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By box office standards, JESUS was a bust when it released in 1979, earning a mere $4 million. But since then, it has gone on to become arguably the most watched film in movie history, with over 6 billion viewings (including repeated viewings) in less than three decades.

Further, from an eternal perspective, it's one of the most important films in history, having resulted in more than 221 million decisions for Christ, according to Campus Crusade, whose founder, the late Bill Bright, was behind the film's development, always intending for it to become a means of leading people to Jesus. The movie has been translated into more than 1,000 languages, and Rick Warren suggests that it is "the most effective evangelistic tool ever invented."

Rebecca Ritz as Mary Magdalene, Shira Lane as Rivka

The JESUS Film Project has about 200 translations to go in order to reach the goal of dubbing the film into every language spoken by groups of more than 100,000 people, and staff members are working diligently to that end.

But in the meantime, a new version of the film was conceived that would offer not a new language, but a new perspective. The working title was JESUS for Women, and the idea was to combine select footage from the original movie with new scenes in order to emphasize Jesus' compassion for women. The resulting film, Magdalena: Released from Shame, was released in several countries in 2007 and became available in America on March 8, 2008 (International Women's Day).

The film, narrated by Mary Magdalene (Rebecca Ritz), opens in 40 A.D. with a conversation about Jesus between the title character and two skeptical friends. Mary Magdalene promises to explain who he was (and is) and what he means to her (and to them); she spends the rest of the film doing just that. Most of the movie consists of episodic flashbacks, comprised primarily of JESUS film footage with female characters added in.

Mary Magdalene begins by flashing way back in a six-minute segment that covers creation, the fall, and Abraham's almost-sacrifice of his son. She connects the ram that took Isaac's place with Isaiah's prophecies concerning a coming Messiah, and then shows the prophecies' fulfillment in the birth of Jesus. With the theological stage set, she begins to describe her own encounters with Jesus. Early on we are shown a scene in which Jesus casts seven demons out of Mary Magdalene; she immediately becomes a devoted disciple and follows him throughout his ministry, witnessing many of his miracles and his death and resurrection.

Mary Magdalene released from her demon possession

The screenplay for the original JESUS film came almost exclusively from a verbatim adaptation of the Gospel of Luke; Franklin Foer of the New York Times writes that the movie was noted for being both meticulously accurate and "painfully monotonous." Although Magdalena strives for the same uncompromising faithfulness to Scripture, screenwriter Nancy Sawyer-Schraeder wisely grants Mary Magdalene a bit more narrative freedom. Mary Magdalene's explanations connect scenes from Christ's life in a linear but sometimes selective fashion, allowing this film to move more fluidly than the original.

The makers of Magdalena were clear from the outset about their agenda, hiring a woman screenwriter (Sawyer-Schraeder), director (Charlie Jordan) and producer (Jill Schrag) to ensure the film would be crafted to appeal to a female audience. Incidents in which Jesus interacted with women are emphasized in the film, and wherever a female character could legitimately play a larger role in the story new footage was inserted. (An excellent website, magdalenatoday.com, offers free discussion and Bible study guides, downloadable event posters and postcards, and live discussion and prayer links.)

The filmmakers also appear to have been intentional in reaching out specifically to cultures in which women are abused, oppressed, or made to feel ashamed. An article on InterVaristy's International Student Ministries website notes "internationals from honor/shame cultures may especially be able to relate with [Magdalena's] message." Although Western understandings of the gospel tend to center around guilt and innocence paradigms, many Middle Eastern, Indian and Asian cultures relate more strongly to concepts of honor and shame. (For example, in his 1994 EMQ article "The Gospel for Shame Cultures," missionary Bruce Thomas details the breakthrough he had in evangelizing Muslim friends when he moved from legal-model understandings of the gospel to explaining that Christ dealt with the defilement and shame of human flesh by becoming flesh himself.)

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