The last temptation of mel gibson - The Passion of the Christ Reviews

If Jesus of Nazareth had done nothing else but endure the punishments inflicted on him in Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (and the same could be verified as a matter of history), his life and mission would still be worth talking about 2,000 years after the fact because of the singular brutality to which he would have been subjected. But, director Mel Gibson approaches the subject matter from the diagonally opposed perspective: he begins with certain conclusions about the import of Jesus' life and mission and works backwards to what punishment he must have endured to fill the large order of actually paying for our sins. ("No one man can carry this burden," Satan -- played by Rosalinda Celentano -- teases him; "It is far too heavy.") The result for Gibson was, as all men know, a highly graphic depiction of the last twelve hours of Jesus' life, with particular emphasis on the torturous punishment inflicted by his tormentors, in an all Latin and Aramaic script for heightened realism. Despite howls from the critics, the violence depicted here is NOT beyond what viewers typically experience in the usual Hollywood fare. Think of the violence level in the first act of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998), except that all the violence is directed at a single person. And to weigh in on the greatest source of controversy for this movie, despite its "Passion Play" overtones, THE PASSION cannot be honestly characterized as anti-Semitic. With its single-minded focus on Jesus' suffering, the film is, at worst, oblivious to modern Jewish sensibilities. It is odd to have to cut through so much preliminary materials before getting to the cinematic considerations of a movie. This is, after all, just a movie. (Conan O'Brien joked that it represents the way God *really* wanted us to see Christ's suffering -- in an air-conditioned room with nachos and a cherry Coke!) But, the reason our discussion of film-making values is deferred until this point is that there really isn't much else to talk about. Jesus as a character is fairly two-dimensional, though Jim Caviezel squeezes as much out of his portrayal under the circumstances. The cinematographer also occasionally attempts to remind us that Jesus was a human being. Perhaps the most memorable shots of the movie are extreme close-ups of Jesus' eye on the Via Dolorosa and on Golgotha, that remind us of Jesus' most compelling cinematic trait: his humanity. In these extremely close shots, we see Caviezel's distinctive blue eye, barely recognizable behind the layers of gory makeup, shifting back and forth to survey his surroundings as he is tortured. I was reminded of Iraq War P.O.W. Shoshana Johnson in video released by the Iraqis, nervously moving her eyes to and fro as different interrogators shouted questions. There is a residue of humanity and empathy in Caviezel's portrayal that is often drowned out by the cumulative violence (the worst thing about the film's violence is that it surpasses what would have been optimal to make the point intended, and actually becomes tedious). About the most fully fledged relationship in the movie is Jesus' relationship with his mother, Mary (ably portrayed by Maia Morgenstern). The tenderness and care with which this relationship is developed leads to a very poignant Piet?cene when the limp body of the flayed Jesus is taken down from the cross and held by his mother. This was the unusual tack, the exception in this film: to portray the events in human terms, in terms of characters, of human relationships, etc., rather than as a theological presupposition to which human drama is but an afterthought. To me, this -- the flimsy, two-dimensional feel of the characters and action -- was the principal flaw of the film, not its violence or its alleged antisemitism. FOOTNOTE: Brutal portrayals of the horrific nature of Jesus' suffering are part of a long-standing tradition in Christian art. On seeing the film, I thought immediately of Matthias Gr?d's 16th Cent. "Isenheim Altarpiece." Commissioned for a hospital housing sufferers of skin diseases, it depicts a Jesus writhing in pain and covered in sores, bringing him that much closer to the patients his presence might comfort. In the 20th Cent., Spanish architect Antoni Gaud?esigned a morbid and stark "Passion fa硤e" to his Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona, which leaves many viewers with an overwhelming sense of bleakness and desolation. Any approach to Gibson's film must begin with an appreciation for the artistic function of a 'Passion' piece, and its discussion and evaluation will not be meaningful without also acknowledging the theological ramifications of such a project.