Personally, it's hard not to experience -- or judge -- "The Passion of the Christ" without the goggles
of Roman Catholicism that I was raised with. Though I stopped practicing the religion many years
ago, I can't help but analyze the film with some "advance" knowledge that a Jewish or atheistic
moviegoer might not have.
And like any film based on a bestseller, knowing what happens in advance is both a blessing and a
curse. Obviously it takes some of the bite away from the experience if you know that character X
dies and that person Y was actually person Z's father. (Having read "The Hours" before seeing the
film, for instance, took away all of the shock when it was revealed that Julianne Moore was Ed
Harris' mother -- but this proved to be one of the most heart-clutching parts of the movie for
first-timers.) On the flipside, knowing what happens ahead of time gives you a more intimate
connection with the characters, as if you've been with them longer than simply the two hours in the
theater. (Again referring to my "Hours" example, seeing Ed Harris jump out of the window was
monumentally more sorrowful than if I didn't have his backstory that the book provided.)
That said, "The Passion of the Christ" could be (dare I say it?) a powerful film for Christians of
many types -- from those in the Bible Belt to fallen sheep like me -- simply because of the inherent
knowledge of the story. For someone who isn't familiar with the tale of Jesus' final days, I
completely understand how average "The Passion" must seem, and I'm sure I'd be in the same boat,
too. I was just brought up that way.
When Veronica wipes Christ's face and his image remains, I found it to be a deft subtle touch; the
non-religious person who I saw the movie with thought it corny and contrived. I saw suspense and
despair in an apostle's denial of Jesus three times; she wondered what the significance of this
shunning was. I thought that the resurrection sequence was nicely underplayed; she asked why we
just saw Jesus' butt.
Of course there are universal themes, often hammered home with the casualness of a wrecking ball,
that anyone could pick up from the film -- a mother's love for her son, doing what's right in the
face of crisis, defending your beliefs, etc. Whether or not you need to experience them couched in
an unnecessary bloodbath is just the start of the film's shortcomings.
Conversely, I did not find the film to be anti-Semitic any more so than the "villains" of any historical
drama could be blamed. If someone were to hold Jews responsible for Christ's death -- a ludicrous
proposition -- is it sensible to blame someone living today for the wrongs of those who lived 2,000
years ago? Although a small minority of the Christian population probably did read deeper meaning
into Caiphas' condemnation of Jesus, I firmly believe anti-Semitism was not Gibson's intent.
The director's not completely off the hook, though. When taking on a project of this nature -- and
handling it with the secrecy and controversy that it was -- several questions arise. Why hasn't
Gibson spoken out about his father's lunatic rants that the Holocaust never happened? Is any of the
hundreds of millions of dollars that the film made going to charity? Why were certain elements of
the gospels omitted while some apocryphal story strands made it in?
Perhaps those questions shouldn't be posed when merely discussing the film's merits, but Gibson's
movie -- while sturdy on a technical level and emotionally taut on a very basic level -- is far from a
masterpiece. It's a bit overlong. Some of the characterizations are cartoonish. The actors are all a
bit too Renaissance-ly caucasian. It doesn't work thematically as well as it could have. (This is
probably my biggest problem with the film; instead of building suspense with the impending doom
of crucifixion, we are thrust right into the slaughter with only blink-and-you-miss-em flashbacks.)
One fact still remains: As much as a part of me wanted to dislike it, "The Passion of the Christ"
tells a very moving story and is a heart-wrenching odyssey.
Director: Mel Gibson
Screened: February 25
Grade: B
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