Mel Gibson’s labor of love, The Passion of the Christ, has been steadily stirring up controversy since the film’s conception. The religious opus, detailing the last 12 hours of Jesus’s life, opened nationwide Wednesday, both confirming and quelling the many rumors surrounding the film, including those claiming the film is didactic, violent and anti-Semitic.
The last claim, which undoubtedly created most of the controversy, proves false, though the first two accurately define several moments. The film overcomes the slew of negative press (secretive and exclusive screenings and anti-Semitic dialogue being included and taken out several times, among others) and culminates in a powerful, well made film that offers an intense emotional experience.
Not a film for the religiously inept, Passion takes liberties with the audience’s understanding, assuming familiarity with the tale of Christ’s crucifixion. However, this does not hinder the film’s anguishing effect on those less religiously inclined.
Gibson conveys his message of love, forgiveness and faith through the cinematography and score. Slow-motion shots provide emphasis, particularly in the flashback scenes and during Jesus’s capture. A pounding, chanting soundtrack at the violent climaxes, including one track on which Gibson screamed himself hoarse, provides the raw feeling of despair needed. And shadowy, color-saturated shots denote the treachery and darkness afoot.
Passion makes the viewer work for the message, communicating select dialogue through subtitles. Gibson originally wanted to release the film, which is in authentic Aramaic and Latin, without subtitles to allow the film to speak through emotion and thus avoid mistranslation of dialogue. Looking for wider box-office appeal, Gibson decided to include English subtitles, though they are only used about three-fourths of the time.
The film is singular in its graphic scenes of violence. Jim Caviezel, an ethereally haunting Jesus, with cinnamon eyes that shine with despair, hope and sadness, spends the last hour of the film drenched in blood and gore as he is whipped with pikes that bite into his flesh and nailed to a cross, blood dripping from the thorny crown atop his head.
These violent images of flesh ripping from Caviezel’s sinewy body, the sandstone running with his blood and the final gut-wrenching moment where spiked nails are driven into Jesus’s hands and feet, accompanied by the sound of cracking bone and the image of blood spurting from his wounds lend strength to Passion, setting it apart as a realistic depiction of pain and suffering.
Some may consider the violence unnecessary, but the anticipation of the inconceivable moments of pain, followed by the moment of physical retching at its tear-jerking culmination, drives home the point that this is a powerful human story. Passion is deeply humanitarian in nature, though a bit of religious conviction may make it easier to swallow the film’s few didactic, overdone moments.
Be prepared for an emotionally wrenching experience. And skip the mascara – when Passion hits home, you’ll find your eyes welling up and feel a disjointed sense of misery and awe.