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Three years ago Jeymes Samuel moved beyond his music and video work to release his first film as a director, The Harder They Fall. It was a stunning debut bringing great character and tense action to the familiar cinematic world of the Western. More than that though, it put black actors front and centre in a historical genre where they have been largely absent despite there being a lot of people from Caribbean and African backgrounds around in that part of the world at the time. This is not laboured in the movie but there is a nice moment when the main players go to a ‘white town’ that makes this point brilliantly.

With The Book of Clarence it appears that Samuel has aimed to do the same thing, this time with the biblical epic. This feels even more significant and greatly needed because Jesus would definitely not have been the white guy with amazing beard care that he is depicted as in thousands of years of paintings, wall friezes and stain glass windows. Rather than retell the Gospels though, this takes the Monty Python approach of presenting a peripheral tale. Jesus does appear as a character and is effectively and respectfully played by Nicholas Pinnock and there is a nod to the typical view of Christ with the inclusion of another familiar actor, but this centres on Clarence who is the twin brother of the disciple Thomas, a man that does have such a relative in the Bible but one that is never mentioned.

As with The Harder They Fall, Samuel has peppered his story with great personalities and really engaging performances. LaKeith Stanfield returns from the director’s first movie to play the lead and is magnetic as a man trying to capitalise of society’s hankering for a Messiah in a way Graham Chapman’s Brian never wanted to. Unlike Samuel’s tight cowboy film though, the plotting here is muddled and even a little obstreperous.

The Harder They Fall had a great idea and a sharp focus in executing it on screen whereas by comparison The Book of Clarence has too many ideas and a lack of focus. It is an interesting film with some smart things to say but it follows none of the promise of what came before.

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The Ripley Factor:

The women in the story are absolutely there to narratively support the men but are still strong and have a good deal of agency. Unfortunately this is just one more area where this doesn’t measure up to The Harder They Fall because there the female characters were superb. Look, if you’ve not seen Samuel’s first film you really need to see that over this, catch it on Netflix now.