I had originally planned on writing about Korean survival tips, staying out of trouble, or some other such thing. However, my mood has changed.
This evening, our office had dinner together and went to a movie as a group. The movie most people chose was an sneak preview of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion,” which is scheduled for release here in Korea on April 1.
Although just about everyone on earth has commented on the movie at this point in time, I feel compelled to add my thoughts and comments on the movie. Although the movie, due to the subject matter, does not hold many unexpected plot twists or surprises, and although the end of the movie is not a mystery, my following comments do have some cinematographic spoilers.
I write from the perspective of a Christian believer. Thus, I went into the movie viewing it through a window tinted with the colors of my own personal beliefs and faith. In my opinion, virtually every movie about Christ that has ever been made has been either way too Hollywood with dashing, Malibu Jesus looks, or in some other way an unimpressive two-dimensional portrayal. Thus, I was skeptical going into the film. I was prepared to be disappointed and prepared to nit-pick the film to death. I was ready to chalk it up as another movie that failed to satisfactorily portray the Messiah.
The movie did an admirable job of showing the socio-political atmosphere of the time, the power of the Sanhedrin, the broad-reaching yet politically limited scope, power and authority of Jewish law, the subjugation of Jewish religious law to Roman secular law, and the more that slightly crazy nature of Herod Agrippa. However, a few small comments I have in this area are that the movie could have better shown that Pontius Pilate was appointed by the Roman Emperor, while Herod was very limited in his power as the lowly tetrarch of Galilee. There could also have been some mention or indication that Herod, who was familiar with the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, had by that time, convinced himself that he was the Messiah and was determined to be proclaimed King of the Jews (which he later was by Caligula), because his life coincided with many of the messianic prophesies.
The movie was a very powerful and emotional experience for me from the beginning. The movie opens in the Garden of Gethsemane with Christ, knowing what he is going to have to suffer, making one last plea with his Father to please take the burden from his shoulders if there is any other way, but willing to submit if it is God’s will. After ignoring the proddings, doubts, and fears cast his way, Christ accepts the burden from the Father and takes upon himself the sins of the world. I was brought to tears by the horrific spiritual agony that was very effectively portrayed by the actor. I was able to take a deep breath of relief when Christ finally rose and, in a moment heavy with symbolism, crushed the head of a serpent. The look of resignation mixed with triumph on the actor’s face was quite intriguing.
The figure of Satan is portrayed in a very androgynous manner, but is definitely female. I personally believe, as taught in my religion, that Satan is a male entity. However, I had no problem with the feminine Satan in this movie because this characterization played well against both the masculinity of Christ, the male Jewish High Priests, the male Roman authorities and the strong motherly nature of Mary. This juxtaposition is felt most strongly on the road to Golgotha as Satan and Mary have a brief but intense stare-down as they walk along on opposite sides of Christ.
I did feel that the initial violence against Jesus outside the garden as he was arrest and hauled back to the city was unnecessary and a bit out of place. In one scene, the bound and chained Jesus is thrown off a bridge and allowed to freefall for many feet until he is jerked to a halt a few inches from the ground. I was worried that the movie would be filled with pointless violence. However, only this bit of the movie and a scene where Jesus is worked over just after being sentenced to death by Ciaphas seemed gratuitous. Yes, this is a horrifyingly violent, bloody movie, but then again, being bean with a rod, whipped with a scourge nearly to death, crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross and stabbed with a spear is a rather violent way of being put to death.
The late-night kangaroo court staged by the Sanhedrin was well done. This scene is one of the many examples that the anti-Semitic fears and charges were and are completely unfounded. The trial had several advocates for Christ in the Sanhedrin who argued against the sham hearing and in favor of Jesus.
In the first two appearances by Jesus before Pontius Pilate, the movie does an excellent job of showing that Pilate wants nothing to do with this political hot potato and eventually thinks that if he just has Jesus beaten and scourged that the High Priests will be satisfied and stop calling for Jesus’ death.
The beating and scourging was an absolutely gut-wrenching piece of film. I have seen several severely mangled corpses, numerous video-taped beatings and deaths, and a few live beat-downs. However, the only thing I have ever seen that comes close to this section of the movie is a video-taped beating of recalcitrant soldiers administered by Uday Hussein. Even that didn’t approach this scene. It is quite simply the worst beating I have ever seen administered. Although it was only a movie, I winced, cringed, recoiled, and gasped with nearly every blow that was dealt, particularly when the soldiers turned to the scourges with bits of metal and glass woven into the strands of whip and began essentially flaying the skin off Christ’s body with the blows.
I was not brought to tears by the beating and scourging. It was much too brutal and ghastly to do much more than stare and cringe as the blows rained down. In this scene and particularly the later scenes, the constant laughing and smiling of the soldiers is almost cartoonish and overdone. But, it imagine that it would take a different sort of character to make a living by beating people to death. However, the tears came when in the midst of this horror the wife of Pilate brought Mary, the weeping mother of Jesus, the man being beaten to death, and Mary Magdalene a stack of white linen with which to clean up the blood and gore around the whipping post.
The crucifixion itself was graphic with blood spurting, spraying, dripping, and pooling as the nails are driven into Christ’s hands and feet and the cross is dropped into the hole dug for supporting the cross. However, it could have been a whole lot more violent and unpleasant had they shown the true horror of crucifixion, which is just about one of the most unpleasant ways to go. When crucified, most people died of asphyxiation. The arms were stretched out to the point that when the weight of the body pulled down on the arm and chest cavity, the lungs could not expand and take in air. Thus, the person being crucified would have to stand on the foot supports and lift themselves up to breathe until their strength gave out and they could not keep themselves up, and the would simply suffocate. If they didn’t die quickly enough, their legs would be broken and they would have to push up on their broken legs in order to draw air, which didn’t last very long. The movie did not show a suffocating Christ pushing up and standing on the spike driven through his feet. Nor did the movie show the nails driven through Christ’s wrists as was traditionally done with crucifixions where the victim was nailed to a cross. The nails in the wrists served two purposes, to add support, stability, and strength to the nails in the hands, and to cause additional, excruciating pain as the nails are driven through the large cluster of major nerves centered in the wrists.
Again, the movie does a marvelous job of showing that although Pilate had the power, duty, and responsibility to release Jesus, he made a cop out and bowed to the political pressure put on him by the local religious leaders. The movie shows that his symbolic and ritualistic washing of his hands does not really absolve him from spiritual liability. The movie also clearly displays the fact that the High Priests didn’t want Barabas released, they simply wanted the threat to their political and religious authority dead, and releasing Barabas was the easiest way of achieving that end.
As I mentioned earlier, the film was not anti-Semitic. It seemed to me that the film went out of its way to absolve the Jews as a whole by showing scenes such as Jews standing up to the brutality of the Roman soldiers, Jewish men and women horrified at the spectacle of the bloodied and nearly dead Jesus being marched off to his death, Jewish women weeping and pleading with the soldiers to stop. Moreover, flashbacks clearly show that Christ’s life was not taken from him by force, it was surrendered by him voluntarily at the time and manner of his choosing. This is further strengthened as Christ, having fulfilled the last of his mortal mission, says very powerfully and definitively “It is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!” And if there is any question at all as to who bears the ultimate responsibility for the suffering and death of the Savior, the answer is given in the penultimate scene when Christ’s beaten, battered, pierced, bleeding, and lifeless body is lowered from the cross into the arms of his mother Mary as she stares very intently at the camera as the scene fades to black. The message is clear; YOU, the viewer, are responsible. It is your sins that he died for. It is your wrongdoings that he took the beatings and torture for. Her gaze says “He went through all of this because of you and for you because he loved you. Look at him and to him.”
The story of the crucifixion of Christ is very sterile and rather innocuous when read in the pages of the bible. Although I have thought about the suffering and sacrifice in great detail throughout my life, it was nothing like seeing it actually done and portrayed as it would have happened in front of my eyes in living color. It was very moving to see with my eyes what Christ would have suffered for me that my mind had simply glossed over as I read the words on the printed page.
Mel Gibson has created something very special not only for believers, but also for those who wonder what it is that Christians believe. I saw the movie with a group that consisted of Christians, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, and the simply disinterested. Every one of the 18 people in the group were moved in some way by the film. I strongly recommend this film to anyone who has any desire to experience a few brief hours in the life of a person that a large part of the world acknowledge as being the Messiah and savior of mankind.
