Many have been taught that Christ had a love for mankind so great he was willing to suffer and die for us. This was his passion: The Passion of the Christ. While not a person ensconced in organized religion, I am one of the many.
The film of the same name is a remarkable body of work. It represents the last hours of the Jesus of Nazareth’s life. It is about as violent a film as I have experienced. However, it depicts in graphic visualization, what Christ was willing to pay – a.k.a. his life – for our sins. The image and presentation is awe inspiring and energizes feelings that are best described as faith. The film, for most of its 126 minute run-time presents the suffering from station-to-station. It presents Christ’s mother weeping and mourning with the progression.
Their are people in the Passion of the Christ (Jews and Anti-Semites) who turn on Christ for short-term and personally convenient reasons. This is an approach as familiar and as old as dirt on earth.
The Passion of the Christ is not preachy, and certainly not 20th Century Evangelism playing present day politics to its advantage. The Passion of the Christ is not Hollywood fair as depicted for us in the 1950’s or any other time. The actors in the scenes are not wearing clean clothes, displaying clean teeth, or representative of middle-class America in the 20th Century. They appear to look to be the lower caste peoples of another time.
We should be reminded, Christ is a poor person, his disciples are poor people, in a poor time, and land. They are however, rich in their passion and consistent in their commitment. It a wealth few experience today.
Jeff’s Thoughts and Worthless Trivia
I am a guy who has read and has a Bible in his home. I am not an organized religion person or someone who supports Big Money Religion. I do not attend Church on a regular basis. However, I am someone who is spiritual in nature.
Mel Gibson made this film. He is a Hollywood Actor with great success and a boatload of off-screen problems. This includes accusations of Anti-Semitism, alcoholism, and drug addiction. They are not my problems and not for me to sit in judgement. Mel has zero support ($0) from Hollywood and its money for this film. Mel Gibson has produced and distributed this film with his own money and efforts. Its success or failure is to be seen. The results critically and monetarily will not have the hands of Hollywood on it.
Great review I need to see it again
The brutality of this film had a permanent effect on me. As a person who has witnessed injuries from real life trauma, it was pretty realistic to me. I try to watch this film every year around Easter. I’ve read that 80% of the dialogue is in Aramaic. I didn’t notice as I was so engrossed.