The Kingdom of the Wicked (the movie)

I have blogged last year about The Kingdom of the Wicked of Anthony Burgess. Easter is coming soon (and too early this year) so I am blogging about it again. I had been wanting to watch the movie/tv miniseries "adaptation" (I say this as it is not truly an adaptation, as like with Jesus of Nazareth the novel was written in parallel to the script), called A.D./Anno Domini. From little information I had, it was pretty much unavailable, except for some religious organisations that were selling it (but I wouldn't give them a penny if I could avoid it). Then something, maybe not a miracle, but t an incredible bit of luck happened to me: I found it on YouTube under the (stupid) title Jesus of Nazareth II. I am not certain if the movie has not been heavily edited, but at least I can finally watch it. So far, it is not nearly as good as Jesus or Moses the Lawgiver. Obviously, it is not nearly as provocatively intelligent as the original novel, which was as much an uncompromising questioning of the Christian faith as a vivid account of its birth, a sympathetic yet ironic portrait of early Christians and a story of the crushing of man's wordly ambitions and spiritual ideals by the blunt force of nature. It is irreverent, blasphemous, epic, witty, it may be a masterpiece. The movie, so far, sorely lacks this and it has a bit of a Sunday school feel which disappoints me a bit. it lacks the irreverence. But there are bits of dialogue which do have Burgess's touch, so I do not despair. And in any case, there is always the novel.