My Passion of the Christ Review #2

January 28, 2005

My Passion of the Christ Review #2

Two nights ago I watched the movie The Passion of the Christ for the first time since opening night almost a year ago. Part of me wanted to watch it again to be reminded of the amazing film that it is, and part of me didn’t want to watch it because of the gruesome reality that it is. Either way, I was finally at the point where I needed to take it in again.

One year ago I was very much wrapped up in the hype of the movie. In my review, I mentioned that I wanted my ticket to be counted for the opening weekend numbers. I realize now I also wanted to rally as many friends as I could gather together to see the film.

From that original post:

In hindsight, I think I was too removed from the /content/ to give it the ability to impact me in all the ways that I know it can. With this in mind, I will view it again after I have let time pass to hopefully gain new perspective on all the power of this film. I will reserve a more intimate review of the film for then.

When I watched the film for the second time, I was alone in the privacy of my own living room. It was quiet and I was undisturbed. This time, I was affected much more deeply. I was moved to tears a couple times and felt sick to my stomach during the scourging. I couldn’t watch parts of that scene. There were other parts of the movie that were very dark and depressing that impacted much more than they did before.

Conversely, the film is beautifully poetic and ingeniously crafted. Mel Gibson has done an incredible job of making the story of the last day of Jesus’ life real and alive for our generation. I have heard this film described as the “Jesus film for this generation” and I couldn’t agree more. It is intense, authentic, postmodern, sincere, polished, and respectable. For the over-saturated consumer of our Hollywood society, Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ penetrates the pandemonium and sheds light on the truth.

Never before has film been so important in the way our culture communicates. It is in effect our new “language.” Film and television are surpassing books as the primary media in our society. If the message of Jesus’ life is not “ported” and portrayed in the medium of moving picture, the story will be dimished or even lost. This film was inevitable.

Posted by pablohart on January 28, 2005 08:55 AM

Comments

Paul-
I also recently saw The Passion for the second time, and was again impressed with the film for many reasons. So I agree with most of your comments - I just wonder about your statement: 'If the message of Jesus' life is not "ported" and portrayed in the medium of moving picture, the story will be diminished or even lost.'

That's a pretty strong statement. Do you really think that the gospel message will be lost if it isn't translated into the film format? I think the gospel will continue to spread as long as Christians (empowered by the Spirit) continue sharing the message. Media may augment personal testimony, but isn't superior to one-on-one evangelism (IMO). I think God has used and will continue to work through media, but the spread of the gospel is not *contingent* on movies like The Passion or The Jesus Film.

Other thoughts?

Posted by Dick at February 1, 2005 12:36 PM

I actually have not yet seen The Passion of the Christ. It's one of those things that you need to carve out time for and be in the right frame of mind.

Posted by Kris at February 5, 2005 9:23 PM

Dick,

Thanks for the comments. When I read your comments I realized that what I said in the post was not what I meant, or at least not all of what I was thinking. Let me try to explain.

First, let me just say that I completely agree with what you said. I wholeheartedly belive that there will always be a "remnant" that remains no matter what happens. If that's true, then the story will never be completely lost either.

In my post, I said, "if the message of Jesus' life is not "ported" and portrayed in the medium of moving picture, the story will be diminished or even lost." Maybe I shouldn't have said "lost." But what I was thinking of was comparable to when the "New" testament was first written down in the Greek. Because the Jewish culture was an oral society, and the "Greek" culture was a new world for the disciples to tell the story to, it is significant that they wrote the story down, instead of simply relying on the oral story-telling tradition. If the gospels were never written, if the early church didn't save the letters of Paul and others, if they hadn't in effect "ported" the story into a format understood by the "outside" world, the story may have been diminished or even lost.

So, I draw the same conclusions about the medium of film. As video continues to become a primary medium for telling stories in our world, it becomes ever more important to tell the story in a language that the "outside" world understands.

In the end, my comment is not a contrast to your point about evangelism, but rather a helper to it. Personal evangelism still exists, and should. However, media is an aid or tool to help explain the story. I claim that moving picture may be better at telling the story to today's (young) society than a book would.

References:
http://mediatedspirit.com/
http://followtherabbi.com/

Posted by pablohart at February 5, 2005 10:07 PM

Tonight we watched the Passion at church as part of our holy week journey. It is Good Friday today. This being the 3rd time that I watched the film, it was a bit easier for me to take it because I could watch it from a less emotional state. I was able to follow the story more closely and noticed a bunch of cool transitions from one scene to the other that make the movie very poetic. I kept thinking to myself this movie is just done so well. I don't know how people can't take this movie seriously. But I digress.

My favorite part about tonight was after the movie was done and we took communion. I sat down after taking the bread and wine, and just sat in the prevailing silence that was in the room. It hit me how everyone was touched to the core by watching the film, and how meaningful the act of "remembering" was. How cool is it that we can come to a common feeling as Christians and participate in this act of obedience 2000 years later?

Posted by pablohart at March 25, 2005 11:07 PM

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My Passion of the Christ Review #2