Customer Reviews

Secrets of Mary Magdalene

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4 star:		(3)
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As of the writing of this review I consider the DVD `Secrets of Mary Magdalene' my Holy Grail of Magdalenia. It documentary feature contains 98 minutes of first rate, extremely well organized material that is presented in a well conceived, cohesive manner that well demand your full attention from beginning to end. Add to that an additional 30 minutes titled; `More Secrets of Mary Magdalene' and you're set for a fascinating, paradigm altering evening.

While the presentation style is similar to other documentaries on Magdalene (i.e.: `Magdalen An Intimate Portrait' and `Something About Mary Magdalene') using dramatic re-enactment, artistic representations, travelogue like sequences of sacred sites and interviews with recognized experts on the subject, this one stands out in my estimation as the best. The information offered on the Gnostics, the Holy Grail and the role of the Cathars and Templars goes far beyond the other cinematic studies. I was also pleased to see Lesa Bellevie, Jane Schaberg and Elaine Pagels interviewed in this documentary. All three were left out of the other two films. I'm also a big fan of Susan Haskins who appeared in all three!

If you're at all interested in Mary Magdalene you'll want to own this one; most definitely -5 Stars-.

The main program here is beautifully filmed, but most of the material involving the life of Mary Magdalene is pure speculation.

For me, the more enjoyable portion of the program was the expert roundtable, especially the contributions of Elaine Pagels and Jane Schaberg. It's always fun to watch fine minds in action, and these two women are both erudite and witty. Unfortunately, the other four people on the panel did not rise to the same standard.

It was, for instance, news to me that a woman was not competent to testify in a Jewish court of the time, which the panel then discussed in the context of how Mary's news of the risen Jesus was received. I also enjoyed the extensive discussion of the Gnostic and other non-canonical gospels. Dr. Pagels, author of The Gnostic Gospels, is generally considered to be one of the major experts, if not the major expert on that topic, and is an excellent teacher and public speaker.

One of the weaknesses of the program is its mixing of serious academic scholarship with the rank speculation of works like The Da Vinci Code.

A minor irritant is that viewers apparently can't bypass an advertisement for a follow-on to the Da Vinci Code that plays at the beginning of the disk. Hitting the Menu key on my remote did not work, I had to fast-forward through a very long advertisement.

There are two parts to this disk. The first is a History Channel type "biography" of Mary Magdalene which is nominally interesting. The next part? It's an in depth "roundtable discussion" of a biblical figure by very knowledgeable thinkers. Here we have a collection of truly outstanding scholars talking seriously to each other and answering questions about the role of Mary Magdalene in the pages of scripture, or in the gnostic gospels, or in mystic Judaism, or in the lives of ordinary persons, or as a way to imagine the Divine Feminine, or as an extension of the Song of Songs, or as Christian Kabballah. It is so refreshing, yes so interesting, to hear these biblical scholars and writers discuss a subject with such exact knowledge, care, and intelligence. I think it may be the best roundtable discussion on a New Testament biblical subject available on DVD "today." (Postcript - very similar in scholarly tone is "Bill Moyers - Genesis"; alas, "that" series on PBS never made it to DVD or even to CD. It's available just in book form or in a cassette set)

While not an exhaustive study it is nonetheless entertaining and a good look at the often misrepresented saint. She was an apostle (one sent to tell the good news) and no where in scripture is she the prostitute the Catholic Church has made her out to be.