The Passion Of The Christ
I saw this film wEDnsday night. Here are some random thoughts on it...
In the interest of disclosure, I am a Christian whose faith gets deeper every day. So perhaps I do have a bias towards this film.
That being said and out in the open, what did I think ?
I thought the film was brilliant.
There was NO opening Credits. The film starts IMMEDIATELY in The Garden of Olives where Jesus took 3 of his disciples, while Judas is meeting with the leaders of The Pharisees to betray Jesus. The film ends with the resurrection of Jesus. It never lets up in between, and the two plus hours seemed more like one.
I will say that this film IS NOT ANTI-SEMITIC. The Jewish leadership (not all Jews)saw Jesus as a threat to their powerbase, and it was the Jewish leadership who sought to have Jesus crucified. But that only happened, because God allowed it to happen... it HAD to happen. So to suggest that the Jews as a whole killed Jesus is as intellectually dishonest and silly as the suggestion that this film anti-semitic. In either case, I would suspect the accuser really has some political agenda lurking behind the acusation.
It was in this spirit just mentiond that the last 12 hours of the life of Christ was depicted.
And if anybody were made to look bad, it were the Roman soldiers who beat Jesus mercilessly, and humiliated him constantly throughout the film.
Mel Gibson has been accused by many of becoming a crazed Catholic zealot who made a sadistic film. But anybody who makes such a statement does not understand a basic principle of the Chritian faith; that Jesus endured a violent, humiliating death to save all of mankind. Yes, the film is violent. In my opinion, its sole reason for being made is to remind Christians of what Jesus endured for us. Too often I think Christians have a "Leave It To Beaver" sanitized attitude towards Christianity. The humiliation and violence that Jesus endured does not pop out of The Gospels of the sermons.
If you aren't a Christian, or you just have an aversion to faith of anykind, then you probably won't get this point. In my opinion, I don't think Mel Gibson ws making this movie for you anyway.
And if you suggest as some have that Mel Gibson was out to make a snuff film... well... I cannot take you seriously.
I will say that I saw this film with three friends, two of whom admit that they are not religious people. Both were moved, and both were crying at times throughout the film. In fact, my friend "L" was seeing it for the second time and had asked me to go with her. I personally reacted more strongly to the humiliation rather than the violence.
Matters of faith aside, I still thought this film was brilliant. I thought the cinematogrpahy was outstanding. I took three years of Latin, and I was able to pick out some of the dialog between Jesus and Pilate. SO the attention to detail in the Latin was there, and I have to assume that as much care was taken with the Aramaic. The music supported the gravity of the situation... there were no "cue tears... NOW" cues in the soundtrack. The editing had to be great, because as I said, two plus hours seemed like one.
This film is probably not for everyone. If you aren't a Christian, it probably won't change your beliefs, but as I said earlier, I don't think this film was made for you anyway. As for me, it really brought home what it is that Jesus did for me as well as everyone else. And if you are Jewish, you really have nothing to fear from this film. If it DID help to stir anti-semitism, then the people being stirred are the ones with the preconceived, intellectually small attitudes.
And they should be prayed for.
In the interest of disclosure, I am a Christian whose faith gets deeper every day. So perhaps I do have a bias towards this film.
That being said and out in the open, what did I think ?
I thought the film was brilliant.
There was NO opening Credits. The film starts IMMEDIATELY in The Garden of Olives where Jesus took 3 of his disciples, while Judas is meeting with the leaders of The Pharisees to betray Jesus. The film ends with the resurrection of Jesus. It never lets up in between, and the two plus hours seemed more like one.
I will say that this film IS NOT ANTI-SEMITIC. The Jewish leadership (not all Jews)saw Jesus as a threat to their powerbase, and it was the Jewish leadership who sought to have Jesus crucified. But that only happened, because God allowed it to happen... it HAD to happen. So to suggest that the Jews as a whole killed Jesus is as intellectually dishonest and silly as the suggestion that this film anti-semitic. In either case, I would suspect the accuser really has some political agenda lurking behind the acusation.
It was in this spirit just mentiond that the last 12 hours of the life of Christ was depicted.
And if anybody were made to look bad, it were the Roman soldiers who beat Jesus mercilessly, and humiliated him constantly throughout the film.
Mel Gibson has been accused by many of becoming a crazed Catholic zealot who made a sadistic film. But anybody who makes such a statement does not understand a basic principle of the Chritian faith; that Jesus endured a violent, humiliating death to save all of mankind. Yes, the film is violent. In my opinion, its sole reason for being made is to remind Christians of what Jesus endured for us. Too often I think Christians have a "Leave It To Beaver" sanitized attitude towards Christianity. The humiliation and violence that Jesus endured does not pop out of The Gospels of the sermons.
If you aren't a Christian, or you just have an aversion to faith of anykind, then you probably won't get this point. In my opinion, I don't think Mel Gibson ws making this movie for you anyway.
And if you suggest as some have that Mel Gibson was out to make a snuff film... well... I cannot take you seriously.
I will say that I saw this film with three friends, two of whom admit that they are not religious people. Both were moved, and both were crying at times throughout the film. In fact, my friend "L" was seeing it for the second time and had asked me to go with her. I personally reacted more strongly to the humiliation rather than the violence.
Matters of faith aside, I still thought this film was brilliant. I thought the cinematogrpahy was outstanding. I took three years of Latin, and I was able to pick out some of the dialog between Jesus and Pilate. SO the attention to detail in the Latin was there, and I have to assume that as much care was taken with the Aramaic. The music supported the gravity of the situation... there were no "cue tears... NOW" cues in the soundtrack. The editing had to be great, because as I said, two plus hours seemed like one.
This film is probably not for everyone. If you aren't a Christian, it probably won't change your beliefs, but as I said earlier, I don't think this film was made for you anyway. As for me, it really brought home what it is that Jesus did for me as well as everyone else. And if you are Jewish, you really have nothing to fear from this film. If it DID help to stir anti-semitism, then the people being stirred are the ones with the preconceived, intellectually small attitudes.
And they should be prayed for.