Passion of the Christ

[WesRay]

Saw this movie last night.

A very masterfully realized historical epic.

I must say I'm almost hesitant to admit this, but this film affected me unlike any movie has ever done before. I've teared up after seeing movies (the ending of Rocky gets me every time) but never have I had tears coming down my cheeks. Well, watching the film, I did tear up a time or two, but it wasn't until I got inside my car to go home that for whatever reason, that I completely lost it [img]graemlins/cry_smile.gif[/img] (glad no one else was in the car with me). This took me by surprise, as while I am a Christian, I'm not the type who always listens to Contemporary Christian music, reads Christian novels like the Left Behind series, or even goes to church every Sunday (though I probably should). Anyway, this movie really affected me.

But even if not seen through Christian eyes, The Passion of the Christ is still a very powerful, but hard to watch historical epic which makes you realize how truly generic others of similar ilk (Gladiator, and to an extent, Gibson's own Braveheart...though I love both) are. This movie will be hard to surpass and has truly raised the bar on the term "epic". It will be on the minds of many people, for many months and years to come.

I recommend it to anyone.

[LunA359]

I didn't realize this was totally about the crucifixion. [img]confused.gif[/img] I don't know if I can watch that. [img]redface.gif[/img]

[WesRay]

It was pretty hard to sit through at times, I admit.

[DAVID HESS]

Hey Ed T.
Thanks for the tip. She knows what she sees and that's a rarity. It'll be controversial no matter what. I'll probably see the film this weekend and have more to say, but all I've heard about it doesn't bode well for story value. Keep the messages coming, they're fun.
Davide

[Edwardt]

For this interested in reading a humorous review of the film that makes some very trenchant points, try the link listed below. MaryAnn Johanson, known as the Flick Chick, is one of the better non-corporate media film reviewers around, in my opinion.


http://www.flickfilosopher.com/flickfilos/index.shtml

Ed T.

[Steve Day]

I just think it's good that someone's put something good and controversial out there, it's been a while. Hollywood doesn't seem to have the guts it had back in the seventies which brought us Last House on the Left, I Spit on Your Grave, The Exorcist, Straw Dogs, Texas Chainsaw, Clockwork Orange, Death Wish and all the other ones I've forgotten. No one seems to push the envelope any more. Maybe it's the 'R' rating spoiling things, maybe there's no envelopes left to push. Or maybe we'll just never see a film as gutsy and controversial as Last House ever again. It's still cut here in the UK, even Junior's flashbacks are cut. The British censors should be cut out altogether, they're still living in the stone age.

Steve

[Tard]

Most of the titles Steve mentioned were Independent productions, or (in the case of The Exorcist) based on a then-current best-selling novel.

Icon, Mel Gibson's own production company, made The Passion. It wasn't financed by a megacompany like Paramount or 20th Century Fox, who woulda REALLY tamed the script, a lot more than subtitles & the tiny anti-semitic crowd-chanting Mel cut for theatrical & DVD release. Could you imagine if Walt Disney Films (or their subsidiary company, the one who produced then tried halting release of Fahrenheit-911) got ahold of The Passion? It woulda been only 10-minutes long & had a happy ending!

Since the mid-80's, seems the moviemaking giants discovered they could double their profits by releasing movies with the then-new PG-13 rating (bringing in children AND adults), rather than kids with PG & adults with R. Even if a current movie ends-up with an R-rating today, you can bet your ass the execs were pushing to tame it even more, hoping to reach that golden PG-13.

[rocketmaster]

Did anyone catch "Ramses: Wrath of God or Man" on TV yet? It's like Part 2 of The Passion. Unbelievably manipulative and anti-semetic. And quite subtle about it....disguised within scientific research. Their scripted conclusions, read by Morgan Freeman, had nothing to do with the stated subject of the "investigation", or the results of the researchers. Two different things entirely, with a clear agenda....

According to their script, here's the real story: Moses (if he even existed) was a furtive murderer who first fled Egypt to avoid punishment, only to become involved in a whacko cult...not Judiasm, but a discredited Egyptian religion that also, surprisingly, believed in the existance of only one God. (can't give the Jews credit for that!) His belief in this cult, in some completely unexplained way, serves to inspire Moses to free the Jews from slavery. The Jews are not passive slaves though. As they are being led out of Egypt and are confronted by the Egyptian forces, the Jews are actually lying in wait in some marsh lands (The REED Sea...supposedly a mistranslation assumed to be Red Sea) treacherous for the Egyptian's horses and chariots...and then those heavily armed, blood thirsty Jews jump out and slaughter every single member of the Egyptian army, showing NO mercy, possibly even killing the Pharoah's most loved son and heir to his throne.

To top off the Jew-hating propaganda disguised as a documentary...they even threw in several Arab Muslims to say that the Exodus story is one of their most important foundations of their religion too. Like an old subliminal suggestion joke, they repeatedly linked up the Jews and the Arab Muslims.

Can you imagine? All this historical fact derived from the forensic reconstruction of one skull found in a tomb. Modern science is really amazing, ain't it?

[Tard]

I noticed "Ramses" listed in the TV-Guide, but didn't bother watching it. Next time they replay it (that was History Channel, or Discovery, right?) will be sure to catch it! Sounds entertainingly offensive.

At least it's only a small cable channel, not a Moore 'documentary' movie. Hehee, could you imagine the outrage on both sides if Tarantino's 'Kill Bill' was released as "Kill GoldBlatt", with blonde-haired Uma Thurman hunting down the master-assassin ringleader Goldblatt (O'course played by a stereotypical NYC-Jew like Woody Allen). [img]wink.gif[/img]

[rocketmaster]

Whether the "factual" information is correct or not, isn't really the point...I wonder at their intent in coloring the story the way that they did. And like I said, it's extremely subtle. This production co has been making an ongoing series of films for Discover. I'm just going to keep my eye on what they do in the future to see if any further prejudices jump out at me. I was really looking forward to seeing this film having liked their past productions, but I got more and more annoyed as it progressed.