My review of The Passion of The Christ

einniv

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Wed Feb-25-04 06:51 PM
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My review of The Passion of The Christ

First, I feel like I should reveal my biases for some reason.
I am an atheist. I am completely undecided as to whether Christ ever lived or not.

I do however find the story of the Christ interesting in an intellectual and emotional way.

I liked very much "The Last Temptation of Christ" and will compare it with "The Passion of the Christ" more than once.

I'll start with examining the claims of racism that have been made.
My understanding of the Christ is that he takes the sin from ALL men. So it is fair to ask if any particular group is portrayed as "worse".

Certain High Jewish Priests were portrayed as very evil. Wanting to slay the Messiah to protect their own power. However, it was made very clear that it wasn't all the Jewish people or even all the Jewish High Priests. Some stood and spoke reason to the crowd and were pushed out by the extreme people. It is also made clear(later) that this was a middle of the night secret meeting and not all of the council was even present. Again confirming that this is but one "sect" if you will. Jesus is helped and comforted along the way by individual Jews.

The Romans are portrayed in a different way but I'm not sure it really is a lighter treatment. Their crime, their sin, is just not giving a crap basically. Its just a bureaucratic decision that Pontius Pilate makes with his own ass in mind. The Roman soldiers are portrayed as sadists who delight in the torture of the Christ , especially once he shows his unwillingness to be broken.

The soldiers certainly aren't being portrayed as simply doing the will of the Jewish mob. They love it. The administrators may seem "less evil" but are they really? To kill the son of God(or any man), an innocent man, as a bureaucratic decision to quell a segment of the masses. Pilate is certainly treated lightest of all but in Herod we do see some of the sin of gluttony rampant in the empire.

There are some counter points.
Like why have Pilate's wife be an advocate for Jesus? There was no need to add that in. Is he giving the Romans a pass here? I don't know why he did it but I don't feel it hurt a balanced treatment all that much.
I felt Gibson put a special emphasis on when Jesus tells Pilate (paraphrased sorry) "you only have the power God has seen fit to give you". Is this maybe Gibson's love of country showing through here. That his glorious empire is ordained by God as well? I think it is more likely that then anti-Semitics showing through.
One really cheesy part is the cut to the "evil high priest" at the end as the earthquake happens and the temple is destroyed. He has this "Oh shit he was for real" look on his face. Only problem is... there are still Jews today. So, to suggest that the Jews that didn't believe, all got their comeuppance, so to speak, and realized they were wrong is , I would imagine, somewhat insulting to Jewish people. But I can't say for sure not being Jewish. I found it cheesy though that is for sure. I mark it up to a combination of "Hollywood movie" pressures and some Gibson self-righteousness thrown in.

All in all I found the claims of racism unfounded. I see nothing wrong with portraying certain powerful members of a religion as out for their own power and wealth. And that they might get SOME of their people behind them.

To move on... I have to say, I am a big pushover for cheap emotional ploys in movies but this movie didn't do much for me in that area. Yes, I cringed and jumped in my seat probably 10 times at some over-the-top brutality that was on the screen but it never led to tearing up. The onslaught of torture was really too traumatic and very in your face to focus on any meaning much. In comparison there were a few parts in The Last Temptation where I was brought to tears and really felt connected with the Jesus portrayed.

Largely because of the violent aspect, I felt that none of the message of Christ gets through. There are flashback sequences but the majority of them deal with Jesus making predictions about his betrayal , arrest and death. His message of love is a minor afterthought relegated to a few short sequences.

The Last Temptation was much more successful in this aspect. Though it wasn't even based on the Gospels it included many scenes that gave much more complete picture of Jesus and his message. It did this and still was able to later portray the brutality of his death. And was orders of magnitude more successful in portraying Christ's struggle on the cross.

After all the torture Gibson subjected us to I wish he had done that part better. His treatment of Christ on the cross was disjointed and anti-climactic. Christ begs the Father to forgives us all, tells the crook to his left that he will lift him up to his kingdom. Then the next instant he is asking why he is forsaken which is immediately followed by "it is accomplished". I mean come on where is some dramatic tension? There is barely a hint of internal struggle on the Christ's face. And very little sense of triumph as he overcomes at last.

I don't mean to say it was a total failure. I just feel that Scorsese captured the purported meaning of it all much better. In his shot of Christ on the cross Scorsese captures the sense of intense physical pain, intense emotional pain at feeling abandoned by God, and his struggles to come to triumph over his sins and the sins of man. His struggle between his own individualism and his role as savior. Gibson's Christ not so much triumphs as it feel like he just gives up. His delivery of the words and the images fail to capture that at all. We are left with the feeling of a thoroughly beat Christ finally letting go.

Of course he tries to make up for this with special effects like earthquakes and crumbling temples (not to mention converted High Priests :eyes:) and a rock being rolled away and Christ stepping out of the hole. But, he should have taken the time to capture the triumph on the cross.

One final thing I want to bring up is the flashback that has Jesus as the inventor of modern table and chair dining room sets? What the heck was that supposed to be about?

Over all, if The Last Temptation had never been made I might give this film a 3 out of 5 for being of a high technical quality. With something to compare it to the best I can stomach giving it is a 2.