Director Mel Gibson's controversial retelling of the last twelve hours in the life of Jesus Christ.
I suppose Easter was as good a time as any to resurrect the bare bones release of Mel Gibson's controversial religious film, which has now arisen as a 2-Disc Special Edition; complete with 15 minutes of unseen footage, a trinity of audio commentaries (including one by a priest!) and two informative, behind-the-scenes documentaries. The passion play is an archaic tradition which, depending on what you believe, depicts the last twelve hours in the life of Abrahamic Prophet: Isa Son Of Mary a.k.a. Rabbi Yeshua a.k.a. Jesus Christ (peace be upon him). 'The Passion Of The Christ' is a gruelling, sometimes clichéd but fascinating work of cinematic genius by Oscar winning director Mel Gibson, whose decision to shoot his opus in Aramaic, Hebrew and Latin lends it an authenticity often absent from Hollywood films about faith. Jim Caviziel ('Frequency') gives a sober and commanding performance as The Messiah: resolute, dignified, furious, beaten but unbowed; one doesn't necessarily have to believe such a man even existed, to appreciate a good old fashioned story about stoic heroism in the face of insurmountable adversity.
Gibson also manages to coax strong performances out of a largely unknown cast of European stage and television actors; Maria Morgensten is excellent as the Virgin Mary: A scene between her and Cavizel discussing carpentry in the workshop is peppered with gentle humour, and makes you wish Gibson had spent more time developing characters, instead of the intricacies of the movie's torture sequences. Devout Catholic and 'Matrix Reloaded' starlet Monica Belluci, the unlikeliest cast member by far, does well in her role as Mary Magdalene, whilst Italian MTA Rosalinda Celentano makes for an outlandish, yet magnetic Satan. One senses 'Privilegia Ecclesiastica' at work in the casting of women as devils, sinful daughters of Eve or the Biblical femme fatale with a snake up her leg; and I imagine Peter De Rosa would have a field day deconstructing the whys and wherefores of this one.
Many critics blasted 'The Passion Of The Christ' for its prolonged flagellation sequence in which Jesus, having been betrayed by the Jewish priesthood (who became Pharisees, or polytheistic separatists) is torn to ribbons by sadistic Roman soldiers. And its true, these scenes rank as some of the most blood curdling & realistic recreations of torture ever committed to celluloid. But that depiction of suffering is, I'm told, an essential aspect of the Passion play for Christians, thus to highlight the bloodletting would be like going to see a Jet Li movie and complaining about all that Wu Shu. I probably would've hated this had I seen it with a crowd of weeping fanatics waving crucifixes in the air, or felt compelled to make an argument for its (non-existent) anti-Semitism against Jews, for when a film attracts as much media attention as this one did, its often easy to overlook the obvious question: was it any good? When 'The Passion Of The Christ' works, it's an incredible and unique picture, in the scenes that fall flat its little more than an animated stained glass window, repeating myths refuted by rationalists like Gibbon, Armstrong or Dawkins. Fortunately; good acting, excellent cinematography and Gibson's eye for the epic, ensures its position as a modern classic in the religious genre. Grim but gripping.
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Mel Gibson directs this highly controversial and brutally visceral film about the suffering of Jesus Christ in the twelve hours leading up to his crucifixion. Betrayed by Judas Iscariot, Jesus is arrested and accused by the Pharisees of blasphemy, punishable by death. He is handed over to Roman soldiers who flagellate him until he is unrecognisable, then ordered to carry the heavy wooden cross through the streets of Jerusalem to Golgotha, where he is nailed to the cross. As he dies he experiences his last temptation: to momentarily doubt the presence of God, his Father, and to ask if he has been forsaken.
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