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Epic religious movies provided insight for writer’s greatest role
Craig S. Semon
Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
“Do not weep for me,” thought I as I looked at the mob. “Weep for yourselves.”
This Good Friday marks the 20th Anniversary of me doing my first public acting job, portraying Jesus during a two-hour, citywide walk of Fitchburg for the Stations of the Cross. I had the honor of doing this four years in a row, with my final Jesus walk on Good Friday 2005.
I didn’t get paid, nor did I earn my SAG card. But what I received from the experience was priceless.
Being a lifelong Catholic who was baptized, had his first communion and confirmation all at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Worcester, I had a lifetime of inspiration and experiences to draw upon.
And being an avid watcher of religious movies, especially during Holy Week, didn’t hurt either.
In fact, as long I remember, I’ve watched yearly (and I will continue watch again and again every year), Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” as part of the ABC Sunday Night Movie with numerous commercial interruptions and edited for television because it has become a longstanding family tradition, even though a majority of my family have now gone to heaven.
And, despite “The Ten Commandments” dealing with the life of Moses, Holy Week isn’t complete until I see Charlton Heston part the Red Sea, Edward G. Robinson accuse Moses of carving the Ten Commandments himself and Yul Brynner as Rameses acknowledging that Moses’ God is God. So let it be written. So let it be done.
To prepare for the walk, I read the scriptures, memorized all the Stations, and repeatedly watched religious movies with moving crucifixion scenes
SeeMOVIES,Page22
Charlton Heston parts the Red Sea as Moses in “The Ten Commandments.“
PARAMOUNT PICTURES FILE PHOTO
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Craig S. Semon doing The Stations of the Cross through Fitchburg on Good
Friday April 9, 2004. RICK CINCLAIR/T&G STAFF
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that made a lasting impression on me as child and still today as an adulthood.
I rewatched 1961’s “King of Kings,” starring Jeffrey Hunter — aka Captain Christopher Pike, the first captain of the USS Enterprise on the original “Star Trek” pilot — as Jesus. He was the bestlooking actor ever to play Jesus.
I also rewatched 1965’s “The Greatest Story Ever Told” with Christ being played by Max Von Sydow — aka the medieval knight who plays chess with the personification of the Death in “The Seventh Seal” and Father Lankester Merrin in “The Exorcist.” As far as Jesus biopics go, Von Sydow was the most commanding.
An added bonus, “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” which is better than “King of Kings,” features David McCallum (aka Illya Kuryakin from “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”) as Judas, Charlton Heston as John the Baptist (can you have a good religious movie without Charlton Heston in it?), Sidney Poitier as Simon of Cyrene and John Wayne as a Roman Centurion, who declares with classic “Duke” swagger, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”
Although the movie isn’t directly about Jesus, 1959’s “Ben-Hur” has my favorite crucifixion scene of all time and my favorite depiction of the Son of God, a shadowy, out-of-focus and often offframe divine being accompanied by a heavenly choir.
“Ben-Hur” also has Charlton Heston (again!) as his most manly and musky this side of “The Planet of the Apes” and the spectacular chariot race scene, ar-
Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus Christ in “King of Kings.”
METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER FILE PHOTO
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guably the best action sequence ever filmed in the history of cinema. And, folks, no CGI.
And, finally, Martin Scorsese’s labor of love, 1988’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” with Willem Dafoe, delivering one of the coolest and most conflicted portrayals of Jesus I have ever seen on the big screen and one of the most powerful.
“The Last Temptation of Christ” has added significance to me because the father of one of my high school friends was arrested on Sept. 11, 1988, for wielding a two-foot machete in front of Showcase Cinemas on Southbridge Street.
The man (whose name I’m leaving out in respect to his family) was protesting “The Last Temptation of Christ” because it featured a “sex scene” with Jesus and Mary Magdalene (played by Barbara Hershey). Spoiler alert: in actuality, Satan makes a last-ditch attempt to seduce Jesus from not following his destiny by offering him a blissful, earthly marriage with Magdalene.
On May 17, 1989, the 56-year-old city man was sentenced to five years in Concord State Prison for six counts of assault with a dangerous weapon. He insisted that he meant no harm to anyone.
The man, who had not seen the film but had read about it and seen television reports, said the movie “was against the son of God.”
For me, “The Last Temptation of Christ” was one of most powerful spiritual experiences I have ever had in a movie theater.
By the way, I did my first walk before Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” so the influence of that film didn’t filter into my portrayal. But, it did come into play during a poetry reading I did, which I titled “The Passion of the Craig.”
I opened the reading with “Hello, I’m Craig S. Semon for Hair Club for Jesus. I’m not only the president of Hair Club for Jesus. I’m also a client,” I concluded as I held up a picture of me with the cross.
So I already had the hair, the beard, the inspiration and the desire to play the part, and Father Rich Lewandowski of St. Camilus Church in Fitchburg, who gave me the opportunity to go on this spiritual journey, supplied the robe and the crown of thorns.
All I needed was a cross. So we went cross shopping the week before my inaugural Stations of the Cross.
Cross shopping entailed Father Rich opening the garage door of St. Camilus Church. Inside, it looked like the Gentile Warehouses, a vast array of wooden crosses for all your family crucifixion needs.
There were crosses of all shapes and sizes. There were mammoth crosses. There were mid-size crosses. There were luxury crosses. There were heavy crosses and light crosses. There were tall crosses and short crosses. There were even baby crosses. Looking over the vast array of crosses, I felt like a messiah in a candy store.
As I was trying out crosses on for size, I kept in mind that I was looking for two things in my portable Christianity symbol — proper weight and length.
First, I picked out a cross for the desired weight, which was very light and easy to carry but several feet off the ground. If I used the cross, it would have looked like a bad Groucho Marx sketch, “You Bet Your Afterlife.”
Then, I picked out one that would drag on the ground for the desired length but it was as heavy as a downed telephone pole and too cumbersome to carry a great distance.
I suggested a Styrofoam cross but realized that a strong wind could lift the cross in the air and carry it away. Thinking about it further, a cross hovering in the skies of Fitchburg might have strengthened the faith of the people of the Twin Cities and Styrofoam might not be a bad idea.
Father Rich assured me that he would get a lighter cross constructed under my length specifications before Good Friday, which was only a week away. Of course, he didn’t and the cross I bared was the heavy cross that I originally rejected.
Wearing a crown of thorns, carrying a wooden cross, walking through the city streets, I aspired to be as good looking as Jeffrey Hunter in “King of Kings,” as authoritative as a Max Von Sydow In “The Greatest Story Ever Told” and as intense and conflicted as Willem Defoe in “The Last Temptation of Christ,” with a little Charlton Heston animal magnetism thrown in for good measure.
With sandals on my feet, a flowing robe draped over my aching bones and, symbolically, the sins of the world resting on my shoulders, I proceeded down Main Street as a mass of people followed closely at my heels.
It was strange to see traffic come to a dead stop on John Fitch Highway and unsuspecting passengers mouthing in their cars, “It’s Jesus,” as they made the sign of the cross, while babies strapped in car seats became fixated on me, as they waved their little arms and kicked their little feet in absolute joy.
A few nuns blessed me and said, “He really looks like Jesus.”
My mother, with streaming tears and a beaming smile on her face, responded to the nuns, “That’s not Jesus. That’s my son.”
When I did finally come face to face with my mother near the end of The Stations, I mouthed the words, “Woman, behold your son.”
The next day, the Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise and The Boston Globe had a photo of me depicted as Jesus on their front page, while the Catholic Free Press did the same a week later.
While the pictures on the Sentinel and the Catholic Free Press were nice, they were merely pictures of myself dressed up as Jesus carrying a cross on a hill.
What Sean Dougherty captured in the shot used for the Boston Globe was so much more.
Hired as a stringer by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette to shoot The Stations of the Cross, Dougherty placed several photos on the AP wire, including the cover shot used by the Globe.
Dougherty’s photo elevated my participation as something more than just a man carrying a cross and paying respect to Jesus. A beaming ray of light penetrated the landscape and I no longer became the focus. His photos transcended to the spiritual and the abstract, capturing the personification of faith.
One of the best photographers I have ever known, T&G photo editor Rick Cinclair, took stellar shots of me on my second and third Stations of the Cross.
I decided to portray Jesus as long as it felt and looked right. I didn’t want to be portraying Jesus like a “mature” Elvis, an old, out-of-shape Son of God delivering his greatest scriptures.
On my last outing as Jesus, I led four hundred of so followers to the front of “The Other Side,” a gentleman’s club on Route 12 in Fitchburg.
For Jonathan Phillips, then photographer for the Sentinel & Enterprise, I purposely brought the crowd in the middle of Route 12, took them 180 degrees into the street so the strip club and its signage “Girls Girls Girls” and “Exotic Dancer” would be clearly seen behind me.
I whispered to the photographer, “You know. I did that solely for you.”
Phillips nodded in the affirmative as he captured the winning shot.
Max Von Sydow as Jesus in “The Greatest Story Ever Told.“
UNITED ARTISTS FILE PHOTO Willem Dafoe as Jesus in “The Last Temptation of Christ.“
UNIVERSAL PICTURES FILE PHOTO
