The Passion of the Christ released in 2004 and directed by Mel Gibson is a film that I have only recently seen for the first time. At the time of its release I made a conscious decision to avoid watching this film due to the huge amount of hype that surrounded it.
Having now watched this film I am left with a mixture of different thoughts and feelings. I am not a religious person and this is also another reason why I probably did not rush out to the Cinema on the release of this film. I also had even less interest in rushing out to see it when I discovered that not only were there no big name Hollywood Actors amongst the cast but that all of the dialogue was spoken in a mixture of Latin and Aramaic, with English subtitles displayed across the screen.
The entire script for this film is taken from chapters 14 and 15 of Mark's Gospel, something that I confess to not be completely familiar with. Having said that I have been brought up within the Church of England and although I have not worshipped in a Church since I was a Child, I still recall most of the more prominent stories from the Bible.
The opening scenes of the film are somewhat strange but these set the tone for what is to follow. Within strangely lit surroundings
we find the figure of Jesus, played by the relatively unknown Actor, Jim Caviezel, knelt down on the floor in the Garden of Gethsemane. Here we see Christ struggling to deal with the sins of the World.
The whole film covers a period of just a few days of Christ's life, from his atonement in Gethsemane to his arrest and crucifixion. There are many events here that have been covered in other films time and time again but what Mel Gibson achieves here in his interpretation of the events is far more brutal and barbaric than anything that I was prepared for.
There are two scenes within this film that are truly shocking. The first of these involves Jesus being flogged by a group of sadistic Roman Soldiers. As Jesus refuses to deny that he is the Messiah the whippings get harder and harder, reaching the point where whole chunks of his skin are ripped from his body. This scene lasts for over ten minutes. It ends with Christ's bloody body being dragged away and his mother, Mary kneeling down and wiping up the blood of her son with a cloth that has been handed to her by the Emperor's wife.
The other gruesome scene involves the lead up to the crucifixion and in particular the nailing of Jesus's hands and feet to the Cross.
There was much criticism associated with this film following its release. Much of this involved the way that this film portrayed the Jews. Where other films have portrayed the Romans as the sole perpetrators of Christ's death here the Jews are also shown as playing a part. In particular the role that is portrayed by the Jewish high Priests is far from favourable.
It is possibly somewhat ironic that the Romans on the other hand are portrayed in a slightly better light, and in particular we see Pontius Pilate depicted as a man with real emotions who tries to save Jesus from being sentenced to death, but in the end he is powerless to prevent the inevitable from happening.
One of my biggest concerns regarding the subtitles quickly disappeared since after a few minutes you almost forget that they are there. The spoken dialogue actually helps to give the scenes a more authentic feel with Latin spoken between the Romans and Aramaic amongst the Palestinians. In the scenes where Jesus speaks to Pontius Pilate he speaks Latin, something that many historians believe to be plausible as the Romans had likely forced their language on the Jews.
The acting throughout this film is superb and helps to keep you gripped to your seat but I did find some bits a little too gruesome and I found myself having to look away from the screen. I would like to believe that these barbaric acts had been exaggerated for extra cinematic effect, but sadly I believe that they are probably just closer to the truth of what actually happened than what other films on this subject have shown.
There are some moments in this film that are shown as flashbacks. These include Mary, remember Jesus making a table for their home. Whilst other flashbacks involve Jesus remembering past events, including the Last Supper and the Sermon on the Mount.
The principal cast of this film are as below
Jesus - James Caviezel Mary - Maia Morgenstern Mary Magdallen - Monica Bellucci Judas - Luca Lionello Peter - Franscesco di Veto John - Christo Jivkov Pontius Pilate - Hristo Shopov
Overall I find this to be a very enjoyable film, although perhaps enjoyable is not the correct word to use. If this film only did one thing for me, then it was that it made me sit up and think. As a religious sceptic it did not make me any more of a believer, but it did sicken me to think that this man, be him the son of God or not, suffered an horrific death for his beliefs.
This film is available in DVD format with several extra features. This however is a film only review.
Year of release - 2004 Running time - 127 minutes UK Certification - 18
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Due to a long list of coincidences I've seen this four times now, once in the cinema and then was always about when someone had just bought it and wanted to watch it and I had nothing else to do. I was wondering if anyone else who had seen this in the cinema remembers a scene where Jesus seemingy invented the modern table and chair which was cut from the dvd version, it was very odd and no-one who's just seen the dvd believes me!
Shoka 02.04.2007 01:52
just one question, why is it called the passion of THE christ? I dont get that...
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Mar 31st, 2007
very helpful by (100%):
