At the beginning when I started watching the movie “Passion of the Christ“, the first thing came in to my mind was that the movie was full of extremely violent scene and scary events. After I finished watching the whole movie, I discovered that the violence in the film was as necessary as it was disconcerting in order to accomplish its challenging goal of taking its viewers to the realistic ancient plot of the movie and to enable them to grasp every single bit of it . Though there's no question that the director Mel Gibson was pushing the non-stoppable violence episodes in the movie as far as possible. The torture of Jesus is presented in such a brutal, unflinching manner that it's almost impossible not to look away as chunks of flesh are ripped out by a scourge. But of course this is not the only movie that used the extreme, graphic violence in such a dreadful manner. There are tons of other movies in Hollywood like Braveheart, Pearl Harbor, Escape from Sobibor, Saving Private Ryan, Robocop and many more who followed the same blood-spattered event all along with their story. So I moved on towards finding more deeper meanings and excellence of the story of Mel Gibson’s courageous, uncompromising and interpretive exertion. Further questions might arise on topics such as whether the film is anti-Semitic as some have charged, the life, death and resurrection of Christ, Gibson's version of the Gospels, whether the film is historically accurate etc. However, the controversy, whether real, invented, or some combination of the two, has provided a remarkable level of free publicity. Abundant in its brutality and insightful in its representation, the film will mean different things to people of diverse backgrounds.
The Passion of the Christ is a gripping, powerful motion picture and perhaps, the most forceful depiction of Jesus' death ever to be committed to film. The film opens with a distraught Jesus (James Caviezel plays Jesus Christ) facing down evil in the mist shrouded garden of Gethsemane and progresses to his death on the cross. The film is flourishing for how it conveys Jesus' core message of God's boundless love for humanity. To follow the most touching moment in the film, we could look at the scene in which Mary struggles to get close to Jesus as he walks through the winding, narrow streets carrying the cross and that Mary must had to watch the entire episode of Jesus being brutalized and then crucified. Morgenstern's portrayal of Mary is beautifully represented in the movie. Director Mel Gibson also added his own imagination to paint his interpretive narrative in order to make the film as successful and moving as possible. Because information about the so-called "historical Jesus" is so incomplete, it's impossible to argue for or against The Passion of the Christ's factual validity.
The realistic and genuine scenes of the movie are so powerful that it’s really hard to find any discarded segment. The atypical beginning of the movie gives the viewers a sense of mysterious scenario of the main story. A moderate amount of ominous and suspenseful music plays in the film which helps to amplify the crisis. Another noticeable factor is the sudden change of the background theme from black and white to color which sort of ease the story to the viewers to follow. The costumes are perfectly designed so that the viewers could smoothly escape themselves in the realistic mood of the story. Also the words, spoken in Aramaic and Latin (with subtitles), are substantial for establishing the prehistoric profile. Understanding Christian doctrine - that this suffering was necessary to save sinners from damnation - adds an additional layer of meaning to the narrative. You don't have to be a believer to get the message. Concerning the issue of anti-Semitism, the Jewish people are at no time blamed collectively for Jesus' death; rather Christ himself freely embraces his destiny, stating clearly "No one takes it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of myself". Overall, the film presents Jews in much the same way as any other group - a combination of good and bad.
Though for the most part of my essay, I’m trying to draw attention towards the positive sides of the movie, there exists some negative elements which I think should be addressed as well. This is an extremely intense, violent, and bloody experience if considered for younger kids. Violence consists of many instances of brutal and sadistic moments upon Jesus, ranging from being beaten, hit or kicked, whipped and eventually crucified. All of the material has extremely bloody and gory results and will likely be quite disturbing to many viewers. Various characters have bad attitudes, while some viewers may see the film as being anti-Semitic. Some drinking is present, including a flashback to Jesus at the Last Supper with wine and urging another to drink it. The toughest scene to watch is the scourging because Gibson allows it to go on for so long. In Gibson's film, there is a recurring tendency to slip into the horror occurrences, and close-ups of Christ's scarred and ruined body are truly horrible.
Gibson's revenge movies usually end with payback. In the Passion of the Christ, when Jesus is resurrected, his expression is heard. Above all the critics and controversies, Passion of the Christ is one of the most successful movies of all times. It is rich in its overall cinematography and supremely powerful in its influencing ability.
(Reference: The movie; websites.)
Posted at Nov 30/2004 12:36 PM:
Admin: You need to be a little more specific in your references. It's not enough just to say "websites"--you need to say which websites, specfically, and use quotation marks when the words are not yours. I would also like to see a more general conclusion about what a movie like this should do to be successful in your opinion.
B-
