Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ: Gospel adaptation and cinematic violence

Bible as Literature 6 Movie Review: The Passion of the Christ (2004)

There have been controversial movies made in the past and even in the present. These movies have often divided people with regards to their beliefs and opinions. One such movie is Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, released during Ash Wednesday of 2004. Aside from directing the film, Mel Gibson was also one of the producers along with Bruce Davey, Stephen McEveety, and Enzo Sisti; the lead role of Jesus Christ was played by Jim Caviezal. Unlike other movies depicting the life of Jesus Christ, The Passion concentrated on the last twelve hours of his life with the opening scene showing Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in agony. From then followed his arrest, torture, trial, up to the crucifixion, and a brief scene depicting his resurrection. Another difference that The Passion has compared to several historical movies made is that the dialogues were in the various lingua franca during the time of Jesus Christ. Thus, the audience could hear Romans in the movie speaking Latin while the Jews were conversing in Aramaic. Of course, the movie had English subtitles to facilitate audience understanding of what was being talked about in the various scenes.

The various storylines contained in The Passion were supposedly straightforward adaptations from the various scenes in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament. Christians and Biblical scholars would be more familiar with how close the depiction was of the movie with the contents of the various Gospels. But for those who are familiar with the general life and death of Jesus Christ, The Passion was able to portray what he went through during the last hours of his life. Although Gibson has used several artistic interpretations to liven the scenes, the basic storylines are well aligned with what is contained in the various gospels. The various actors who played the other main characters such as the Apostles, Pontius Pilate, and Herod Antipas gave credence to their roles and was able to deliver the persona of each of the character.

The life and death of Jesus Christ especially him being the founder of the Christian faith should always have a universal appeal to all peoples from all walks of life and all ages. This has always been the foundational precept of the establishment of the Christian faith. However, in Gibson's The Passion, the universality was not adhered to especially when it was given an R-rating as a result of the violent scenes portrayed in the movie. Thus, younger viewers were not able to watch this contemporary interpretation in visual form of the Gospels. The film was a little over two hours long and the violent scenes seem to have emphasized further than what is necessary. Particular amongst the scene were during the flogging of Jesus and his crucifixion. Gibson went through the most graphical portrayal of which and some audience who are not accustomed to such may feel unease. This further contributed to the loosing of the universality or availability of the movie to all audience from all age groups.