Most of the movies I see are strictly entertainment. Occasionally, a movie comes along that is more, Schindler's List for instance. Often these kinds of movies are harder to watch, but they are worthwhile in the end. Often I don't care to see them again.
Mel Gibson's, The Passion mostly falls into this category for me. I think I am glad I saw it, but wouldn't choose to see it again.
What did I like?
- Characters looked semitic, which is a nice change of pace.
- No English accents.
- As non-Catholic I haven't seen the suffering of Christ through Mary. This was a humanizing element to the story. (Although, Biff in the "The Lamb" gave a very better view in some ways.)
- I never before considered how freeing Barrabas was Pilate offering a very political face saving option to allow everyone to forget the whole thing.
- Jesus seemed the victim. He wasn't a full character, as you didn't have a sense of him apart from suffering.
- While it mostly simply stuck to the story (a random harmonization of the four gospels) without a lot of ornamentation, which is a plus in my opinion, in some ways it was a song with one note, the suffering and victimhood of Jesus.
- It didn't start and stop at the right places. I would have started at the triumphal entry into Jerusalem (which did make a brief flashback appearance) and ended with Mary and Mary seeing the risen Christ. It seems like Mary and Mary are stuck in a bad place at the end and don't get the same relief the rest of the audience did.
- It didn't always stick to the story. The crazy looking children harassing Judas was just weird, ditto the wierd baby, and the shadow spirit figure. The whole Mary wiping up blood scene falls into this category as well. Evidently it comes from the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich a nun who wrote in the 1800's.
- I don't like to watch sadistic torture. I wish I lived in a world without this kind of behaviour, unfortunately we don't.
- I wish all the characters, even the mob, would have had more depth. I mean why were the religious elite upset? There is context to the story, but not in this movie.
- Although the flashbacks with Jesus and Mary were some of the most moving parts of the movie, in some ways I felt like I was being emotionally played.
- It seemed strange that Mary was there in almost every scene, but not Jesus' other followers. I don't understand Mary's prominence in comparison to other characters. I didn't get the towel scene at all. (Come to find out later this was from some sort of vision recorded by a nun centuries ago.) Frankly Mary plays too much of a role.
- I've always understood the powerful temple leaders were in a sort of unstated power sharing agreement with the Romans, both wanting to stay in power over the common person. That feel was missing altogether. Part of the gospel story is the powerful elite versus the crowd who were supporting Jesus.
- There is background material that would indicate Jesus' appeal to the common man versus the way how the temple leaders treated the common man. That was all missing.
- The movie can be interpreted as an essay on Sadism. I think that significantly misses the point.
- I knew how it would end.
