The Nativity Story (2006)

[Scottie]

It looks as if an Ultimate Edition is in the works.

http://www.amazon.com/Nativity-Story...nativity+story

[HD Goofnut]

Once you've seen Jesus of Nazareth then most other movies about Christ's life pale in comparison including The Nativity Story. IMHO the best large budget adaptations to watch are Jesus of Nazareth on the actual life and The Passion on the death.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Once you've seen Jesus of Nazareth then most other movies about Christ's life pale in comparison including The Nativity Story. IMHO the best large budget adaptations to watch are Jesus of Nazareth on the actual life and The Passion on the death.

I agree. I didn't like this movie.

I watched J.O.N. when I was younger and I couldn't even finish it. It was so depressing I just couldn't stop balling.

I haven't see The Passion but I know a lot of people who did and they said it was a power house of a film.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I agree. I didn't like this movie.

I watched J.O.N. when I was younger and I couldn't even finish it. It was so depressing I just couldn't stop balling.

I haven't see The Passion but I know a lot of people who did and they said it was a power house of a film.

Oh yeah, JON will leave you depressed because Christ's life was depressing. I can't stand these adaptations of Christ where everything is flowers and rainbows.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Oh yeah, JON will leave you depressed because Christ's life was depressing. I can't stand these adaptations of Christ where everything is flowers and rainbows.

I agree.

The best films are definitely the most realistic ones, regardless of how they appeal to their audiences.

[Falaskan]

I liked this movie at first. it certainly has a feel of authenticity, I even like to call it the Passion of the Christ prequel...although it's not bloody at all. But realistically, if Mary was such an upstanding woman, I don't think she wouldn't been all sulky and apposed to an arranged marriage to Joseph, or anyone really. It was part of their culture anyway. Of course I know why they did it that way, to connect to a modern audience. I guess Mary's sulkiness is my only main complaint tho.

[The Mad Kiwi]

Originally Posted by iScottie

It looks as if an Ultimate Edition is in the works.

http://www.amazon.com/Nativity-Story...nativity+story

Wow, I never would've expected one for this film, though I'm not complaining. I'll hold off buying the upcoming disc until we hear more details on the UCE (which I assume won't come till around Christmas). Hopefully it contains the deleted scene and commentary Catherine Hardwicke said were going to be on the original DVD but never surfaced.

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Once you've seen Jesus of Nazareth then most other movies about Christ's life pale in comparison including The Nativity Story. IMHO the best large budget adaptations to watch are Jesus of Nazareth on the actual life and The Passion on the death.

I adore Jesus of Nazareth and agree it's the one to beat when dealing full life of Christ adaptations. I do think, though, that as strong as Jesus of Nazareth's nativity is, The Nativity Story is the definitive take on the material, inaccuracies aside. The Passion of the Christ, of course, is untouchable in terms of that aspect of the Gospel.

Originally Posted by Falaskan

I liked this movie at first. it certainly has a feel of authenticity, I even like to call it the Passion of the Christ prequel...although it's not bloody at all. But realistically, if Mary was such an upstanding woman, I don't think she wouldn't been all sulky and apposed to an arranged marriage to Joseph, or anyone really. It was part of their culture anyway. Of course I know why they did it that way, to connect to a modern audience. I guess Mary's sulkiness is my only main complaint tho.

I agree. I love this movie but felt everything in regards to Mary (both how she was written and how Keisha Castle Hughes played her) was the weak link. Her distaste of the arranged marriage felt anachronistic, and I felt she needed to be more expressive and alive (she barely emoted when being visited by Gabriel). I do think she got better as the film went along, so it's possible it was intentional to have her start as wet blanket and gain more confidence. Oscar Isaac, however, was fantastic from beginning to end as Joseph as is my favorite on-screen portrayal of the character.

[Warbler]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I agree.

The best films are definitely the most realistic ones, regardless of how they appeal to their audiences.

Although it may not be the most realistic version of the life of Christ, one of my favorites is the silent version of the King of Kings.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Warbler

Although it may not be the most realistic version of the life of Christ, one of my favorites is the silent version of the King of Kings.

It was recently added to Criterion's Hulu Channel so that looks like a good sign for an upgrade

[Falaskan]

Originally Posted by iScottie

It looks as if an Ultimate Edition is in the works.

http://www.amazon.com/Nativity-Story...nativity+story

I hope it's not an UE just because they throw in a DVD copy.

[Warbler]

I would love to know why this is being released in March instead of the Christmas season. I mean it is the story of the first Christmas.

[captveg]

Originally Posted by Warbler

I would love to know why this is being released in March instead of the Christmas season. I mean it is the story of the first Christmas.

Christian themed films also often get released in the Spring close to Easter, regardless of exact plotlines.

Besides, Biblically speaking, Jesus was likely born in the Spring and not in December. December 25 was adopted as the time to commemorate the birth of Jesus when Rome became a Christian state, using an older pagan holiday as the basis so that the general masses didn't have to overthink the alteration of deity.

[Warbler]

Originally Posted by captveg

Christian themed films also often get released in the Spring close to Easter, regardless of exact plotlines.

Besides, Biblically speaking, Jesus was likely born in the Spring and not in December. December 25 was adopted as the time to commemorate the birth of Jesus when Rome became a Christian state, using an older pagan holiday as the basis so that the general masses didn't have to overthink the alteration of deity.

Yeah, I know all that, but still, we celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th. Makes sense to me to release this movie at Christmas time. I will watch this film in the month of December, not March. May I remind you that wen the movie was originally released in theaters, it was released at Christmas time?

[captveg]

Originally Posted by Warbler

Yeah, I know all that, but still, we celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th. Makes sense to me to release this movie at Christmas time. I will watch this film in the month of December, not March. May I remind you that wen the movie was originally released in theaters, it was released at Christmas time?

Well, my point is that stores will have promotions on Christian themed movies around Easter, regardless of specific content. Hell, look at Twilight Time & Fox: They will be releasing The Song of Bernadette near Easter to take advantage of the focus on Christian themed films. That movie has nothing to do with Easter outside of general Christian themes, either.

It's a staple of home video: release your Christian films in March or December.

[flashpulse]

I went to see the first screening of this at a local theater. It was my wife, me and only a couple other people. I was surprised at the lack of interest for this movie as I couldn't wait to see it. It turned out to be better then I expected. I currently own the dvd but went ahead and pre-ordered the blu ray. I enjoy watching this around Christmas. My favorite part is when the old shepherd sees baby Jesus. Very good acting in this movie and even a bit of comedy between the wise men.

As for Jesus movies, I still don't think any portrayals of Jesus were that good and I've seen about all of them. "Jesus of Nazareth" isn't bad but didn't seem to me on how I picture Jesus. I like "The Gospel of John" but the Jesus portrayed in that film came off a little phony. Anyways, the best Jesus I've seen in a film is Mel Gibson's Passion, although it only revolves around the suffering and crucifixion. I would of love it if Mel would have made a prequel to complete the movie.

Anyways, it's hard to find "Hollywood quality" Christian films but "The Nativity Story" definitely met that mark.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by iScottie

It looks as if an Ultimate Edition is in the works.

There is no Ultimate Collector’s Edition of The Nativity Story planned, that was incorrect information on the Amazon website that listed the Ultimate version to be released on March 5th 2013.

So the best and only version of The Nativity Story on Blu-ray is the Blu-ray/DVD combo pack that was released on March 5th 2013.

[HDTV1080P]

The Nativity Story Blu-ray (brief review)

On December 1st 2006 the Nativity Story was released in theaters in the United States. With a budget of 35 million dollars, this Christian movie is considered to be a high budget movie when compared to other modern Christian made movies. The Nativity Story box office sells were almost 46.5 million dollars. The 2004 Passion of the Christ movie had a budget of 30 million dollars and box office sells of almost 612 million dollars. The Passion of the Christ was a more popular Christian movie.

On March 5th 2013 The Nativity Story was released on the Blu-ray format for the very first time. The Nativity Story target audience is Christians and anyone else interested in learning about the birth of Jesus Christ. The Nativity Story movie overall is faithful to the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah and the New Testament historical record. The Nativity Story movie also mixes historical facts in with Christmas traditions regarding how many wise men there were. Like all or most Christian movies, The Nativity Story has a few historical errors.

Overall I really enjoyed The Nativity Story quality of production. Anyone interested in learning about the birth of Jesus Christ will most likely enjoy this movie.

Video comments

The Nativity Story contains two different optical disc formats. This Blu-ray/DVD combo pack is designed for families that have not yet upgraded all their DVD players to Blu-ray players. With standalone Blu-ray players now available for under $50 and low cost portable Blu-ray players available, I wish Warner Brothers would have released this movie in a Blu-ray only version. For example the Blu-ray/DVD combo pack list price is $19.98, however I would have rather seen a Blu-ray only version for around $14.99 list price for those consumers that own 100% Blu-ray players.

The 480i DVD version of The Nativity Story uses a total of 7.69GB of space on the dual layer 8.5GB DVD disc. What is disappointing is that The Nativity Story Blu-ray version is not on a dual layer 50GB disc with a high bit rate encode, instead The Nativity Story only uses exactly 20GB of space on a 25GB single layer Blu-ray disc. The MPEG-4/AVC bit rate appeared to be only around 21Mbps on average. Some scenes appeared a little soft while many scenes in the movie had excellent resolution detail with deep blacks. Overall, the video quality was very good and this 1080P Blu-ray version looks much better than the 480i DVD version (For those consumers that own the proper equipment and sit close enough to the screen, one will see a big picture quality improvement that the Blu-ray format offers). Also the 1080P 24fps Blu-ray looked better when compared to the 1080P 24fps lower bit rate MPEG-4 version that Direct TV offers around Christmas time. The Blu-ray disc also offers an English and Spanish subtitle option in the menu.

Audio comments

I enjoyed the 5.1 DTS-HD Master audio soundtrack of The Nativity Story on Blu-ray which was much better when compared to the 1080P Direct TV version which was only offered in lossy 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo. The Nativity Story Blu-ray with the 5.1 lossless audio soundtrack is bit for bit the same as the studio master. For many parts of the movie the sound comes out of the front speakers, however at times the rear speakers added nice depth and detail to the movie during certain scenes. Also a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack is offered for those that want to listen to the movie in Spanish. The Spanish 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo audio track is also encoded with Dolby Prologic information which means that when the Blu-ray player bitstreams the audio to a modern A/V receiver the matrix flag will tell the A/V receiver to turn on Dolby Prologic IIx decoder so the rear speakers and center channel will be active (rear speakers are mono surround and not discrete).

Extra features

The only exclusive features located on the 480i DVD that is not found on the 1080P Blu-ray version is the exclusive “DVD-ROM features” and the “sneak peeks”. The sneak peaks section on the DVD is mostly made up of several secular movie trailers.

When it comes to the Blu-ray version of The Nativity Story, Christian families will be happy to know that there is no secular movie trailers at all. As soon as the Blu-ray disc is inserted, a brief New Line Home Entertainment High Definition logo is displayed in 1080P MPEG-4/AVC with 5.1 Dolby Digital and then the main menu screen for The Nativity Story is displayed. The Blu-ray disc main menu is 1080P MPEG-4/AVC with Dolby Digital 2.0 and encoded with a Dolby Prologic surround encode. There are three Special Features on the Blu-ray disc: “Trailer #1, “Teaser Trailer”, and “Behind the Scenes: The Nativity Story: A Director’s Journey”. “Trailer #1” lasts 2 minutes and 34 seconds. “Trailer #1” uses 1080P MPEG-4/AVC and 2.0 Dolby Digital with a Dolby Prologic matrix surround encode for those that own an A/V receiver. The “Teaser Trailer” last a total of 1 minute and 16 seconds. The “Teaser Trailer” uses 1080P MPEG-4/AVC and 5.1 Dolby Digital.

The “Behind the Scenes: The Nativity Story: A Director’s Journey” is an exclusive extra feature that is only found on the Blu-ray disc. It is an interesting 23 minute and 13 second documentary on making the movie. The documentary begins by saying that the director set out to bring The Nativity Story to the screen with as much historical accuracy and integrity as possible. The “Behind the Scenes: The Nativity Story: A Director’s Journey” is 480i MPEG-4/AVC with 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo. The documentary is encoded with Dolby Prologic surround information and the matrix flag will activate the Dolby Prologic IIx decoder when one bitstreams the audio to a modern A/V receiver.

I was disappointed that no audio commentary exists for The Nativity Story.

Conclusion

The Nativity Story is an excellent Christian movie about the history and tradition of the birth of Jesus Christ. The Blu-ray version is clearly the best way to watch the movie in ones home since The Nativity Story has never looked or sounded this good before.