A masterpiece to avoid... Review on The Passion of Christ Movie

Note: I don?t wish to hurt any body of any faith in this review. This is my opinion, rather feeling, on the movie itself. If you have any disagreements with my review, I thank you for not spilling venom in comment section or sending me hate mails.

The first thing I did after watching The Passion of Christ was to thank my gods mentally and felt immensely relieved and happy that my gods didn?t have such a sad story to tell.

That saying, watching Passion is like watching one of those fantasy fiction dramas where the good guys people are immensely good looking and the bad guys are equally monstrous in their looks and behavior ? Almost every Jew in this movie looks like a monster and laughs like a hyena; surely Mel Gibson could show better cruel Jews if he had wished. Watching Passion is an incredibly moving experience too, for at several places I was moist in my eyes.

As a film, Passion succeeds in involving the audience completely into the movie ? don?t buy popcorn as you watch it ? you are not going to eat it. However, Passion is nothing but an exercise in money making and hate inducing cinema at its best.

To review this movie is useless in itself simply because there is nothing of novelty here. And whatever was, the media has glorified and crucified it immensely only to maker?s liking. The last twelve hours of Christ are indeed brutal as what would Gibson like us to believe. Brutality is perhaps an understatement in this movie ? it nearly pains you as well on seeing such gore, blood and helplessness on screen. However as sane prevails, one can?t help exclaiming the excruciatingly done scenes to be nothing more than show-in-your-face drama. Half hour into the movie, you realize any man worth his salt would have been long dead at such insane treatment leaving us to believe in either of the possibilities (i) God did help Christ to bear the pain (ii) The movie is far too exaggerated. I opt for option (ii) simply because the very underlying logic of Christ suffering to cleanse other?s pain seems escapist theology.

Passion as a movie

Let me first say first and foremost, as a movie, Passion of Christ is simply brilliant. Everything in this movie is rather too perfect from cinematic point of view ? the art direction, the language, the acting, the music, the photography, even the brutality ? everything in the movie has been done in an incredible way. Gibson chooses to slow his frames considerably throughout the movie, giving this whole movie a slow motion look rather than a normal paced movie. Some of the scenes simply haunt you in the movie ? Christ?s own flashbacks and the last supper are indeed superbly amalgamated with the proceedings. The scene where Mary runs towards Christ to pick him up (after he falls down due to the heaviness of the cross) interspersed with a flashback of Mary running towards a younger Christ simply chokes your heart.

The background music is simply haunting ? slow flutes and Celtic instruments form a heavy background in the movie and come absolutely at the right places. Acting wise, almost everyone has done brilliantly, with Monica Belluci perhaps taking the spot as the best performed role. Jesus himself had little to do other than getting beaten up and looking worse and helpless as the movie itself progress.

A bit of trivia: The guy who played Jesus was struck by lighting twice while filming for the movie and still survived. The wrath of the lord was apparent even there I guess ;).

Passion as a fundamentalist cinema

Saying that Passion is nothing but escapist cinema wanting to make people cry and evolve hatred for others while the producers enjoy pot lucks of money. While one may cry over the passion of Christ, one quite wonders where the ?God? in the movie is. At the end, yes, as cinematic experience I too was moist, but then I couldn?t find Christ anywhere in this movie. In effect, this movie is nothing but a hate-movie about how Jews are responsible for Christ, a good 2000 years late. In a world already troubled by inane wars and communism over each other?s gods, this movie only adds more fuel to the society.

Gibson goes way wrong in trying to portray Jews as killer and comes off as an Anti-Semite. For whatever fathomable reason known to him, why does every Jew look like a monster in this movie? What was the overlying thought at such miserable portrayal of Jews being responsible for Christ?s death? ? Surely Gibson had better ways of putting his thought across. What comes off on screen is a rather brutal description of Christ, and one can only hope that passionate and conservative Christians don?t take this movie rather too seriously.

I also had a major grouch against the brutality itself ? agreed the brutality itself shakes you and moves you completely, but pray, where was the ?passion? of Christ himself. For all I saw was some brilliantly done artistic direction of bloodshed and less of God himself. I wished to know God and his thoughts before dying and less of how many whips he faced and how brutally the nail was stuck in his hand. I wished to know his inner meanings at the time of his sacrifice, and less of him getting whacked every thirty seconds in the movie. However, not only Passion fails at that, but goes a step ahead in taking a rather fundamentalist and conservative stand on Christ?s death.

The Passion of Christ

To me Christ was god, and his underlying thoughts make me more believe in him than the scapegoat logic of god?s son suffering the pain to cleanse others. Christ was a simple man but with great ability to touch the human in a different way ? isn?t that all enough for believing in god?

However in spite of this brilliantly done movie, I will still rate it one star, and I will still not recommend it to others. Sometimes one wishes such movies were not made at all in the first place, for the only thing they can do well is screw up a good minded soul into a fanatic anti-Semite.

That perhaps is the biggest loss of this movie ? Though it?s a movie about God and his suffering to spread love in world, sadly, Passion succeeds in doing exactly the opposite of it.

The Passion of Christ is a masterpiece. Yet avoid it.