So, I
finally saw Mel Gibson's
Passion of the Christ. This movie, the most hyped movie of the year before Michael Moore belly-flopped onto the screen, has already had so much written about it that I wondered if I will say anything new. After having seen it, I think maybe I will. After all that I had heard, seen, and read...I left the theater wondering what all the fuss was about. Let's look at the movie point by point and see why it was so controversial for no apparent reason:
1)It's about Jesus - This is an obvious strike against it from Hollywood since it doesn't portray Christ as a pot-smoker, a sexual deviant, or a total nut. In tinsletown, it's only okay to show Jesus if you show him as someone who should be ridiculed. I hardly think that Christians in America are persecuted in any large scale, let's drop looney conspiracy theories right now. But there can be no doubt that Hollywood is one of the most unfriendly places to Christians in our nation. I don't believe that the stars hate us all that much. It's more of the fact that I think most of them have never met a normal, everyday Christian. Therefore, their understanding of what we believe is tainted by what they
think we believe. We also have to deal with the fact that Christ's message is not particularly friendly to blind ambition, power seeking, and lust for both riches and people. These are all staples in the Hollywood landscape.
2)The Message - So much has been made by critic after critic about how wrong it is to make a movie about Jesus and only show the last twelve hours of his life. They argue that this gives a skewed perspective on what Christ taught. Have they watched the movie? Nearly half of the film is flashbacks to Christ's life. The Sermon on the Mount is shown, the Last Supper is shown, Jesus and Mary's relationship is shown, the Garden Prayer is shown. Several of these scenes capture the very essence of what Christ came to teach us. To argue that this movie misses his message for the sake of violence is absurd and reflects an absolute lack of knowledge on the part of the reviewers.
3)It Will Renew Anti-Semitism - Give it a break. I love to watch Band of Brothers and I enjoy Schindler's List. Does that make me want to go kill Germans? Of course not. This is the most ignorant and plainly stupid arugments made yet. I realize that Christians and Jews have had a rough relationship at times. However, to argue that this movie will cause Christians and others to committ acts of violance against Jews is patently rediculous. Jesus was a Jew and he was betrayed by Jews. It's that simple, the Jewish leadership wanted him dead and they got their way. Does this make all Jews bad? No. Does this mean Jews are to blame for the death of Christ? No more so than the Romans or any other person who has ever sinned and made it necessary for God to sacrifice his son for our sakes. I believe that the campaign to press this issue was started by anti-religious bigots who thought they could stir up a hornet's nest. I have also never seen so shocked as I was when I saw how many film critics are actually ancient history majors out of work. I can't count on my fingers and toes the number of times one critic or another has argued how how historically accurate the portrayal of Pilate was. How much do we know about this figure? Not a whole lot. We know he hated his placement, we know that his wife was a Christian, we know that he let the crowd decide about Jesus' fate, and we know that he was eventually called back to Rome and replaced in Israel. Aside from those scant facts, we know virtually nothing about him. So feel free to disregard other information that you hear from historical "experts" hiding as film critics.
4)The Violence - This was really the reason I stayed away as long as I did from the movie. I hate violence, especially realistic violence. I had heard over and over about how over-the-top the violence was and how sickening the movie became. Andrew Sullivan called it "pornographic." Just as I was most hesitant to see the movie becuase of this, after having sat through the film I am most dumbfounded at how critics over-reacted to this film. The infamous torture scene that was supposed to make you sick to the stomach lasted less then ten minutes! Don't misunderstand, it was disturbing and it was horrible to imagine. However, there is little in the scene that can be argued. It's a
known fact that the Romans were cruel to people they viewed as criminals. Honestly, you can be sure that the real life beating of a criminal would have been much worse. They often did not make it to the cross, but instead died during the torture. Sure, Jesus is shown as bloody and is not particularly pleasant to look at. I'm sure it was a lot worse in his sandals, so let's get over it. This movie was reviled for its violence by some of the same critics who loved Kill Bill becuase of how "gritty" and "realistic" its own violence was. I suppose as long as you're Quintin Terrantino, it's okay to make over-the-top violence and call it entertainment. Otherwise, violence for the point of
actually trying to make a point is horrible.
With all that said, there were scenes of the movie I didn't like. I thought the scene when Jesus was pierced was particularly disturbing. There is no indication that blood and water
sprayed. The entire point of that narrative is to indicate that Christ was dead and had been for some time. The water and blood would have trickled down his side since there would have been no blood pressure to spew the mix out. Particularly strange was the Roman taking a bath in the mix. Likewise disturbing and un-neccesary was the crow plucking out the theif's eye. This makes God look petty and is completely useless.
Aside from those few moments and maybe one or two other small events that I can't even recall, I felt that the movie did a great job reflecting the price that Christ had to pay for all of mankind. If you don't believe, that is your choice. But it does not meant that the movie is horrible. Even from a purely cinematic perspective, the film is head and shoulders above any other Jesus film yet. Mel Gibson deserves praise just for being willing to actually make a movie about Jesus and not make it appear like a documentary. He has directed a film that makes Jesus, as well as those around him, look human. I hope this opens the door to many more excellent films by and about Christian topics.
