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Jesus (James Caviezel) struggles to carry his cross in the shocking
portrayal of the ancient story.
Following the much anticipated release of
the Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ, I viewed
the local news paper which had film reviews and critics' picks.
The Passion received no greater than 2 stars (out of 5),
which was not much of a surprise due to the far-from-perfect film,
matched with superiorly snooty critics. What surprised me, almost
shocked me, was the nearby ratings for the unbelievably boring,
pointless, unfunny movie, The Big Bounce.
Granted, the Bounce that I saw was chalk full of big name
actors and stunning Hawaiian landscape, but a 4 star movie that
does not make. Passion is gory and at times very slow, but it is
compelling, regardless of one's religious affiliations. The plot
is much simpler than other movies in its genre (The Ten Commandments,
Gladiator), but the simplicity is one of its strong suits.
Historically speaking, the costume was as authentic as I have seen
in a motion picture. The kicker for The Passion also happens to
be the most risky thing done in a film in recent memory and that
is to film it entirely in two dead languages, Latin and Aramaic.
Gibson made this move to the languages which are
generally thought to have been used by the subjects of the film
and avoided the clicheed and ubiquitous British accent used in most
historical film to depict ancient peoples. That alone deserves credit
beyond what it receiving.
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One of the stronger aspects of The Passion is the
acting.
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The film had some cheesy moments, most notably the
scenes of Jesus' life before the crucifixion (imagine a Yanni music
video complete with wind effect and lots of make-up). But overall,
it was a powerful tale about the most influential man that has ever
lived. It was well cast and acted (for the most part); expertly
directed and produced.
Standing in line for the theater, I noticed the other films showing
or coming soon like The Girl Next Door, and Scooby
Doo 2 and wondered how a film like this can or should compete
in the same arena. Of course the popular arena is where religions
have been for most of history. Only recently have the secular, insignificant
ideas of the world invaded the most advanced cultural territory.
Perhaps this is a reclaiming of the territory which understandably
belongs to the more meaningful ideas in life. Perhaps this film
could be the return of important films to mainstream culture.
The mainstream critics are having their say, predictably ignoring
the substance of the film and most likely concentrating on the plot,
however, the people who are interested in this material (until now,
without the help of pop movies to support it) will also have their
say. This film will most likely be the most successful per theater
in the first week that has ever been. Although The Passion
wasn't the best film made in the last year, it would certainly be
nice to see more films like this, than, say, Eurotrip.
-JSB Morse
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