I was nervous going to see this film. After a while I wanted to like it. I was rooting for the film, hoping the charges I had read were false. It had beauty to it and there was passion in its crafting. I was hoping that someone would capture the beautiful words and ideas that Jesus left behind.
It didn’t.
It wasn’t just a movie. That is like saying that Jesus was just a Jew who got crucified with no further consequences on history. That is like saying that the Bible is just a book. That is like saying that the moment of silence in public schools is just a few minutes taken out of the students’ day that doesn’t mean anything.
They are saying the movie is bloody and I agree. But shouldn’t a crucifixion be bloody? I found it shocking and hard to watch at times but it worked. That an 8-year old girl was across the aisle from me was disturbing but that is another parent’s decision
Satan was frightening, a truly demonic figure. Rock on.
The scenes with Jesus teaching among his disciples were believable. I understood why people followed such a teacher.
And the Mary’s were spellbinding. If the actress who played Jesus’ mom doesn’t win an Oscar I’ll be shocked. She was the lynchpin that held the movie together.
There were some critically poor choices. When one makes a movie based on a text that has been studied so closely they have to justify every deviation from that text.
Making the Roman governor so conflicted about ordering Jesus’ death made the Jews seem all the more responsible for his crucifixion, ghastly and bloodthirsty. Pilate was almost noble and that is just bullshit. This man was a Roman governor re-called to Rome for excessive cruelty.
If the Jews weren’t purposefully painted to be like Nazi’s at a rally, than maybe my imagination was just getting the best of me. You know us Jews, seeing phantom Nazi’s under every bed, bogey-man progroms in every dark corner.
Herod was like some kind of conservative wet dream of what a gay person is supposed to be, portly and flaming like a Queen at karaoke night. Herod’s depiction was a purposeful commentary, a nod to the Christian right’s homophobic policies.
Hey, there was a token good Jew. There was the Jew who helped Jesus with his cross. Wasn’t he swell? Now those Jews in Hollywood will have to shut up because we wrote in a good Jew and we had Mary’s opening lines: Ma Nishatanah Halaila Hazeh “Why is this night different from all other nights?” So that makes this movie just fine and those Jews will have to be quiet.
Mel Gibson wants to be a Christ-figure. The terrible Jews of Golgotha…I mean Hollywood tried to keep his movie from happening but he fought against them. This might mean they cruci…I mean, it might mean that he never works again. You know that it was his hand that the nail was lined up with in the crucifixion scene?
That Mad Max, fella, he’s subtle.
The team that worked on and edited this movie should have thought about its consequences. It is not a movie that is working for peace. The Passion of the Christ was a showcase of Mel Gibson’s bigotries using the story of Jesus Christ as a golgotha. It shouldn’t be the Jews who are angry but the Christians whose religion he flayed. Jesus wasn’t only crucified on the screen but his story and his love were crucified and they were nailed to wood by Mel Gibson’s shortcomings as a human being that lurked behind every poor decision in the film.
The mistakes would have been just another matinee let-down if this had been just a movie. I didn’t watch an otherwise compelling movie with a few poor cinematic decisions. On the screen I saw future Matthew Shephard’s of the world and upcoming vandalized Temples with the word Christ Killer spray painted on the walls.
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