The Passion Of Christ (movie review)
This is one of those rare movies I recommend, that I didn't enjoy watching.
I believe The Passion is best viewed with some prior knowledge of Christ's sacrifice, but extensive knowledge isn't necessary. On the contrary, knowing every step of the way is one of things that I felt kept the film from impacting me as deeply as I had hoped it would.
The Passion is extremely accurate. Historical locations, the populace's garb, accents. Make sure to enable english subtitles, as everything is in the aramaic language.
I'm doing bullet points because their isn't really humor or drama or romance or technology or anything else like that, that I can expand upon with my own words. The Passion is simply a brutally realistic portrayal of the true events of Christ's crucifixion.
The movie did play around a little with a visible representation of Satan, who tormented Jesus during this time. Or actually his whole life really. While this is certainly in the bible, it almost felt jarringly odd in the movie. Bottom line, it didn't really add or detract from the movie, and wasn't really out of the bounds of scripture. So it was okay. Jesus crushing the serpents head in the garden of Gethsemane was joyous to watch, yet everything else in the scene was so dark that the joy is subtly repressed more to the feeling of joyous but sad victory.
About the rating. Yes, it's R.... for realistic. If you can justify any other R rated film, then you have nothing to say against The Passion. The brutality level may be high, but it's not gory for the sake of being gory. The camera doesn't exult in the spilling of blood, panning to show it spraying or splattering on walls in Hollywood fashion, it simply shows it. Yes, there is a little more than blood, but if you haven't seen it, I think that going into detail would prepare you to much, and quite likely lesson the gravity and seriousness of this movie.
Again, the bottom line is that The Passion is bucketfuls better than most PG-13 movies by destructive quantity. Consider what the violence is there for, to portray real pain, suffering, and truth, in a realistic way, in comparison to glorifying limb chopping, sword hacking, bullet-hole-head-exploding violence. Instead of praising, it's mourning. Entirely opposite lesson and worldview being aimed at the audience.
Should you see The Passion? If you are a believer, yes. Pray first, ask God to open your heart to him, and watch it.
If you do not believe in God, the Christian God, then, go ahead and watch it anyway. If you're merely curious and know not a thing about the crucifixion, then I doubt the film will be much more than a slow, gory bore; but I don't know, God works in mysterious and wondrous ways, so go see it anyway. If you have a hard heart, going to the film just to silently dare it to persuade you otherwise, then watch it for the same reason. Perhaps something unexpected will happen.
Whatever your perspective is, if the movie changes your heart for the better even a small bit, it's worth watching.
I believe The Passion is best viewed with some prior knowledge of Christ's sacrifice, but extensive knowledge isn't necessary. On the contrary, knowing every step of the way is one of things that I felt kept the film from impacting me as deeply as I had hoped it would.
The Passion is extremely accurate. Historical locations, the populace's garb, accents. Make sure to enable english subtitles, as everything is in the aramaic language.
I'm doing bullet points because their isn't really humor or drama or romance or technology or anything else like that, that I can expand upon with my own words. The Passion is simply a brutally realistic portrayal of the true events of Christ's crucifixion.
The movie did play around a little with a visible representation of Satan, who tormented Jesus during this time. Or actually his whole life really. While this is certainly in the bible, it almost felt jarringly odd in the movie. Bottom line, it didn't really add or detract from the movie, and wasn't really out of the bounds of scripture. So it was okay. Jesus crushing the serpents head in the garden of Gethsemane was joyous to watch, yet everything else in the scene was so dark that the joy is subtly repressed more to the feeling of joyous but sad victory.
About the rating. Yes, it's R.... for realistic. If you can justify any other R rated film, then you have nothing to say against The Passion. The brutality level may be high, but it's not gory for the sake of being gory. The camera doesn't exult in the spilling of blood, panning to show it spraying or splattering on walls in Hollywood fashion, it simply shows it. Yes, there is a little more than blood, but if you haven't seen it, I think that going into detail would prepare you to much, and quite likely lesson the gravity and seriousness of this movie.
Again, the bottom line is that The Passion is bucketfuls better than most PG-13 movies by destructive quantity. Consider what the violence is there for, to portray real pain, suffering, and truth, in a realistic way, in comparison to glorifying limb chopping, sword hacking, bullet-hole-head-exploding violence. Instead of praising, it's mourning. Entirely opposite lesson and worldview being aimed at the audience.
Should you see The Passion? If you are a believer, yes. Pray first, ask God to open your heart to him, and watch it.
If you do not believe in God, the Christian God, then, go ahead and watch it anyway. If you're merely curious and know not a thing about the crucifixion, then I doubt the film will be much more than a slow, gory bore; but I don't know, God works in mysterious and wondrous ways, so go see it anyway. If you have a hard heart, going to the film just to silently dare it to persuade you otherwise, then watch it for the same reason. Perhaps something unexpected will happen.
Whatever your perspective is, if the movie changes your heart for the better even a small bit, it's worth watching.
Comments
Post a Comment