Passion

Mike and I went to see Passion last night with dad and our friends, Jennifer and Josh. Besides the general media attention, this movie has been creating quite a stir in our very religious and conservative small town. I can’t say I enjoyed the movie because I don’t really think it is meant to be enjoyed but rather experienced. It was extremely powerful and very well made. I was very impressed with the acting (Jim Caviezel especially) and the use of original languages added to the movies authenticity. Putting aside all the “possible” anti-sematic undertones and the brutal tortures inflicted upon Christ over and over and over again, it is a very worthy film in my opinion.
My first impulse was that the torture scenes went on way to long and were just unneccessary in most instances. But I believe Gibsons objective here was to not only make us feel uncomfortable and squimish, but angry to the point that every human being in that theatre, regardless of religion, felt like standing up with fists clenched, yelling at the top of their lungs “Stop, that’s enough!” He didn’t make this movie violent because he has a fascination with gore, he made it because he wanted to preach something.
The historical inaccuracies are apparently numerous according to some articles I read, but it really didn’t seem to hinder the over all movie in my opinion. Except when the theif crucified next to Christ had is eye poked out by a crow. I’m still trying to figure out where that one is in the Bible. I really liked how a lot of the scenes seemed heavily influenced by Medieval and Renaissance painting, especially the crucifiction scene which brought to mind Carravagio, Van Eyke and yeah, all those other cool art dudes I studied in school and have since forgot I was perplexed when I saw Gibson had choosen to crucify Jesus through the hands, something now known to be physiologically impossible, as opposed to the wrists. But then I wonder whether he did it on purpose, since that is how it was traditionally depicted in art before modern science came along.