I just thought I'd poke my head in this one as I happen to be Jewish and thus was supposed to be "offended" (!) according to some pundits, by this movie. I know there are a whole lot of Christians on this board, so I thought an outside perspective might be nice.AwallaceUNC wrote:I'm happy to see that you've watched it, Loomis (and apparently, I must note, on Easter). I think you've made a fair and reasonable analysis of the movie, even if I don't agree entirely. The violence is certainly abundant, but for Christians, I think justified. Christians I know often talk about their difficulty grasping the events of the Bible. It's not that they doubt that they really happened, but rather that they have difficulty comprehending it as real life rather than a story, because that's how it's been presented to many for their whole lives. So when a movie like <i>The Passion</i> comes along, it aids in making that connection. That said, if it were anyone but Jesus, I would agree that it's entirely too violent (but also wonder if it would have been criticized as much for its violence by the media). I, too, find it very difficult to return to and have actually never watched it a second time, precisely because of how simultaneously moving and draining the experience was. So I can see where it would certainly seem that way to non-believers or someone less familiar with Jesus' life. That's where the context of His life comes, which as you point out, is represented in a few poignant scenes but isn't a focus of the narrative by any means. I agree that more context would of course be helpful, but given that I've already said that the violence has its place, the movie was already long enough as it is. I've heard that Gibson plans on making movies with similar artisic sensibilities about Jesus' birth, life, teachings, etc., and perhaps even His return. (Anyone have any more info on those plans or if they are true?). If so, maybe we'll one day have Mel Gibson's <i>Passion</i>s: The Holy Trilogy and the film will be largely viewed inside a more balanced and perhaps even epic narrative. In the meantime, there's always the Bible, as Hollywood unfortunately hasn't produced a large number of movies that are both (a)well-made and (b)accepted by most Christians as representative of what they actually believe (most seem to fall into only one of these categories, a key reason to <i>The Passion</i>'s success, I think), making that context for His death that we both agree is very important to understanding and valuing the events depicted in <i>The Passion</i> less accessible.
Aaron, your points are well taken regarding the gravity of this particular chapter of Jesus' life for Christians. When I saw this film, it seemed to me like it was made for Christians especially, who already know of other events in Jesus' life and perhaps don't need as much of a reminder of them for the story to still be affecting. I can say that this lack of context did bother me, however, not being totally Bible-literate and a rather objective observer (I did like the scene of the last supper confirming that it was a seder, though...the "bread" symbolizing the body appeared to be matzah, as far as I could tell). So in that sense I did want more justification for truly feeling something for this person being so brutally tortured, other than obviously not wanting to see ANYone go through that.
There were some things about the movie that I liked, but overall I would say that as a stand-alone film, I didn't take much away that I didn't already know as, let's say, a casual acquaintance of Jesus rather than a close, personal friend. Perhaps further films the the same vein would help. I will say that it wasn't as virulently anti-Semitic as some had been claiming...I mean, the ancient Hebrews don't come off particularly well, but pretty much anyone is capable of mob mentality. I didn't really see it as a Birth of a Nation-scale treatment or anything like that.
I didn't want to foster another huge argument, either, but from the looks of it such would be better than the knock-down, drag-out fight about The Passion that I had with someone on another board where the person was belittling me the whole way
It's nice to see some people getting along relatively well here.
