The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Country: US
Technical: DeLuxe/scope 127m
Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: Jim Caviezel, Monica Bellucci, Claudia Gerini, Maïa Morgenstern
Synopsis:
Christ is arrested in the garden of Gethsemene, condemned by a phoney court of pharisees and brought before Pilate for summary execution. Satan looks on, eager to see if the Son of Man's resolve should fail.
Review:
Gibson's extraordinary work of faith also proved a financial gamble that paid off spectacularly, and against all odds for a film after all in original tongues with subtitles (to which American audiences/producers are notoriously apathetic). The film drew some venom for its depiction of the Jews as Christ-killers and bowdlerisation of Pilate's role in the crucifixion, re-awakening anti-Semitic passions last laid to rest by the Papacy's suppression of the deicidal verse in St Matthew from the liturgy. Quite apart from the glib observation that this is no more than the interpretation offered by the gospels, one could observe that it is the Jewish clergy (and only some of them), not the people as a whole whom we see clearly wanting his death, and that Pilate does give orders for Jesus to be punished severely when he has clearly done nothing wrong. But whatever one feels about the politics of such matters, the offering up of Pilate's wife as conversion material, etc. one must give way to the film as a powerful piece of cinema. It tells its story visually, using the medium to underline Christ's suffering, and at times provide relief from it, finds potent symbols with which to express the conflict at play (the figure of Satan, the blood of Christ) and only occasionally gets carried away with its own rhetoric (the raven that torments the thief). Above all, by focusing on the faces of those present it affords glimpses of humanity amid all the baying for blood, and thus a point of identification for the viewer - nothing new but rarely done so economically before.
Country: US
Technical: DeLuxe/scope 127m
Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: Jim Caviezel, Monica Bellucci, Claudia Gerini, Maïa Morgenstern
Synopsis:
Christ is arrested in the garden of Gethsemene, condemned by a phoney court of pharisees and brought before Pilate for summary execution. Satan looks on, eager to see if the Son of Man's resolve should fail.
Review:
Gibson's extraordinary work of faith also proved a financial gamble that paid off spectacularly, and against all odds for a film after all in original tongues with subtitles (to which American audiences/producers are notoriously apathetic). The film drew some venom for its depiction of the Jews as Christ-killers and bowdlerisation of Pilate's role in the crucifixion, re-awakening anti-Semitic passions last laid to rest by the Papacy's suppression of the deicidal verse in St Matthew from the liturgy. Quite apart from the glib observation that this is no more than the interpretation offered by the gospels, one could observe that it is the Jewish clergy (and only some of them), not the people as a whole whom we see clearly wanting his death, and that Pilate does give orders for Jesus to be punished severely when he has clearly done nothing wrong. But whatever one feels about the politics of such matters, the offering up of Pilate's wife as conversion material, etc. one must give way to the film as a powerful piece of cinema. It tells its story visually, using the medium to underline Christ's suffering, and at times provide relief from it, finds potent symbols with which to express the conflict at play (the figure of Satan, the blood of Christ) and only occasionally gets carried away with its own rhetoric (the raven that torments the thief). Above all, by focusing on the faces of those present it affords glimpses of humanity amid all the baying for blood, and thus a point of identification for the viewer - nothing new but rarely done so economically before.
Country: US
Technical: DeLuxe/scope 127m
Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: Jim Caviezel, Monica Bellucci, Claudia Gerini, Maïa Morgenstern
Synopsis:
Christ is arrested in the garden of Gethsemene, condemned by a phoney court of pharisees and brought before Pilate for summary execution. Satan looks on, eager to see if the Son of Man's resolve should fail.
Review:
Gibson's extraordinary work of faith also proved a financial gamble that paid off spectacularly, and against all odds for a film after all in original tongues with subtitles (to which American audiences/producers are notoriously apathetic). The film drew some venom for its depiction of the Jews as Christ-killers and bowdlerisation of Pilate's role in the crucifixion, re-awakening anti-Semitic passions last laid to rest by the Papacy's suppression of the deicidal verse in St Matthew from the liturgy. Quite apart from the glib observation that this is no more than the interpretation offered by the gospels, one could observe that it is the Jewish clergy (and only some of them), not the people as a whole whom we see clearly wanting his death, and that Pilate does give orders for Jesus to be punished severely when he has clearly done nothing wrong. But whatever one feels about the politics of such matters, the offering up of Pilate's wife as conversion material, etc. one must give way to the film as a powerful piece of cinema. It tells its story visually, using the medium to underline Christ's suffering, and at times provide relief from it, finds potent symbols with which to express the conflict at play (the figure of Satan, the blood of Christ) and only occasionally gets carried away with its own rhetoric (the raven that torments the thief). Above all, by focusing on the faces of those present it affords glimpses of humanity amid all the baying for blood, and thus a point of identification for the viewer - nothing new but rarely done so economically before.