The
Passion of The Christ
(2004)
Rated: R
Runtime: 2 Hours and 15 Minutes
Reviewer: Dale
Grade: AI think I can safely say a few things about Mel Gibson’s new Biblical epic. First of all, I have never seen a film stir up this much media hoopla. I’ve never seen a movie that was discussed so relentlessly on CNN. I defy you to tune to the news network and not see something about the movie. Do it, right now, I dare you. I told you so. Heck, “The Daily Show” was even discussing this movie, and they’re a fake news source (although, I get most of my news from Jon Stewart and the others at Comedy Central’s finest news source, but I digress).
Secondly, I have never seen a movie that left me so utterly numb at the end.
You know what this movie is about. It is based on the last twelve hours of the life of Jesus Christ (before the Resurrection, anyway, which I personally believe in). It begins with Jesus being tempted by the Devil in the Garden of Gethsemane. Personally, I found this to be one of the film’s most powerful scenes. I’ve never seen a movie that makes Jesus so utterly human, and it does so within five minutes of screen time. Now, before you start complaining, that does not mean that the movie takes a single thing from the divinity of Christ. Far from it. In the moments when this film is not oozing blood, it does a masterful job of presenting the most believable cinematic Christ I have ever seen. Jim Caviezal is amazing in this film. He effortlessly conveys divinity and utter humanity simultaneously. It’s a fascinating, gripping performance and it goes a long way toward making the rest of the film one of the most excruciating times I’ve ever spent at the movies.
Why so excruciating? Well, the sheer volume of the violence is such that it personally ground me down. Near the end of the film, near the Crucifixion, I could hear others in the audience openly weeping, but all I felt was a sort of weariness and numbness that affected me to the very bone. At that point, I just wanted the movie to get itself over with. I was beyond being moved, simply because I had been so bone-crushingly numbed by what I had seen. The whipping, the scourging, and the utter inhumanity of the Roman soldiers all ground into me. It dragged me so far down that I was unable to feel my spirit being stirred anymore. I wanted to be moved to tears. In fact, I envied those that were. But I think the movie is actually too violent. Not the Crucifixion. That was potent stuff, or it would have been if I hadn’t already been exhausted by the whole experience of the film up to that point. The scourging was an experience that drew all the reserves I had left, friends. It’s not as violent as it has been touted in the media (no movie is as violent, I believe, as this one has been touted) but it is certainly the grimmest and most brutal film I’ve ever seen. Peter Travers, of “Rolling Stone” magazine, had said, of the movie “Mystic River” that it had “taken a piece” out of him. Well, “Mystic River”, while a great movie, was definitely a drag, but this one is even more so. “Mystic River” didn’t actually take a piece out of me the way that it did Peter Travers, but it was far from a happy movie. I emerged from “The Passion of the Christ”, however, with at least a couple pieces missing. At least, that’s the way it felt. I was too emotionally drained to cry at the end of this movie. I felt ragged, beaten. I was like a sponge that has had so much water wrung from it that I had nothing left to give. The violence in this movie, while not quite as gory as movies such as “Robocop” or “Kill Bill”, is so unrelenting and so realistic that it wears away at you. This is a great movie, but it’s not one anyone will sit through for the fun of it. This isn’t the sort of movie that you pop in as background noise while you clean your room. This, like “Schindler’s List” and “Requiem For a Dream” is the sort of film that is too powerful NOT to be seen. But I wouldn’t take the kids. Yes, this is an important message that everyone should experience (especially those who believe in Christ) but it’s also one that should wait until a person’s teenage years. Trust me. Please.
As I said, the Crucifixion is more powerfully rendered than it has ever been in a film before. There is a moment at the end of the Crucifixion, an amazing shot from above the whole scene, as if seen from Heaven, which is truly awe-inspiring. And the performances are uniformly excellent. Maia Morgenstern is wonderfully moving as Mary. One needs only to look at her eyes to see the heartache she cannot verbalize. The same goes for Monica Belucci, who is better than her brief turn in “The Matrix Reloaded” would have led anyone to believe. And the name of the man who plays Pontius Pilate escapes me, but he gives a riveting performance as a conflicted man with a terrible choice to make.
Gibson’s direction is bold and powerful, even if it is sometimes a tad overdone. The Roman soldiers are so evil that they nearly come off as cartoonish and a scene involving Herod is just not that effective. It’s hokey and rather lame, particularly in comparison with the rest of the film. The music gives the film a nice undercurrent for the most part, but there are parts of the film where I would have preferred a little more subtlety on its behalf. The same goes for the usage of Satan in this film, but I understand the point of this (to show the constant temptation with which Christ was presented) and I respect the intent, even if the effect isn’t always the greatest. The same goes for the rest of the film, in fact. It’s a great movie, and I only realize how great it is now that I sit here collecting my thoughts into this review, but it sometimes suffers from a lack of subtlety and an overdose of violence and melodrama (such is the danger when you deal with such an inherently powerful bit of history). But I respect what Gibson, as a director, is trying to do here. He is attempting to show us the inhumanity of man toward their fellow man, motivated by greed and anger and the need to maintain the status quo. In this case the fellow man isn’t just a man, but the Son of God. The film shows us just how much Jesus had to endure to absolve us of our sins. Gibson has spent his own money and invested his own blood, sweat and tears to show us the enormity of Christ’s sacrifice for us. And you can’t watch this movie without coming to a better understanding of this. Christ paid an enormous debt for us. The movie drives that point home amazingly well. My only qualm, really, was that I wanted to see more of how Christ arrived at this point. There are a lot of flashbacks in this film where Christ reflects on certain moments in His life. And those moments offer us a tantalizing glimpse of an even better film. If this movie had been as long as the final “Lord of the Rings” film, for example, I would have liked it even better. Caviezal is so amazing as Christ that I wanted to see more of his performance in the Sermon on the Mount, more of the famous moment where He instructed those without sin to cast the first stone, more of his teachings and his interaction with his disciples. If Gibson had made that movie, taken out a few of the more redundant moments of Christ’s suffering, and preserved the intensity of those final twelve hours, then he would have had a movie that trounced all other Biblical epics. Perhaps Mel would have done that, if he had been given a huge budget rather than having to fund it from his own pocket. I don’t know. I know that I would have liked to see that movie. I know that. But, as it is, “The Passion of the Christ” is still immensely powerful and riveting. It’s also numbing and relentless and nearly too much at times. But the things this movie does right far outweigh the few missteps it takes along the way.
By the way, many have accused this film of anti-Semitism, but I have to say that’s a bit unfair. Sure, the Jewish priests took a part in condemning Jesus because he was threatening their entire way of life. But, if you pay attention, everyone in this movie but the Roman soldiers is Jewish. Mary is Jewish. Jesus was of Jewish lineage. The man helping Jesus bear his cross is Jewish. Jesus’s disciples are Jewish. The Jews did not kill Jesus. People did. More specifically, our sins, our pride, our arrogance, our simple inhumanity killed Jesus. If you can’t see that then, my friend, you cannot see the forest for a single tree. Mel’s treatment of the British soldiers in “Braveheart” wasn’t this even-handed, and no one talks about that movie being Anti-British (as far as I know) though perhaps they should.