The Critics Speak
Published February 22, 2004
But the Consultant to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry hates it:
At the end of the day, Gibson has made a piece of entertainment, the source of which is the Gospels of the New Testament, but the authority of which is nil.
I found the film to be violent and horrific. I was surprised that there was so little time devoted to Jesus' resurrection. I cannot see why it is important to make a movie about a group of people torturing and killing a man unless there is both hope and triumph at the end, or a trouble-making ulterior motive.
The point of The Passion, which many of the movie's critics seem to miss, is to focus on the suffering Christ. It's Christ's suffering that's central to His message of Redemption. Without it, His story loses all of its punch. Here was God made man, suffering at the hands of man, and yet instead of smoting his tormentors, He forgave them. There's been many a time when my own burdened heart has been lifted by thinking of Christ's suffering - a meditation that is helped, I must confess, by contemplating an image of that suffering - be it a crucifix or a Caravaggio painting at the art museum. And, in fact, Gibson's explicit goal was to make movie that would be to us what a Caravaggio painting was to distant generations. It sounds like he has succeeded.
As to those who are unable to approach the movie as anything other than a medieval European passion play, I would urge them to remember that modern anti-Semitism is succeeding quite well without relying on Christianity. The Nazis were adept at demonizing the Jews in strictly secular terms. And modern European and Middle Eastern anti-Semitism pits Islam (or Palestinians), not Christianity, against the Jews.
I would also urge them, when watching the movie, to remember the words of an old African-American spiritual, Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?. The answer was yes, we all were. And that's why it causes us to tremble.
ADDENDUM: Read more about other Jesus movies here, and about the Mel Gibson controversy here.
- The Critics Speak
- Published: February 22, 2004
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- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: News
- Writer: Sydney Smith
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Comments on this articleComments
Thanks for pointing out another source of reviews by people who have seen the movie. Here's a link to one of those reviews at Ain't It Cool News.
Thanks Dr. Syd, your perspective is powerful and clearly we shouldn't judge the movie itself without seeing it.
I also admit I have a real thing about anyone with even a whiff of Holocaust denial about them.
Did anyone see Andy Rooney's commentary on The Passion last night? I found it amusing...
He ends the segment with:
My question to Mel Gibson is: "How many million dollars does it look as if you're going to make off the crucifixion of Christ?"
And i do believe there is something wrong with mentioning Caravaggio and Mel Gibson in the same breath.
My question to Andy Rooney is: "How many million dollars have you made off that I'm-just-an-ordinary-guy schtick that wore out its welcome 20 years ago?"
Just a few asides:
* While he was arguably the greatest painter in history, Caravaggio was also (allegedly) a homosexual and a murderer.
Which gets back to the old argument of the validity of the art vs the reputation of the artist. ---Which might also apply to Mel.
* This movie should be banned for no other reason than that it allows people like Roger Ebert to preach on TV. Just what we need: more TV evangelists with "faith-based initiatives".
Carry on.
Kinda like that old argument about the validity of the comment vs the silliness of the blogger.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/13040)
The folks over at Ain't It Cool News have been posting reviews for the past few weeks. Now remember, AICN is juvenile, profane, contemptuous, obnoxious and dismissive. But the vast bulk of reviews have been at the least positive, and some have been glowing. These are folks who couldn't care less about the religious message (or even consider that a liability) and approach it almost purely as cinema. And largely, they like it, though many are surprised at the film's sustained brutality. Seems a good predictor of the film's success, to me. This one will do close to $40 million its opening weekend, easily.