Even You Can Be Forgiven!
Movie – The Penitent Thief 2020 PG 1 Hr. 33 Min.
Partial Cast List – Kevin Sorbo, Jay Giannone, Kyle Roark, James Russo, Gerardo Davila, Skeeta Jenkins, Stelio Savante, Major Dodge, Adele Pomerenke, James Logan, Krista Bradley
The Penitent Thief is a movie that gives non-Biblical backgrounds of the two thieves crucified with Jesus Christ. In the Bible, those two thieves yelled at Jesus, asking Him to rescue them from their death sentence. When Jesus didn’t respond to them, they, in turn, mocked Him. After three hours hanging on their respective crosses, one of the thieves turned towards Jesus and said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23: 39-43)
In this story, the two thieves are brothers Dismas and Joham. They grew up with a band of thieves learning to steal from the Romans and from the people who worked with the Romans. The movie starts with them in prison. Joham sits there frustrated with their situation while Dismas wonders how he got there. He reviewed his life, and this was shown through multiple flashbacks.
The flashbacks didn’t ruin the smooth flow and rhythm of the movie. Those flashbacks humanize the thieves and diminish their powerful representation of mankind’s sinful nature. Let me explain what I mean by that. The Bible introduces those two men with no historical or personal background. We only knew them as thieves or criminals. The thieves represented us, sinners needing salvation. One thief mocked Jesus to rescue them if He was the Messiah. This represents the sinner who does not believe in Jesus yet begs Him to perform a miracle to prove that He is the Messiah. The other thief asked Jesus to remember him when He went to His Kingdom. This represents a sinner who believes and repents while knowing that he deserves the punishment he is receiving. He didn’t have to do anything to be born again and enter the Kingdom of God. Overall, this Biblical depiction covers all sinners, while the movie diminishes this very point.
The rating for this movie is appropriate even though there were a couple of sword fights.
I recommend this movie based on the originality of the background story of those two thieves. The movie stated that it used some creative license to represent the thieves. Yet it kept most of the Biblical story of Jesus’ birth, His preaching, and crucifixion. The only concern is how new believers and non-believers assess this depiction and wonder about the Scriptural validity of the final scene in this movie. One of the overarching storylines throughout the movie is the premise of forgiveness. Dismas, in his early life, did not believe in forgiveness, but that thought changed when he was on the cross. Overall, it is still a good movie for people to watch and discuss the importance of the Penitent Thief in the Bible and the power of forgiveness.
