Steven Gray DVD Review: The Passion Of The Christ

Scoop Presents Steven Gray's DVD Reviews

During all the controversy that accompanied the theatrical release of this film, people forgot to ask if it was a good film or not. The prevailing wisdom seemed to be that if you didn't have a degree in theology you had no right discussing the film.

For me, this film had nothing to do with God or Jesus, and everything to do with Mel Gibson's relationship to his fundamentalist Catholic God. The hatred in this film is so intense, and so all encompassing, it seems to be all the story is about.

The film is also in Aramaic with English subtitles, another device that separates the audience from the story, and really reminded of when the Mass was spoken in Latin, a way of people not being able to own their religion if they don't know what is being said.

I took a fifty-year old religious friend to this film and I was very worried she was going to have a stroke during the endless whipping scene. The cruelty of this scene loses any sensibility after about twenty minutes, but as you have no idea what is going on, or why the man is treated like this.

Yes, we do if we know our theology but the film is really impersonal and has none of the joy of what Christ's life was meant to be about.

One of the worst films ever made, the film has not a single piece of love, which for me is what Jesus was all about. I know this is just an interpretation of the Passion plays, but I have never seen something so filled with hate and pain as this film.

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