The tussle, in its most reductive form, could be described as the Christian watchdogs on one side and the Jewish watchdogs on the other: the former wary of any trivializing or vulgarizing of the Gospels, the latter crying foul at the perceived representation of Jews as Christ killers and money mongers. On closer inspection, the turbulence is much more complex and all-encompassing, drawing in everyone who feels they have a personal stake in the Bible.

Sensitivities were already in high gear by the time D. W. Griffith made his classic silent epic "Intolerance" in 1916. Among its four separate narratives illustrating prejudice over the ages of man was a chapter on the crucifixion of Christ. The Jewish group B'nai B'rith protested its depiction of Jews as the villains in Jesus' death, prompting the director to chop away at his film till only 12 minutes of the Judean story was left (the entire film is 3¼ hours). The irony of Griffith's act of self-censorship was that he had made the film, a commercial failure in its day, as a counter-response to the accusations of racism leveled at his "Birth of a Nation."

By 1934, the Catholic Church institutionalized the theocratic scrutiny of movies with the creation of the Legion of Decency, which kept a hawk eye on Hollywood's presentation of things biblical. Feeling besieged from all sides, filmmakers shied away from Jesus' life and times for the better part of the following two decades. The Bible would make a splashy comeback in the '50s, when such lavish films as "Quo Vadis" and "The Robe" raised the bar on both budgets and ecclesiastical dissent. That criticism was expressed most passionately by the liberal Protestant weekly The Christian Century, which subjected Hollywood's glossy distillations of biblical events to repeated tongue-lashings throughout the '50s and the '60s.

Many among the following sampling of movies about the life of Jesus were filmed amid the din of such protests, then sold to the public by marketing spinmeisters who painted over the controversy in flashy ads that claimed "Years in the making!" Given these movies' rocky road to release, they should have added a parenthetical that said "(And you don't know the half of it)."

The movie: "Passion Play of Oberammergau" (1898) Director: Richard G. Hollaman. The hook: The traditional 17th-century theatrical pageant, as reworked for the American stage in the late 1800s and reconceived for the camera. Told in 23 scenes, it required a live narrator at each of its showings. The filming: Livestock were hauled up the elevator of New York City's Grand Central Palace for the midwinter shoot on the building's roof, where fake backdrops concealed the skyline. While crewmembers shoveled snow from the Garden of Gethsemane, actors insulated their holy garb with heavy flannel underclothing. The response: A popular success with both clergy and lay audiences, it inspired multiple tours of longer stage versions and was deployed by noted Methodist evangelist Col. Henry Hadley for his preaching campaigns. The first Passion to demonstrate the potential for spreading a Christian message through film.

The movie: "From the Manger to the Cross" (1912) Director: Sidney Olcott. The hook: The script by actress Gene Gaultier, which employed chapter and verse quotations from the Bible and innovated the celluloid practice of melding all four gospels into one narrative, highlighted the miracles and gave a positive spin on the role of women in Jesus' life. Essentially a pageant that downplayed Jesus' identity as the Son of God and omitted any appearance of Jesus before the Jewish authorities. The filming: On location in Egypt and Palestine, including shots of the sphinx, the pyramids, Nazareth and the Muslim Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. The response: Announcements of the film set off an international "storm of protest," particularly from clergy crying blasphemy at the prospect of a celluloid gospel. To quell fears and cultivate favorable buzz, special advance screenings were held for select audiences in the United States and England, including clergy. It worked. Clerics and critics united in praise.

The movie: "The King of Kings" (1927) Director: Cecil B. DeMille. The hook: Traditional hymns laced the score of this selective and extravagant ($2 million) retelling of the four gospels, skipping over Jesus' birth and launching in with his heyday as a healer. The filming: A multidenominational prayer service on the first day of shooting created the reverential tone at the Hollywood studio set and on location at Catalina Island, where daily Mass was also celebrated. Cast members were kept in line off the set by good-behavior clauses in their contracts. The response: Jewish organizations, still wary nine years after "Intolerance," reasserted their complaints. DeMille was moved to make small changes, resulting in a muting of anti-Semitic undertones (DeMille added a signed forward to the film insisting that the Jews were under Roman control, but then proceeded to perpetuate other stereotypes by depicting the high priest Caiaphas as an operator who saw the temple as a business tool for advancing his own wealth). The film went on to become the most viewed and arguably most revered Jesus film of the next half-century. Producer Samuel Bronston and director Nicholas Ray made an expensive remake in 1961, which was met with derision by the press and written off by the Legion of Decency as "theologically, historically and scripturally inaccurate."

The movie: Ben-Hur (1959) Director: William Wyler The hook: The last word, budget-wise, timing-wise and Oscar-wise, on the 1950s Biblical epic craze. Based on the 1880 novel by Gen. Lew Wallace that had been filmed twice before in silent versions, its chief lure was arguably neither the preachings nor the passion of Jesus (who becomes a supporting player in the story of a Jewish prince who runs afoul of the law), but a chariot race. The filming: Shot on a $15 million budget at Cinecitta Studios in Rome, which Mel Gibson would revisit 43 years later to film "The Passion." Charlton Heston (accepting a role that was turned down by Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman and Rock Hudson) took chariot-driving lessons. The reaction: MGM silenced its lion before the opening credits, setting a reverential tone that was praised by the religious press. A splashy box-office hit, helped by a record 11 Oscars (unmatched until "Titanic") and a pioneering marketing campaign of tie-in products that included action figures and Ben-His and Ben-Hers bathroom towels.

The movie: "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" (1965) Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini The hook: The anti-epic, filmed on a dime in black and white, neo-realist style. The director was a Marxist, an atheist and gay. The filming: Pasolini assembled a completely nonprofessional cast (including his mother as the older Mary and a Communist truck driver as Judas) amid Roman ruins and modern villages in southern Italy. The reaction: Received a seal of approval from the Vatican Council II (where it received a special screening), The International Catholic Film Office and critics, each of whom praised its austerity and sincerity.

The movie: "Jesus Christ Superstar" (1973) Director: Norman Jewison The hook: From concept double-album to stage to screen. A band of teenagers arrive in Israel and enact the last seven days of Christ (played by Ted Neely, above) with "rock" songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Self-conscious anachronisms such as tanks, jets and guns gave it that Vietnam- era edge of peacenik pleading. The filming: Jewison (fresh from the screen version of "Fiddler on the Roof,") took his cast and crew on location in ancient sites of Israel. The reaction: Something to offend everyone: Some African-Americans bridled at the casting of a black Judas, some Jewish commentators found it as more anti-Jewish pandering in pop disguise; many fundamentalists thought it vulgar. But a considerable number of teens in attendance emerged born again from the experience, while Mary Magdalene's big number, "I Don't Know How to Love Him," became a hot item in the talent section of beauty pageants all over America.

The movie: Godspell (1973) Director: David Greene The hook: The parables and the Passion, set to a pop pastiche score by Stephen Schwartz (who wrote the music and lyrics for recent Broadway hit "Wicked"). Jesus (played by Victor Garber) is a hippie clown, his disciples a multiracial cross-section of hard-working city folk with show-biz savvy and a George Carlinesque antenna for current events. The filming: New York City as holy land, and for many disaffected young emigres from Middle America, it was. Jesus' word was spread from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park. The roof of the World Trade Center became the stage for a vaudevillian hat-and-cane number. The reaction: Reviews were mixed, and fans of the intimately staged Off-Broadway and Broadway production stayed away en masse. Many critics claimed it said more about the Woodstock-and-"Hair" generation than the New Testament, but its rock driven, youth-culture energy legitimized the electric guitar in church services and presaged a more contemporary approach to worship around the country.

The movie: "Jesus of Nazareth" (1977) Director: Franco Zeffirelli The hook: "Jesus," the TV miniseries, enacting a hybrid of the four gospels with a formidable all-star cast and a special emphasis on the Judaic aspects of Jesus' background. The filming: The shoots in Morocco and Tunisia triggered problems with many Muslim actors and extras, who were offended by the informal off-camera garb of Olivia Hussey (who played the Virgin Mary) and agitated when they thought the actor playing Jesus (Robert Powell, who went for realistic suffering by carrying a heavy wooden cross) was actually beaten and crucified. The reaction: A Zeffirelli interview describing his intended Jesus as an ordinary man prompted Bob Jones University head Bob Jones III to launch a pre-emptive letter-writing campaign to program sponsor General Motors, accusing the filmmaker of trivializing the Son of God. GM backed out as a result. The finished film elicited praise from Pope Paul VI, Billy Graham and Campus Crusade for Christ chief Bill Bright, who would co-produce the widely seen theatrical film "Jesus" two years later.

The movie: "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988) Director: Martin Scorsese The hook: The human Jesus, dogged by self-doubt and desires of the flesh. Adapted by Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" collaborator Paul Schrader from the 1955 novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, renowned for "Zorba the Greek." The filming: Shooting began in 1987, on location in Israel after a four-year delay. Paramount Pictures had backed away from the film after an incendiary letter-writing campaign spearheaded by the Rev. Donald Wildmon's National Federation of Decency. Universal rescued the project, slashing the original $12 million budget in half. The reaction: Jerry Falwell gave the war cry that led to a raucous boycott of the film by conservative Christian groups, who arrived at movie theaters around the country armed with protest placards and Bibles. The Jewish chairman of Universal's parent company MCA, Lew Wasserman, was targeted for a mudslinging campaign by Christians, who inferred that he and his studio were responsible for stirring the embers of anti-Semitism. Audiences shied away, some intimidated by the protesters, others turned off by reviews that, among other issues, took exception to Harvey Keitel's "Mean Streets" accent in the role of Judas.

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