensive about this movie – I suppose you could say that the director is walking a fine line, and that line is:
“How do I show the Divinity of Mary without idolizing her, without turning this into a feminist empowerment movie, all the while bringing in some action?”
Here are my thoughts specifically for D. J. Caruso, a Christian himself: the creative idea is good, but perhaps it is too complex. To me, a movie about Mary should be dedicated to her as the special and wonderful woman we believe her to be—not about the action-packed fanfiction of her escape from King Herod.
Admittedly, the start of this film showed potential. Subtle moments and scenes beautifully express the natural motherly nature and devotion to God that Mary is known to have had within her.
Her dedication to working in the temple and feeding the poor people on the street are examples of the Mary we envision. I would have been happier to explore more creative expressions of this.
However, as much as I enjoyed seeing this expression of Mary, Caruso very quickly destroys it. Such scenes become tainted by creating a design for the girls in the temple to look like Handmaids (per The Handmaid’s Tale, which felt unnecessary for a movie about Mary)
Somewhere in the middle of the film, we get lost—lost in the chaos that is Caruso’s enjoyment of violence, which is surprising, given his faith. Don’t get me wrong; I believe there is a place for these challenges that Mary and Joseph would have had during this once-in-a-lifetime event. The chaos and confusion must’ve been unimaginable. I would guess that Caruso is attempting to display the difficulty and the adversary Mary and Joseph had to endure, showing their strength of character and trust in the Lord.
However, the focus seems tunnel-visioned on the violence and evil of King Herod.
From another perspective, we saw Mary’s temptation and struggle with Satan—a genuine and relatable feeling for believers to watch. It’s scary—real—and often, the most daunting and effective moments in movies stem from real-life possibilities.
Caruso should have created intellectual, gut-wrenching scenes that connect us back to the time of Eve and the Forbidden Fruit.
Within the movie, we hear the terrifying and all too well-known tongues of Satan. Which I felt was more impactful than the adversity and horror of Herod. Herod was human. His impact is temporal, whereas the threat of Satan is eternal. Here are a few examples of what Satan terrorizes Mary with, although I am paraphrasing slightly:
“What kind of God puts a precious child like you, through all of this. So much hardship.”
“Let me ease your pain – it can all be so easy.”
“Come with me Mary. Break free from all this pain.”
We are also shown the beautiful perspective of how Mary and believers were protected by God’s Angels, specifically Angel Gabriel.
This movie was a genuinely missed opportunity. It should have focused more on Satan’s temptation, Gabriel’s higher being, and the infliction it had on Mary. Instead, it chose action and violence.
Countless more angles could’ve been taken with this film: the purity and virtue of Mary, the Humanity of Mary, The Heartbreak of Mary, The Faith of Mary, and The Temptation Mary faced.
The movie is not directed in bad faith, but it makes misdirections that many Christians could perceive as wrong.
However, I will give credit where credit is due. The message at the end of Netflix’s Mary was profoundly spiritual and faithful, which could be summed up with scripture that essentially says, “In the end, Love will save the world.”
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. – 1 John 4:9-10