The Passion of Christ

[Avatar4321]

I understand. I dont have plans to see it, Ive read the book.

 

[OCA]

Originally posted by deciophobic
didn't he get tossed off a bridge chained at the wrists in the movie?

where is that in the bible?

Well in the bible it says that he was beaten and humiliated. The timeline of events that took place in that 24 hour period is dead on but yeah Gibson did take some artistic liberties with the torture and beating because it was never written in detail the actual methods that were used or the things that happened to him in captivity so who knows what happened as far as that is concerned. I think I read that Gibson just researched the type of weaponry that was in use during that time period by the Romans when they scourged somebody and then he went from there.

 

[_dmp_]

Best review I've found:

A Reflection on The Passion of the Christ
Posted March 4, 2004
By John Powers

It was early in the evening, Ash Wednesday, when your critic set out to see Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. There had been reports for weeks about churches buying out entire theaters to see the film as a congregation, but the teen-age girl selling tickets told me a few seats still were available if I could wait for a 10 p.m. showing. I asked if she had been sold out all day and she said yes. Preliminary reports had the first day's take as high as $25 million, almost the amount Gibson put up personally to make the movie. Now, the movie has taken $125 million in its first week.

An hour before show time there was a long line waiting to get into the theater. Outside, those leaving the 7 p.m. viewings walked somberly to their cars. Some hugged one another, some just stared at the ground. A church bus was parked in a fire lane blaring contemporary Christian pop as members of a youth group filed aboard. There were people everywhere, but they seemed stunned or absorbed. A sense of anxiety struck this reporter, and he wondered if he really wanted to see this one.

Ahead in the entry line was another reporter interviewing two couples waiting to see the film. They were trying to fend off questions that seemed baiting and loaded. USA Today had been carrying a story on the film every day for a week or so. Gibson had been interviewed about it by Diane Sawyer on ABC, clearly gritting his teeth rather than be led to attack highly publicized remarks by his father, and there was no end to stories repeating over and over that Jewish leaders were worried and audiences would be traumatized or sickened by the violence of the film. Much of the criticism came from those who had yet to see it.

Finally the line began to move and the room filled to near capacity. Impressive for a late show on a Wednesday.

"I needed to see what all the hype was about," said a woman who found some friends in the front row. They nodded, hugged her, and continued eating popcorn nervously.

A group of rough-looking young men rumbled forward - street kids. Some elderly Chinese people followed the young toughs. Black couples, white couples, young couples, old couples, clean-cut kids, punky ones, singles such as your reporter, all waiting together for the film to start. In a time when films are made for niche audiences, cohorts such as teen-age girls or college boys, it seemed striking to see a film reported as carrying so much religious gravity and feared to be divisive being attended by so many different types of people.

The picture opens with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, anxiety-ridden, as he prepares for what he knows is coming. Indeed the story flows in quite the same way it does in the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There are some artistic embellishments that Gibson used to draw the audience into the drama as it moves hypnotically through the slow and terrible process of the trial and execution.

For example, there is an androgynous pale figure that appears often as a symbol of evil in the most trying moments of the film. Also, Gibson shows two flashbacks of the relationship between Jesus and his mother. Neither of the scenes are Biblical but they are universally human if not theological. Most effective is a flashback Mary experiences as she watches her son fall under the weight of the cross, cutting to a scene of Jesus as a small boy falling as he plays. It draws you powerfully into a mother's emotions as she suffers with her child the heaviest of burdens and the smallest of stumbles.

The violence in the film is indeed graphic. As Jesus is scourged, Gibson attempts to put the audience close enough to feel the blood fly off the screen into their faces. It becomes hard to watch as the scourge tears chunks of flesh from Jesus' body. It is in these moments that the otherwise silent theater audience can be heard. There are low moans and stifled gasps as the Roman soldiers relentlessly, methodically, flog Jesus just short of death. This viewer's first tears came then as he was overcome in a room full of strangers, some weeping and some hiding their eyes.

The walk to Golgotha is long and brutal. But when the procession arrives at the Place of the Skull it becomes sickeningly clear why crucifixion is such a terrible way to die. The film's audience watches as the Roman executioners pull Jesus' arms from their sockets and then pound massive nails into his hands and feet. Terrible as they are these bloody scenes never become unbelievable.

Critics relentlessly have charged the movie with being anti-Semitic and soft on the Romans. This reporter saw none of that. Gibson shows as many Jews trying to stop the trial and execution of Jesus - a Jew whose followers were Jews - as he does those who want him dead. The filmmaker effectively presents the dichotomy in Jerusalem as reported by the Gospels - that some hated him and others loved him. As for the Romans, there's hardly a sympathetic character. Two soldiers at the execution seem to empathize with the pain being inflicted but do nothing to stop it. And Pontius Pilate is presented as a brutal man who becomes a coward in the presence of Jesus, unwilling to condemn him but afraid to set him free. Pilate's contempt for justice and condescension toward the Jews is appalling and well-displayed in the film.

Save for the occasional moans, gasps and quiet weeping, the audience sat in stunned silence, as if actually witnessing the sacrifice that, for Christians, is the central act of love that redeems believers from the eternal consequences of their sins.

When the house lights came up there were blocks of applause somewhere in the back of the theater. Most, like this critic, sat quietly staring at the screen. When they did get up they filed silently to the doors. The young toughs who had swaggered in with sneers on their faces now walked with their heads downcast. Husbands hugged wives. Still others continued to sit and stare, tears falling down stone faces. Stunned. Hushed.

This movie is not for the weak. The violence is inescapable and there is rarely a respite.

"That's what it was like," a young teen said, using almost exactly the words attributed earlier to the bishop of Rome. Was it, though?

Scourgings and crucifixions are reported in the various Roman histories to have looked much as Gibson showed them. Often, it was reported, during the scourging of a criminal, the muscles of his back would be torn away until his spine was visible, and occasionally internal organs could be seen. Nailed to the cross, the victim slowly suffocated as the weight of his body collapsed his lungs. The Romans secured their empire by killing thousands in this way. Tens of thousands. Still, can any film accurately show the audience that level of violence? This reporter was left with the impression that it wasn't violent enough.

Gibson has done a service to his fellow Christians wishing to meditate on the Passion of Christ for the lenten season and Eastertide. With this brutal and bloody epic he has displaced the sanitized version of the passion of Jesus for the lenten season and Eastertide. For those of other faiths, Gibson's movie can be a window into one of the central aspects of Christian belief. But one will not get the story of Jesus of Nazareth from this movie. It is aptly titled The Passion, for that is what one will see; the suffering and death of a man Christians believe to be the Christ. For anything more, you will have to read the book.

John M. Powers is a writer for Insight.
email the author <mailto:[email protected]>