The Passion of the Christ

After all the shouting, racial and theological arguments, Mel Gibson finally put out a movie.  I've written HERE and HERE about the Jewish issues involved. Let's try as much as possible to put away all the side issues though, whatever theological stance one might like for him to have taken, and consider the actual movie he did make as a work of art.

Mel Gibson has created a truly powerful piece of visual poetry meditating on the brutality of the crucifixion of Jesus. I've long since given up the Christian beliefs of my Protestant upbringing, but this was very moving even to me. It brought home the anguish of the story, and made it real like nothing else I've ever seen. I completely don't believe in the resurrection, yet still I left the theater with about half an urge to sign up at my old boyhood church again. That's pretty effective movie making.

There's no question that the film is brilliantly made, however much you do or don't like what he's saying. The lighting, the sets and cinematography create a tangible world glowing with the presence of the supernatural. The hazy blue opening scene in the Garden of Gethsemane alone was nearly worth the price of admission.

A lot has been made of the graphic brutality of the film. It certainly is brutal as all hell. The sounds of ripping flesh as he's being scourged particularly cut into my psyche. Some of this was tough to watch. Just watching the film could count as doing penance.

Yet theoretically this is way not the most graphically violent movie going. Kill Bill had a thousand times the body count. Tarantino had blood arching from severed limbs, and decapitated heads flying through the air. That stuff was really a cartoon, though. You wouldn't really feel the pain of one of these characters like you would Jesus here.

Saving Private Ryan, however, had much more graphic violence, which I for one found much harder to watch. There was some rough stuff in The Passion, but I don't recall entrails hanging out of still living bodies. I found Spielberg's movie much tougher to watch.