The Passion: "Religious splatter art film"?
Published February 24, 2004
He added, "It's the sadism, not the alleged anti-Semitism, that is most striking. (For the record, I don't think Gibson is anti-Semitic; but those inclined toward bigotry could easily find fuel for their fire here.)"
Time Magazine's Richard Corliss, in a review headlined "The Goriest Story Ever Told," said the audience for this film is fairly narrow: True believers with cast-iron stomachs; people who can stand to be grossed out as they are edified. And a few movie critics who can't help admiring Mad Mel for the spiritual compulsion that drove him to invent a new genre --- the religious splatter art film — and bring it to searing life, death and resurrection. [Reuters] I understand Mel's point about emphasizing the REALITY of Jesus's physical suffering as a means to conveying the extent of his sacrifice:
- I think anybody that is in the know about Jesus as God, and they believe in that, realize that he was brutalized, and that - I'm exploring it this way, I think, to show the extent of the sacrifice willingly taken. But I don't think people - I think it's going to be hard to take, but I don't necessarily know that people are going to be upset by it.
Jan. 14, 2003 ("The O'Reilly Factor'')
Understanding what he Jesus went through, even on a human level, makes me feel not only compassion, but also a debt: I want to repay him for the enormity of his sacrifice.
March 6, 2003 (Zenit)
I want the full savagery of it to sort of like, you know, jump out of the screen at you. And at the same time, this is the trick, it's to be moved by it, not just repelled by it.
Jan. 26, 2004 (NBC's "Today'') [NY Times]
I am a believer, but I am not sure I want to subject myself to that level of brutality, regardless of the outcome.
Another element of this is how profoundly Catholic is Gibson's vision. I am Lutheran but I have been in many Catholic churches and there is often an emphasis on, for lack of a better word, gore: there are lurid pictures and sculptures with lots of dripping blood, whereas Protestant treatment of crucifixion themes tend to be much more symbolic. I am imagine this is my psychological preference as well.
- The Passion: "Religious splatter art film"?
- Published: February 24, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Video
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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I personally don't 'get' any of this. Making movies about religious events that no one can really prove or disprove either way seems to be treading on unstable ground. These movies should be viewed as strictly fiction and evaluated as such. In addition, doesn't it cheapen the religion to package and sell it, to glamorize it, to dramatize it? Is the basic story itself not enough to move and inspire those that believe it?
This is obvoiusly coming from a non-Christian, but I'm still skeptical about movies made about relgious events that are supposedly factual in my religion. If an individual is tailoring these events for the big screen, i don't see how one could NOT remain skeptical.
So many degrees and years of translation can only have a deteriorating effect on the accuracy of any story, factual or not. From hebrew to aramaic to latin to greek to whatever, and then to Mel Gibson, all in just under 2000 years.
I seem to have strayed from the original topic of the movie itself... my bad. Either way, I think i'll pass on this one...
WHIP IT
DEVO
crack that whip
give the past the slip
step on a crack
break your momma's back
when a problem comes along
you must whip it
before the cream sits out too long
you must whip it
when something's going wrong
you must whip it
now whip it
into shape
shape it up
get straight
go forward
move ahead
try to detect it
it's not too late
to whip it
whip it good
when a good time turns around
you must whip it
you will never live it down
unless you whip it
no one gets their way
until they whip it
i say whip it
whip it good
I STILL think that's the greatest song about Cool Whip ever written!
very intense movie
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I suppose ever since Sam Peckinpah shocked the world in 1969 with his masterpiece The Wild Bunch, the art of splatter and gore has become a part of mainstream culture.
Violence as art in today's films is nothing new, and has certainly been carried to new levels by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Walter Hill, John Woo, David Cronenberg, Brian De Palma and Quentin Tarantino.
But has the level of violence socially acceptable in today's R-rated films ever been applied to subject matter as serious as The Passion of the Christ? Is this a good thing? Has our civilization moved forward culturally by producing such a violent work about such a sacred subject?
Of course, they were saying the same thing about Peckinpah in 1969 following The Wild Bunch. His rage-filled work has since become one of the great achievements in cinema history.
I still think Gibson's directing talent has the depth of a good Bronx cheer, but I shall go see his film and decide for myself.