the passion of the passion
I just got back from seeing Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ and frankly, I didn't like it.
First off, I feel as though it cheapens my faith. One of the friends that I went to see the film with bawled her eyes out throughout the two hours of bloody Jesus beatings (and don't think that that's not all this movie really is...a two hour physical bashing of Jesus). I know that she is not the only one. ehehe...blech. I don't know if I've shared this on this blog before (come to think of it, it's in my 100 things list), but the reason that I have not gone to church in years is because on one Easter, I had such an emotional breakdown as people are having with this film...a breakdown or at least deep, personal understanding that I just feel not nearly enough of the most pious and self-centered of Christians (you now the type, not the ones that struggle or have real faith, but the ones that thump Bibles and damn non-believers to Hell) truly have had. I looked around church that day and saw ignorance and emptiness, I felt enlightened, I felt as though I truly knew what it meant to be saved and at what price my being saved has paid for. I came to this enlightenment on my own, through my own personal struggle and because I needed it. Now other people are having that same sort of experience, but not on their own, not when and because they needed it...and not through their hearts. Instead, they are having it because it's being showed to them, at the discretion of the film distributors and movie theaters, and not through their hearts but through their minds. It creates a false sense of something that I feel very deeply and honestly...and something that only comes through earning it. But now way too many are getting a cheapened, watered down sense of that feeling that I feel...and it leaves me feeling empty.
Second, as I've said, the movie is little more than a two-hour exercise in physical mistreatment of an actor playing Christ. It goes way overboard as Jesus takes a beating that would be physically possible for a human being to endure. Not in the mental, emotional, or spiritual sense -- but in the flesh and bones sense. A human being cannot lose as much blood as Christ did in this movie, and a human being with the sorts of wounds suffered would lose gallons more than was shown lost in this movie...making it that much more overboard. I mean, for crying out loud, a person taking a beating so severe that one is covered with gouges through which several, many ribs are visible is not going to live for more than an hour at the most and even if so is not going to be physically capable of standing, let alone moving through the stations of the cross as protrayed in the film. Technical nitpicking here? No, it's not the technicality of the situation that bothers me, but the fact that Mr. Gibson felt the need to exagerate so. As I put it bluntly to a friend after leaving the theater..."what's the point in believing in something when it's not even so capivating a story to tell without exagerating it beyond belief?" It discredits faith in some regard to do so much as to manipulate emotions. And that's all it is...sitting there I could not feel as though Jesus is made to take a beating beyond anything any of us can bare to watch because Mr. Gibson wants to make sure we feel bloody sick as hell to our stomachs...which implies that the nature of Christ's cruxifiction and sacrifice is itself not capable of that reaction, which in effect cheapens the story and therefore the very basis of Christianity itself. The real Passion (taken from the Greek word meaning "suffering" for those not aware of the etymology) of Christ is -- and therefore should be conveyed as -- captivating enough to not need exageration. Emotional manipulation in movies is my single greatest cinematic pet peeve (and the reason I can't stand Steven Spielberg) and Mel Gibson's attainment of new heights of it in dealing with my faith sickens me.
In any case, it is late, but I wanted to write down those two thoughts before they are lost in my sleep. I may revise later.
First off, I feel as though it cheapens my faith. One of the friends that I went to see the film with bawled her eyes out throughout the two hours of bloody Jesus beatings (and don't think that that's not all this movie really is...a two hour physical bashing of Jesus). I know that she is not the only one. ehehe...blech. I don't know if I've shared this on this blog before (come to think of it, it's in my 100 things list), but the reason that I have not gone to church in years is because on one Easter, I had such an emotional breakdown as people are having with this film...a breakdown or at least deep, personal understanding that I just feel not nearly enough of the most pious and self-centered of Christians (you now the type, not the ones that struggle or have real faith, but the ones that thump Bibles and damn non-believers to Hell) truly have had. I looked around church that day and saw ignorance and emptiness, I felt enlightened, I felt as though I truly knew what it meant to be saved and at what price my being saved has paid for. I came to this enlightenment on my own, through my own personal struggle and because I needed it. Now other people are having that same sort of experience, but not on their own, not when and because they needed it...and not through their hearts. Instead, they are having it because it's being showed to them, at the discretion of the film distributors and movie theaters, and not through their hearts but through their minds. It creates a false sense of something that I feel very deeply and honestly...and something that only comes through earning it. But now way too many are getting a cheapened, watered down sense of that feeling that I feel...and it leaves me feeling empty.
Second, as I've said, the movie is little more than a two-hour exercise in physical mistreatment of an actor playing Christ. It goes way overboard as Jesus takes a beating that would be physically possible for a human being to endure. Not in the mental, emotional, or spiritual sense -- but in the flesh and bones sense. A human being cannot lose as much blood as Christ did in this movie, and a human being with the sorts of wounds suffered would lose gallons more than was shown lost in this movie...making it that much more overboard. I mean, for crying out loud, a person taking a beating so severe that one is covered with gouges through which several, many ribs are visible is not going to live for more than an hour at the most and even if so is not going to be physically capable of standing, let alone moving through the stations of the cross as protrayed in the film. Technical nitpicking here? No, it's not the technicality of the situation that bothers me, but the fact that Mr. Gibson felt the need to exagerate so. As I put it bluntly to a friend after leaving the theater..."what's the point in believing in something when it's not even so capivating a story to tell without exagerating it beyond belief?" It discredits faith in some regard to do so much as to manipulate emotions. And that's all it is...sitting there I could not feel as though Jesus is made to take a beating beyond anything any of us can bare to watch because Mr. Gibson wants to make sure we feel bloody sick as hell to our stomachs...which implies that the nature of Christ's cruxifiction and sacrifice is itself not capable of that reaction, which in effect cheapens the story and therefore the very basis of Christianity itself. The real Passion (taken from the Greek word meaning "suffering" for those not aware of the etymology) of Christ is -- and therefore should be conveyed as -- captivating enough to not need exageration. Emotional manipulation in movies is my single greatest cinematic pet peeve (and the reason I can't stand Steven Spielberg) and Mel Gibson's attainment of new heights of it in dealing with my faith sickens me.
In any case, it is late, but I wanted to write down those two thoughts before they are lost in my sleep. I may revise later.
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