The Passion of the Christ

Release Year: 2004

Director: Mel Gibson

Review: Mel Gibson's gritty biblical portrayal of the trials and crucifixion of Jesus is a bold choice.  I appreciate the route Gibson chose to take, showing the events without a filter to make it more digestible to general audiences.  It is a brutal film, and with dialog in the languages of the time and place.  He went for a historically accurate account of what might have happened-- for the most part.  Unfortunately this realism makes the miracles and biblical mysticism all the more obtrusive.  Instead of placing this in needlessly, it would have been more effective to show just Jesus, as a human, not as a higher power, as he is depicted for most of the film.  He is shown to be human, to suffer, and this is where the film is most effective, and derives the most emotion.  

The weak point is the narrative, which is pretty terse.  Gibson relies on a familiarity with the source material and only alludes to why events are important with brief, ineffectual flashbacks.  Jesus, as a character in the movie is never built up, or shown to be anything more than a condemned man who claims he is the Son of God.  Perhaps it would have been overreaching to try and build this up, especially when so many who this movie is geared to will already come into the film with this opinion of Jesus. But if this is the case then the flashbacks are unnecessary and only diminish the anguish that Jesus is being put through.  In the end, this is a movie that is about the torture and execution of a man. It is what the knowledge that is brought in from the audience that will ultimately determine how hard it hits emotionally.
Rating: 3.5/5