I'm not Jewish, I'm not Catholic, I'm Agnostic. That means that I'm skeptical about the existence of God without professing true Atheism. I believe in no organized religion. To me, the Bible is little more than a collection of great stories, many of which are very dark and twisted. I remember sitting down and reading the first few pages of the Bible, and once I got past God creating Earth, the Heavens, Adam and Eve, and all that, it got pretty crazy. A guy kills his brother, two girls have sex with their dad while he's sleeping, and God causes a whole lotta destruction. One day, I'd love to read the whole thing, 'cause there's some good stuff in there. I am not, however, a believer. In my view, they're good stories, but that's it. I'm aware of the story of Jesus the man, and that story I do believe because it's based on actual history, but that's about it.
Despite my religious skepticism, I have nothing against people who are religious. In fact, I have respect for religious people because in most cases, they live day by day being good people. Religion can save lives, religion can change a person for the better, and religion can provide hope to those who truly need it. I've seen it happen. Extremists scare me, though. I have nothing against Christianity, but taken to extremes, you have the KKK and neo-Nazis. I have nothing against the Muslim religion, but taken to extremes, you have Al-Quaida and the Taliban. I can't think of an organization of Jewish extremists in the modern world, so I'll assume there is none. But anyway, people who use religion to cause violence and to hate their fellow man are hypocrites, rebels without a clue who will be sent straight to hell.
I saw "The Passion of the Christ" not because I was looking for spiritual enlightenment, not because I wanted to see if it was really anti-Semitic, or because of all the hype. I wanted to see it because it looked like a great movie. Being Agnostic, I watched it not as a religious film, but as a movie about a human being, and what he went through because of what he believed in. That's it.
Since it's such a huge topic, I'll get one thing outta the way immediately. I personally don't think the movie is anti-Semitic. There are some good people in the movie, some are Roman and some are Jewish. There are a whole lotta bad people in the movie. Some are Roman, and some are Jewish. The bad Jewish people are portrayed as sinister political figures. The bad Romans, however, are portrayed as evil, savage, bloodthirsty monsters. My objective, non-religious opinion is that the Romans are portrayed much more harshly than the Jewish people. As for whether or not the Jews killed Jesus, I'd say no. They wanted him dead, sure, but it was actually Romans who killed him. And if you wanna throw religion into the mix, then you'd have to say that it was all of mankind who killed him.
Okay, now that I've gotten all the self-indulgent crap outta the way, I can get to what I thought of the movie (which is no less self-indulgent, but whatever). "The Passion of the Christ" is a truly great movie. It's a bloody, gory, depressing, violent, infuriating, disturbing movie, but yeah, it's a great film, one that should get nominated for several Oscars. Whether it will or not remains to be seen. It may be too controversial, and it may have been released too early in the year for it to get any Oscar votes. Then again, at the rate it's going, this movie might make too much money for Hollywood to ignore, and everyone in Hollywood will be kissing Mel Gibson's Jesus-loving ass. We'll see what happens next year.
I gotta tellya right now, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mel Gibson. He seems like a pretty wacky guy, and his father terrifies me, but assuming that he doesn't share his dad's anti-Semitic beliefs, I take my hat off to the guy. Here's a Hollywood heart throb who spent $30 million outta his pocket to make a movie, and it happens to be a movie that's sure to piss off some powerful people in Hollywood. The guy was biting the hand that feeds him, but he didn't care. He wanted to make his movie, and he wanted to make it his way, no matter what the cost to his professional career.
Also, think of how hard a sell this movie was: it's in a foreign language, it's a religious film, it's extremely violent, it can be perceived as anti-Semitic, it has no famous actors (in front of the camera)... Mel Gibson had to have known going in that it would be very difficult to make money off of this movie. But then the controversy began. And it continued. The controversy has been there since the film was being shot, but it got more and more intense as the film came closer to its release date. That controversy is what sold the film. I'm sure that a lot of what's being said is hurtful to Mel Gibson, but he's crying all the way to the bank. The movie was released wide this past Wednesday, and before the weekend even began, he made all of his money back. Anything after that is pure profit. As of this writing, "The Passion of the Christ" has made over $115 million. That's in just five days, and it's gonna make a lot more. Easter is a little over a month away, and I'm sure people will be packing into theaters to see it again.
As a director, Mel Gibson is very good. I always thought he was an underrated actor, one who deserved a lot more credit, but as a director, he gets respect. His first film, "The Man Without a Face," was a relative success, and critics seemed to like it. Then came "Braveheart," which was enjoyed by critics and audiences alike. The movie made a lotta money, and he won the Oscar for Best Director, proving that he could direct big Hollywood movies. Instead of doing that, though, he waited almost 10 years to direct another film, and when he finally did, it was as unlikely a choice as you could get; an independently produced film about Jesus Christ. He's a great director, and he does a great job directing this movie. It could use some trimming, though. Not because it was too bloody, but because at times, it got redundant.
Mel Gibson also wrote the film, along with Benedict Fitzgerald. This is Gibson's first writing gig. As for Benedict Fitzgerald, he's written a few other things, but I'm not familiar with any of it. The script is very good, but most of it is taken from the Bible, and as far as I know, they didn't change a lot of what's in there. They just embellished it, added a few things, and Mel Gibson threw in some other ideas while directing.
As for the acting, awesome. Jim Caviezel (he was in "The Count of Monte Cristo," "Angel Eyes," "Pay It Forward," "Frequency," "The Thin Red Line," "G.I. Jane," and others) is excellent as Jesus. He'll have no trouble finding work after this movie, he's gonna be a household name. Monica Bellucci (she was the female lead in another brutal film, "Irréversible"... she was also "Persephone" in "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," and she was in "Brotherhood of the Wolf") plays Mary Magdalen, and she's good, but she's given very little to do. Rosalinda Celentano, an Italian actress I've never seen before, plays an androgynous Satan, and she's really good. Very, very creepy. The one person who really stands out, though, is Maia Morgenstern, another actress I've never seen before. She plays Mary, Jesus' mother. Wow, her performance is the kind that can't be described. As rough as it is to see Jesus get beaten in the movie, it's far more devastating to see the reaction of his mother. Her crucial role is played to perfection. She doesn't just sit there crying the whole time, her performance has subtle nuances that suck you in, making you really feel for the woman. Regardless of all the controversy and the release date of the film, if Maia Morgenstern doesn't get nominated for an Oscar, the fix is in. Everything about the performance is perfect.
"The Passion of the Christ" is an excellent movie. Although I didn't get as much out of it as a Christian might, I still found it to be a very powerful film. Mel Gibson pissed off a lotta people in Hollywood by making this movie, and they were ready to banish him. Now this movie is making a whole lotta money, something they're paying close attention to, and I have a feeling that they'll be welcoming him back to Hollywood with open arms. The thing is, I don't think that Mel Gibson is all that interested in going back.
Scale of 1-10: 9