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2004-02-27 Review of The Passion Before we get down into the nitty-gritty of this entry, I thought I'd let y'all know that YES, I have a job! It's currently temporary/indefinite, and it'll be part-time some weeks (2-3 days a week), although next week will be a full one. I'm pretty happy, because it means money, which means I can start thinking about paying off that ticket and maybe even my Visa (as opposed to just the minimum payments), and that means CONTROL. Unfortunately, this job was a last-minute sort of deal, and yesterday I'd inadvertently slept until 10:45. That meant that last night I just couldn't fall asleep. I kept sort of dozing, but I'd wake up after 20 minutes. I only actually fell asleep around 2:30am, which made getting up at 6:35am NOT fun. Still, I was quite impressed with how I performed today given that I was running on 4 hours of sleep, which is like running on fumes for me. Suffice it to say, however, that I'm really looking forward to bed tonight. I'm not sure what I'll do about Sunday. We're going to Rawdon this weekend, which means I'll be getting up around 9 tomorrow, and I'll be very tempted to sleep in on Sunday. That may be a bad idea, since I don't want to do a repeat performance of last night to start off my week. Ahem. Sorry. I'm babbling. * Now onto the real purpose of this entry. Yesterday I went to see "The Passion of the Christ", because I just had to know precisely what the fuss was all about. I'm going to try to keep it to a minimum, but if you haven't seen it, plan to, and hate "spoilers" of any kind, then stop reading this entry right now. Of course, I'm not quite sure how much I'm going to spoil since everyone knows the story and its ending. Still though, there are individual things about the movie that may or may not be mentioned here. There. You've had your fair warning. I made my initial feelings about the movie and its criticisms known in my weblog the other day, but I hadn't actually seen the film at that time. My opinion hasn't really changed much. First of all, allow me to reiterate what so many others already have, just in case you didn't believe them: this movie is extremely violent. I watch a lot of movies that have a great deal of violence in them, but it's rare that such a film will disturb me too much. I've been, as they say, desensitized. Gore does not bother me. This film had me almost weeping. I had to hold on tightly to my emotions to keep myself from doing that kind of weeping that makes sounds. I was very happy to have my Kleenex. The reason? Not because it was some religious revelation as it might be for some, not because I saw Jesus as divine and the Son of God, but because this film was just filled with pain and sadness and turmoil, all of which was inflicted on one individual man. The scenes with Mary (the mother, not Magdalene) were by far the worst for crying (for me, at least) because all you can think of is how this mother has to watch her son go through so much incredible pain. So the moral to that story is: Don't go see this film if you can't handle gore or violence. And definitely heed the 16+ rating that's attached to the film. I don't care how religious you are, and how much you want to show your 12-year-old son or daughter what Jesus went through for him - DO NOT take him or her to see that movie. Wait a few years. Okay. Enough about the violence. Onto the controversy. After having watched the film, I can see where the concern some Jewish groups feel comes from. This movie is very much up to interpretation. However, I'd like to point out what my interpretation was on a few things. 1) The blame does not appear to be aimed at the Jewish people as a whole. In fact, it rests on a select group of high-ranking people: the Jewish priests. They accused Jesus, and they pushed for his crucifixion. And the film does frame them in that "bad guys" sort of way. However, it should be remembered that the Jewish priests no longer exist. There are rabbis now, and there is a difference. It's the same as how there are no Jewish temples anymore - there are synagogues. 2) As for the Jewish people who yell and curse at Jesus: this is classic mob mentality. People get caught up in the moment. Watch any film or read any book (fact or fiction) about a public execution, and you will find the same thing. And, for the record, the film does show some Jews as having sympathy for Jesus and they try to help him in whatever small way they can (eg: the man who helps him to carry the cross when he can't bear it alone anymore, and the young girl who comes out to wipe Jesus's face - becoming, of course, the Shroud of Turin). 3) As for the Jewish children who chase Judas and transform into demon-like creatures, and have the Satan figure walking behind them: I don't think that Mel Gibson was trying to say that Jewish children are the children of Satan. By this point in the film, Judas was feeling guilty for betraying Jesus, and I'm guessing that this is what he imagined, that he was being chased by demons because he felt he had inadvertently done the devil's work in turning Jesus in. It's difficult for me to say that this was a "good" movie because, as stated above, it's filled with torture and pain and suffering. That's practically the entire movie. But if you think or know you can handle violence of that magnitude, then I suggest you go see it, even if you're not religious, or not Christian. |
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