I saw this movie this past Sunday, and before I forget to post anything about it, I want to make a couple comments.
I think TIME put it best with the title "The goriest story ever told" (March 2004 issue). It is the goriest story ever told, and Mel Gibson made sure it was shown in full detail.
When Peter got his ear torn off, and seeing Jesus put it back on again, that set the tone for the entire movie. During the whipping scene, when they get out the whips with the metal claws on them, that was a rather visceral feeling when you heard them rip the thing out of his back, and saw the flesh fly (I wasn't ready for that one, and neither was the audience in the theatre). And then there was the spear at the end of the Crucifixion scene. This movie was bloody, and gory. Did it need to be? I don't know, but I think it was used for a purpose. And it did not hurt the film.
The Passion was bloody and gory, but I was expecting worse from what I had heard. Maybe it is because I have been desensitized by the media and Hollywood, but the blood and gore in this movie did not bother me.
The production values were very high, the costumes and sets were very nice. The small amount of effects shots were very good I thought. The spear scene at the end of the movie did not look great, but it was so bloody that most people were not scrutinizing it at all.
I thought the teachings and healing of the life of Jesus would have been a bigger part of the movie, but they were only short flash backs triggered during His torture through out the movie. The movie centralized on what happened after the Last Supper. But it was good that the movie did not go broader, the movie was not too long, not too short. It told enough of the story to tell the story well.
When we grow up and learn about Jesus and his life through Sunday School, church or what not, we see these carvings and stained glass windows of specific moments from His life. It was amazing seeing these scenes acted out, very closely I might add, to that of what we remember from church. I thought that was the best part of the movie.
Another shining point of this movie is the fact that, in my opinion, it was not so much propaganda as other 'Jesus" movies and shows have been. There were no cheesy beams of light, people were not falling over at the sight of Jesus. The story was treated very well, and it was not Hollywood-ized either. No one would want to see that either.
Article comments
1 - troy
Hey whatsup glad you liked the movie it was an awesome movie and i wanted to coment on what you said about you didnt know if it had to be bloody or not i feel that this movie had to show that because we need to see what Jesus went through and how bloody he was to pay for our sins that is why the bible says by his stripes we are healed so i know for a fact that it had to be shown in the movie. ANd also it wasnt Peter whos ear was cut off Peter cut one of the guards ear off and the nails actually went through the wrist not the hand cause if they would have put the nails in his hand the wieght of there body would have ripped them out. But im glad you enjoyed the movie and i hope you tell someone else that you live around about the movie.
2 - Ken Edwards
The question about the wrists was rhetorical. In the movie they put the nails through the hands, i believe, is because people were taught (when young) that they put the nails through his hands. also many paintings and stained glass windows have the nails through his hands, not wrists.
3 - Steven
Excellent review, one of the better ones I have read amid the slew of negative, biased reviews.
Well Done!
4 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
I think the thing about the blood and gore in The Passion is missing the point a bit. As gore goes, i doubt it's even as bad as Braveheart. However, it is the cruelty depicted that is hard to bear. I think if a lot of the critics went back and looked, there aren't really so many shots of whips hitting flesh as they thought hitherto. Bit like Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Folks thought it was the goriest thing they ever saw, and then they see it again and think they're watching a cut version. The mind plays strange tricks. But the cruelty is incredibly distressing. Like Irreversible, which i keep harping on about, but it's a valid point in relation to this. The fire-extinguisher sequence is not particularly gory, as such, and it only lasts a couple minutes. but the tension leading up to it, and the unbearable glee which the onlookers experience during said brutality, is what really does the trick.