Dear friend:

Please share this important letter with your friends and family. Please put Christ back in Christmas – Go see THE NATIVITY STORY movie when it opens on Dec. 1.

 

THE NATIVITY STORY is the best movie about the birth of the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ since nativity movies were first produced in the 1890s – THE BEST. If you want you children and grandchildren to know Jesus Christ, please go see THE NATIVITY STORY.

 

THE NATIVITY STORY is captivating, compelling, and entertaining! It is a sacred movie full of Divine Revelation that is theologically sound and that never veers into contentious doctrinal issues. It is solid, faithful, soul stirring, engaging, and uplifting.

 

The PASSION was great and won the prestigious MOVIEGUIDE® Epiphany Prize, but is also too violent for children. THE NATIVITY STORY is great for children of all ages!

 

THE NATIVITY STORY is the one movie you will want everyone to see. There are a lot of low-budget Christian movies being distributed, but THE NATIVITY STORY is a high-quality, exceptional Hollywood movie that proclaims Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, and the sacrifice for each person’s sins. It does not get any better than this!

 

When Target, stores, schools, communities, and the world is taking Jesus Christ out of Christmas, THE NATIVITY STORY clearly tells everyone that Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

 

This Hollywood movie from New Line Cinema must do well when it opens on Dec. 1, 2006, or Hollywood will say that THE PASSION was a fluke.

 

Hollywood has finally put Jesus Christ back into Christmas – Will you?

 

Go see THE NATIVITY STORY, and tell your friends and family to do the same!

 

For more information, please go to: http://www.thenativitystory.com/

Or

 

 http://www.nativityresources.com/index.html

 

Attached is my MOVIEGUIDE® review for you:

 

Ted Baehr

 

 

 

 

Divine Revelation

THE NATIVITY STORY

Quality:  ✰✰✰✰     Acceptability:  +4

WARNING CODES: Language:  None

Violence:  V

Sex:  None 

Nudity:  None  

RATING:  G

RELEASE:  December 8, 2006

STARRING:  Keisha Castle-Hughes, Oscar Isaac Guerrilla,  Shohreh Aghdashloo, Eriq Ebouaney, and Ciarán Hinds

DIRECTOR:  Catherine Hardwicke

PRODUCERS:  Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER:  Tim Van Rellim

WRITER:  Mike Rich

BASED ON:  The Bible

DISTRIBUTOR:  New Line Cinema

 

CONTENT:  (CCC, BBB, V, A) Very strong Christian worldview with very strong moral content; no foul language; light violence with very little blood includes people beaten and whipped by Romans, people on crucifixes by the side of the road, sanitized depictions of the slaughter of the innocents by King Herod, crucifixion of rebels, pushing, and shoving, but nothing exploitive; no sex but hugging, light kissing and two childbirths, nothing shown but very intense; no nudity; passing a cup of wine; and,  nothing else objectionable.

 

GENRE:  Biblical Epic 

INTENDED AUDIENCE:  All ages 

REVIEWER:  Dr. Ted Baehr

 

THE NATIVITY STORY is one of those very rare movies that bring the Gospel alive in a compelling, soul-stirring, entertaining, and inspiring manner that shatters expectations. It is a sacred movie and a divine revelation in the best sense of these words. It is a human story with depth and breadth and height and all the right elements to capture the audience.

 

The movie opens by quoting Jeremiah 23:5-6:  “’The days are coming,’” declares the LORD, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.’” The rest of the movie references and quotes Scripture throughout.

 

The intensely paranoid King Herod sends out the troops to kill all the innocents in Bethlehem and stop the prophecy that there will be born a King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Herod is intensely superstitious and played brilliantly. Thus, this movie starts, as it should, with a bang. It then flashes back to a year earlier in the town of Nazareth, showing a brief moment of tranquility in the life of Mary and Joseph.

 

Suddenly, the Roman troops are upon the village demanding tribute for Caesar. Mary’s father loses part of his land and his donkey. Joseph the carpenter buys the donkey back from a greedy soldier and gives it back to the father, asking for Mary’s hand in marriage. Mary protests a little, but she is betrothed and must spend a year before they consummate the marriage.

 

Soon, an angel of God comes to Mary to tell her that she is with God’s child, born by the Holy Spirit. She goes to see her cousin Elizabeth, who in her older age is also with child. (A previous scene shows Elizabeth’s husband, the priest Zechariah, entering the temple and being struck mute when he doubts the word of the angel that Elizabeth had become pregnant.) When Mary returns to Nazareth, it is clear that Mary is pregnant. Joseph is devastated but decides to continue with the marriage after an angel appears to him in a dream. At the same time, the magi in Babylon are preparing to follow a unique astrological sign, which forms a brief new star that will lead them to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

 

Meanwhile, Joseph and Mary have to journey to Bethlehem to register for the Roman census, and the prophecies of God are fulfilled.

 

THE NATIVITY STORY has one of the best scripts ever for a biblical story. What makes a movie compelling is a sense of jeopardy, and that sense of jeopardy are present throughout this movie. The dialogue, the plot development, the turning points are refreshingly dramatic, so good in fact that they will elicit tears at certain points. THE NATIVITY STORY is compelling drama that carefully avoids gruesome, graphic violence. Even the slaughtering of the ox at the temple does not show the blade entering the animal, yet it causes the audience to wince.

 

Catherine Hardwick’s direction is superb. Joseph and Mary are very human, very Jewish and very much in love. Each character has a terrific character arc. Probably the best part of the movies the costuming and the settings. Having spent some time in Israel researching other movies, I can attest to the authenticity of even the smallest details of life in Israel in the first century.  The crucifixions, the agriculture, the ephods, everything is done exquisitely. There is one moment where Mary has an attitude, but it is very brief and natural. A later statement, however, declares that Mary is always trustworthy, that she keeps her promises and therefore God honors her. Her complexities add depth to her character and make the story of Mary and Joseph more profound.

 

THE NATIVITY STORY is a nearly perfect movie. It should be a movie that every Christian would want to see. It is certainly a movie that every Non-Christian should see. It testifies in every way to Jesus the Messiah and is clearly and consciously evangelistic. Such statements that this baby is the “greatest King” and “God made flesh,” that the gold is for the King of the world, that the frankincense is for the greatest priest of all, and that the myrrh is to honor the sacrifice, and many, many more pointedly proclaim the story of the Christ and the great news that there is salvation in none other.

 

Please address your comments to:

Robert Shay and Michael Lynne Co-Chairman/Co-CEO New Line Cinema

116 North Robertson Blvd. Suite 200 Los Angeles, CA  90048

Phone:  (310) 854-5811

Fax:  (310) 354-1824

Website:  www.newline.com