Just what we all want and need; another review of Passion...

I caught The Passion Of The Christ today after the A&S performance. Should be a nice little pick-me-up, eh? Not quite.

For starters, I'm not going to comment on the religiosity of the movie. The movie is unapologetically Christian, which is to be expected (and this review will be written from that viewpoint). I had a few things in mind about the film that I wanted to check out for myself — the supposed anti-semitism of the flick, the extensive violence, the exclusive use of Aramaic and Latin.

First, the anti-Semitism. My impression on the film was that if you harbor even vaguely anti-Semitic thoughts, you'll find credence for them in this movie. Four — 4! — Jewish people act out so as to attempt to stop the execution of Christ. Why four? I don't really know, but I counted. After the abuse that Jesus suffers at the hands of the Jewish authorities (undocumented by the way) even before being turned over to the Romans, I was starting to wonder if there would be even one sympathetic Jewish character who wasn't already a follower of Christ (which, I suppose, would make them to be Christians instead of Jewish). The reported beliefs of Gibson (and his father) are not much help for him on this count.

And what abuse was heaped in this film. There were a number of times when I was watching the film that I thought "had this been real, had this been an actual documentary of what happened, Jesus would have died somewhere on the march to Golgotha (if not during the scourging) from blood loss." I know that Gibson was trying to convey just how much suffering Christ was subjected to, but there came several points that seemed to be violence for violence's sake (the raven scene, for example).

As far as the Aramaic and Latin goes, I would hazard a guess that Passion has to be the highest grossing foreign language film in American history.

Would I recommend this film? I don't know. It's become an event, so it's probably worth seeing just to find out for yourself what everyone is talking about. This movie is very clearly not appropriate for any child under, oh, 18 or so (and probably more than a few adults). For me, the most powerful moments in the film were watching the reactions of Mary to the sufferings of Jesus — much more so than any of the physical aspects of Jesus' own physical abuse.