The Passion of the Christ is set in Jerusalem where a prophet called Jesus Christ of Nazareth (James Caviezel) is arrested by Roman guards late at night after being betrayed by one of his disciples Judas (Luca Lionello). Jesus is taken to stand trial for blasphemy & stating that he is the son of God. Because of a large public uprising against Jesus he is scourged, then crucified & left to die...
Co-written, produced & directed by Mel Gibson where does one start with the extremely controversial film that is The Passion of the Christ? Firstly I would like to point out that I am not a religious person at all & I will openly admit I have never even read the bible & I don't go to Church but even so I was curious to see The Passion of the Christ. It's probably fair to say that every single person on Earth who is old enough to actually see The Passion of the Christ knows the basic story of Jesus Christ & his crucifixion & therefore will probably go into it with at least a certain amount of expectation. For a start the entire film is spoken in either Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Aramaic, Latin or Hebrew with no English dialogue at all. Although subtitled the dialogue is actually rather sparse as The Passion of the Christ is all about imagery, beliefs & in particular a story with character's everyone already knows. At over two hours in length I must admit it felt a lot less, I found the story itself gripping & engaging although I have no idea how closely writers Gibson & Benedict Fitzgerald stuck to the source & that ending felt tacked on & like a cheap horror filmed cliché, is that what actually happened in the bible? Although often criticised for it's graphic violence it doesn't kick in until about the hour mark when Jesus is scourged in a sequence which will test the more squeamish viewers endurance before the crucifixion at the end. As a film I actually rather liked it but as a presentation of religious fact I can't say that I am qualified to judge it since I really don't have that much knowledge about Christianity.
Director Gibson does a mighty fine job here, the film looks wonderful with immaculate production design & you really feel that your there. Gibson likes his slow motion shots, the film is littered with them although as I have already mentioned The Passion of the Christ is more about imagery than dialogue. The special make-up effects are very realistic & although not quite as gory as some people may have you believe it is pretty strong stuff especially since the character's & the story mean so much to so many people. Up to the point when it was released The Passion of the Christ had more pre ticket sales than any other film in history, unusually when it was re-released to theatres after it's initial run it went straight back to the number one spot & The Passion of the Christ is the both most successful 'R' rated & foreign language/subtitled film in US box-office history. Facts & figure that I bet no-one predicted.
With a supposed budget of about $30,000,000 The Passion of the Christ is very well made with high production values & that Hollywood polish, set in Jerusalem this was actually filmed in Italy. The acting is very good although since everyone is speaking in a foreign language it's hard to tell for sure (for all I know they could be saying anything!), it's surprising that there are no big name stars in the cast.
The Passion of the Christ is a film that I actually liked but not for any reason beyond that I though it was a good film that passed a couple of hours. Maybe those with strong religious belief's either way may have a harder time liking it or maybe they will like it even more, I don't know. How exactly do Christians in general feel about The Passion of the Christ anyway?
Co-written, produced & directed by Mel Gibson where does one start with the extremely controversial film that is The Passion of the Christ? Firstly I would like to point out that I am not a religious person at all & I will openly admit I have never even read the bible & I don't go to Church but even so I was curious to see The Passion of the Christ. It's probably fair to say that every single person on Earth who is old enough to actually see The Passion of the Christ knows the basic story of Jesus Christ & his crucifixion & therefore will probably go into it with at least a certain amount of expectation. For a start the entire film is spoken in either Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Aramaic, Latin or Hebrew with no English dialogue at all. Although subtitled the dialogue is actually rather sparse as The Passion of the Christ is all about imagery, beliefs & in particular a story with character's everyone already knows. At over two hours in length I must admit it felt a lot less, I found the story itself gripping & engaging although I have no idea how closely writers Gibson & Benedict Fitzgerald stuck to the source & that ending felt tacked on & like a cheap horror filmed cliché, is that what actually happened in the bible? Although often criticised for it's graphic violence it doesn't kick in until about the hour mark when Jesus is scourged in a sequence which will test the more squeamish viewers endurance before the crucifixion at the end. As a film I actually rather liked it but as a presentation of religious fact I can't say that I am qualified to judge it since I really don't have that much knowledge about Christianity.
Director Gibson does a mighty fine job here, the film looks wonderful with immaculate production design & you really feel that your there. Gibson likes his slow motion shots, the film is littered with them although as I have already mentioned The Passion of the Christ is more about imagery than dialogue. The special make-up effects are very realistic & although not quite as gory as some people may have you believe it is pretty strong stuff especially since the character's & the story mean so much to so many people. Up to the point when it was released The Passion of the Christ had more pre ticket sales than any other film in history, unusually when it was re-released to theatres after it's initial run it went straight back to the number one spot & The Passion of the Christ is the both most successful 'R' rated & foreign language/subtitled film in US box-office history. Facts & figure that I bet no-one predicted.
With a supposed budget of about $30,000,000 The Passion of the Christ is very well made with high production values & that Hollywood polish, set in Jerusalem this was actually filmed in Italy. The acting is very good although since everyone is speaking in a foreign language it's hard to tell for sure (for all I know they could be saying anything!), it's surprising that there are no big name stars in the cast.
The Passion of the Christ is a film that I actually liked but not for any reason beyond that I though it was a good film that passed a couple of hours. Maybe those with strong religious belief's either way may have a harder time liking it or maybe they will like it even more, I don't know. How exactly do Christians in general feel about The Passion of the Christ anyway?