The Passion Of The Christ

Since it opened in the States this movie has become an event - whole churches are booking cinemas, whole congregations are making a pilgrimage to see Mel Gibson's opus. Folk are saying that their faith has been reaffirmed - and an awful lot of box office is being generated.

So what's all the fuss about? The film picks up in the garden of Gethsemane with Judas (Luca Lionello) making his way to the local chapter of the Sadducee priests to rat out his former friend for some coin.

Soon Jesus (James Caviezel) is dragged before the priests who pass him to the local Roman governor, Pontius Pilate (Hristo Shopov), for justice. The film then follows the biblical story through to Pilate flogging Christ to appease the rabble. This descends into an orgy of violence after which the half-dead man is dragged back before Pilate and the stage is set for the crucifixion.

Biblical it may be, but this is no reverential TV Jesus. Mel and his team have spared no expense in creating a thoroughly believable period atmosphere. The entire cast speak Aramaic and/or Latin for further verisimilitude. The language adds to authenticity, where English might have made it sound archaic.

The blood of Christ abounds - this is a film that wallows in incredible physical detail, with almost every lash and laceration clinically committed to film. The extreme violence becomes numbing after a while and a little unbelievable too - can this guy really take this much punishment and even make it to Golgotha hill?

US box office seems to indicate that the violence isn't bothering viewers who would shrink from any horror film with half as much Kensington Gore. Mel wants to get our undivided attention and to immerse us in the pain and degradation of his subject.

So are the Jews the bad guys? Well, yes, but I'm not convinced the movie is detrimental to the religion, after all the hero IS Jewish. Nevertheless there is some stereotyping - against that oft picked-upon group of Hollywood movies, namely the "Swarthy Middle Eastern Type". Certainly the good guys have the prettier faces.

Pilate comes out rather sympathetically, while Herod (Luca De Dominicis) is played as a slightly effeminate partygoer, like Christopher Biggins' Nero in I, Claudius, which is possibly a more offensive image.

Gibson has often thanked George Miller (Mad Max) and Peter Weir (Gallipoli) for his directorial skills, but I'd say he's picked up a few pointers from M Night Shyamalan (Signs) as there are a couple of good scary moments courtesy of the demons that are pursuing Judas and a special guest appearance from Satan.

The cast are excellent, although Caviezel's performance carries the weight of the movie, while Monica Belluci's Magdalene makes you wonder briefly if Gibson is going to go where Scorsese's Last Temptation went (he doesn't). Maia Morgenstern as Mary, steals the flick with one accusatory stare into the audience, implicating us all in the unfolding drama.

Mel Gibson has created a powerful piece of Christian propaganda that will win him many friends and a few enemies too. Impossible to rate as entertainment, The Passion Of The Christ pulls no punches. This is certainly no more an historic truth than Braveheart or The Patriot, but to call it into doubt, is perhaps to doubt the gospels and I'm not about to open that can of theological worms. Overall emotionally stirring, but it's hard not to feel manipulated and you'll exit the theater stauncher in your own beliefs or lack of them.