The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's new Jesus movie. Options

[DarkEpyon]

The movie deals with the final 12 hours of Jesus' (played by Jim Cavaziel) life. I've read nothing but good reviews on this one so far. I wonder how it will do against 1965's "The Greatest Story Ever Told". This flick has garnered lots of controversy for its incredibly graphic nature. No doubt that'll help fuel the ticket sales over the weekend. I hope for Gibson's sake it does well seeing as the budget for this film came out of his own pocket.

Trailer.

EDIT: Added trailer link.

[Crushinator]

I caught this on Friday on a whim with a couple of Ninjagamer people I met at the mall. Like others have stated before, I have no religious beliefs, nor any religious background (i.e. parents taking you to church, teaching you their religion, etc)...so I was kinda going into this movie with a "clean slate" as it were.

The first striking thing about the film is, as many people know, the complete use of Hebrew and Latin language in the film to keep the period feel intact. I know Mel Gibson had originally intended the film to have no subtitles at all, but I guess through some market research he found out most (stupid) people don't like to watch a movie if they can't undertand what is going on. Although just as many people also don't want to be "readin' all the durn time" while they are watching a movie... Anyhow, the subtitles are kept to a minimum, and it really strenghtens the focus on the actors' performances, and the visceral emphasis of the story.

Jim Cavaziel as Jesus has a very...gentle yet stoic appearance. With a little help from some magic contact lenses, he gets this look of compassion for everyone that one would expect in "the son of man." One of my favorite performances in the movie was Hristo Shopov as Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor over...wherever the heck this story took place. He was stuck with the unenviable position of being an outsider to this religious quarrel, and being forced to dictate the fate of a man whom he could see having done no wrong. Sadly, Monica Belluci, beautiful as ever, still comes across dumb as a pile of rocks, and about as good of an actor in her role as Mary Magdalen. Lots of other great performances too, but I won't waste more time. Except for saying the guy that played Satan was cool as hell. My favorite character in the movie, despite his scant appearances.

The pacing of the "main story" was very good, but the whole movie was stuttered by flashbacks to past sequences. While there were a few that I would deem as necessary to the continuity of the movie, many were just worthless fluff. To anyone else who has seen the movie: What the hell was up with that "table" scene? Worthless. Otherwise the movie flowed well through its ~2 hours.

One thing I greatly pleased with was the complete lack of religious posturing, propoganda, or pushing. It puts forth a completely objective view of these events, not giving a nod to anyone particulary to blame, but not declaring anyone innocent either. At its heart, this movie came across as a story about a man, his friends, and his mother. I think the most gripping moments of the film took place between Jesus and Mary, as anyone can relate to the bond between them and their parent (or child as well, I don't have any kids, so I don't know).

Much ado is being made about the representation of Jews as "badguys" in this movie. Yes, the bad people are jewish, but its not like its painting a picture that all Jews are evil. I'm sure most of the people here could tell it was just preposterous loudmouthing from people who didn't know what was going on anyways, so no big deal. Another issue is the violence. Again, I think this is an uproar from the Christian right, who have never been to an "R" movie before. Certainly this isn't a movie for kids, but it is far from the most violent or shocking film I have ever seen. Again, it is more the performances that conveys the pain rather than the visual representation. Not that its any slack in the blood and gibs department, mind you.

Overall, a quality film, interesting story, and (some) great performances. Is it an instant classic? I'm not so sure. It doesn't really have the epic feel that you would expect, but in some ways that's its charm. Certianly not the greatest movie ever, and not even onto my personal top 10 list, but definetly a good film.