The Passion of Christ
Mood:
chatty
Topic: movies
To any of my faithful readers who showed up last night to see no posts, I apologize for the lack of posts. However, the reason I didn't post is because I was watching The Passion, Mel Gibson's movie in case you've been living under a rock.
So, what did I think of the movie? I thought it was really accurate with regards to the Gospels. Ok, let's answer what everyone's been talking about for the past few days.
AntisemitismI really didn't see any way that film could have been considered antisemetic. It's not a surprise that that the Pharisees wanted Jesus killed. Anyone that's gone to a few services or Sunday school knows this fact. Additionally, Jewish people had to be the ones that killed Jesus because Jesus himself was a jew. I think that people really tend to lose that fact somehow. His own people killed him and thus Jews killed him. But so what? If he had been Chinese then the Chinese would have killed Jesus. I have no idea how any rational person could claim that it's antisemetic.
Additionally, throughout the movie there were a few people who were screaming to let Jesus go for he was a holy being. Thus, some of the Jews didn't want Jesus dead, and this was reflected in the movie. Even in the Pharisee trial scene one of them says, "these witnesses are just contratdicting themselves, why are we listening to this drivel." So even some of the Pharisees were portrayed as being for Jesus, or at least against killing him.
Pilate's RoleBoth the Bible and history tell us that Pilate really did have a hard case on his hands. As some of you may know, Hannukah is the celebration of the war led by the Maccabbees against the Greeks. Since the Jews saw the Romans as not too different from the Greeks, they had been starting up quite a few rebellions against the Romans. They were confusing the Roman policy of allowing the members of their territories for being soft. Thus there was a lot of pressure on Pilate to keep the majority of the Jews happy.
Also, the Bible does say that his wife was disturbed by dreams that Jesus was a holy being. The Romans had quite a few gods themselves and as a culture were quite supersticious about those things so Pilate really didn't want to kill Jesus, as portrayed in the movie.
ViolenceTo tell you the truth, there's nothing violent at all about this movie. Well, let me rephrase that - this movie doesn't have anything that's more violent than I've already seen in movies. In fact, it was pretty mild compared to what I've seen in other movies. Benny, an ECE friend of mine, has a pretty good theory about why everyone says that it's so violent - because a lot of people going to see the movie are churchgoers. In general they're not supposed to watch rated R movies so they aren't used to violence. That's all. Anyone who's seen a few shoot-em-ups will agree with me.
Creative licenseDespite claiming that the entire movie is based on the Gospels, Gibson does take a little creative license with the movie. First of all, he has a devil - portrayed by an evil looking lady who's present throughtout the movie in the background. I guess she represents temptation he was going through in his head.
Also, Jesus' beard was supposed to be ripped out.
Probably removed because of antisemitism scares is the fact that the mob at Pilate's place is supposed to scream, "we take full responsibility on our children and all generations to follow." Something like that...
Catholic dogmaThere were a few things that I'd never read about in my mostly protestant upbringing and I've read the Gospels 2-4 times each. For example, when Veronica wipes Jesus face just before the Crucifixion thus creating the Shroud of Turin - that's not in any of the Bibles I've ever read. It may either only be in Catholic Bibles or it may be Apocraphal.
Also when Mary and Mary wipe his blood from where he was flogged - that's not in there either. So maybe that explains some other Catholic relic.
Overall RatingI give this movie a 10 out of 10. The acting was awesome and so was the cinematography. Go see this movie! Even if you're an athiest - almost everything in this world has been shaped by Christianity and Jesus. Whether you like it or not, this "Son of Man" changed all of history from then til now. So go see how his ministry ended and started what has been the most impactful religion in history.
Posted by Eric
at 10:38 PM EST
Updated: Saturday, 28 February 2004 10:39 PM EST