Passion of the Christ
I started Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" last night, and hope to finish it soon. "Passion of the Christ", or as I call it, "Ouch!", interests me mostly for its use of Aramaic, Latin (and smatterings of Hebrew), and a somewhat historically based, non-Cecile B. Demille treatment than anything else. Though I am haunted by much in the Bible, especially much in the many Gospels in and taken out of the New Testament, the movie leaves me totally unmoved. The actors seem stiff and awkward in speaking dead languages. Jesus' flashbacks are so damn maudlin and cheesy they seem more Lifetime network than Gospel of Mark. In one flashback (which he has as he stands before the Sanhedrin) he wistfully recalls Mary's care and fussing over him as he makes a table. Once again, I refuse to accept that this Son of Man we've heard so much about bantered and made tired jokes. I also refuse accept that he had six-pack abs. If I lived in 1st century Palestine, and walked with the Lord as a humble helper of the poor and healer of the sick, I would sort of resent this totally hot dude with awesome delts and blasted quads telling me what to do. He would make me jealous with that long hair. "Who does this guy think he is?," I would ask. "Jesus freaking Christ?"
P.S. A remnant of being raised Catholic and spending 12 years in Catholic private schools: I am still irritated by "blasphemy" even as a non-believer. Any joke about Jesus bores me, the latest silkscreen at a friend's Art School of Mary naked and defecating on the American Flag disgusts me (primarily aesthetically, of course), and I cringe when "Jesus Christ" is used as a swear word. It is in the blood, and the blood may always course through my veins, until I can find a way to supplant it with Tahitian Treat.
*NOTE (RE: The Above Picture). I use this photo of Jesus, a more pleasant Yeshua ben Yosef than any of the photos I could find from Gibson's film. Most of these pictures are of Jesus getting the shit kicked out of him and screamed at by venomous Jews and lusty, sadistic Romans, which is basically the whole movie, interspersed with some bare plotting, flashbacks, and sub-Wes Craven horror antics (the demon children seizing Judas).
In the end, my favorite Jesus is the one plays soccer with children or helps a little girl find her dolly.
I started Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" last night, and hope to finish it soon. "Passion of the Christ", or as I call it, "Ouch!", interests me mostly for its use of Aramaic, Latin (and smatterings of Hebrew), and a somewhat historically based, non-Cecile B. Demille treatment than anything else. Though I am haunted by much in the Bible, especially much in the many Gospels in and taken out of the New Testament, the movie leaves me totally unmoved. The actors seem stiff and awkward in speaking dead languages. Jesus' flashbacks are so damn maudlin and cheesy they seem more Lifetime network than Gospel of Mark. In one flashback (which he has as he stands before the Sanhedrin) he wistfully recalls Mary's care and fussing over him as he makes a table. Once again, I refuse to accept that this Son of Man we've heard so much about bantered and made tired jokes. I also refuse accept that he had six-pack abs. If I lived in 1st century Palestine, and walked with the Lord as a humble helper of the poor and healer of the sick, I would sort of resent this totally hot dude with awesome delts and blasted quads telling me what to do. He would make me jealous with that long hair. "Who does this guy think he is?," I would ask. "Jesus freaking Christ?"
P.S. A remnant of being raised Catholic and spending 12 years in Catholic private schools: I am still irritated by "blasphemy" even as a non-believer. Any joke about Jesus bores me, the latest silkscreen at a friend's Art School of Mary naked and defecating on the American Flag disgusts me (primarily aesthetically, of course), and I cringe when "Jesus Christ" is used as a swear word. It is in the blood, and the blood may always course through my veins, until I can find a way to supplant it with Tahitian Treat.
*NOTE (RE: The Above Picture). I use this photo of Jesus, a more pleasant Yeshua ben Yosef than any of the photos I could find from Gibson's film. Most of these pictures are of Jesus getting the shit kicked out of him and screamed at by venomous Jews and lusty, sadistic Romans, which is basically the whole movie, interspersed with some bare plotting, flashbacks, and sub-Wes Craven horror antics (the demon children seizing Judas).
In the end, my favorite Jesus is the one plays soccer with children or helps a little girl find her dolly.
posted by PWS at 3:30 AM
7 Comments:
Have you seen Apocalypto? That movie is like sensory overload! Very detailed, right down to snatches of a facial expression, the art on the walls of the city, the costumes. Can't say how "authentic" the language is, but it sounds believable. Surprising that Gibson could actually pull it off.
I have not, but I want to. Is it Anti-Semitic?
No, but some have read into it that the decadence of the Maya is an attack on religious fundamentalists. This didn't occur to me as I was watching it, as I was too busy following the heads rolling down the pyramid steps.
Indeed. But isn't Gibson himself a huge Catholic Fundamentalist? Hypocrite!
Ugh, im surprised that you're putting yourself through the torture of watching that kind of stuff. I have only some morbid curiousity to see how blatently anti-semitic it is, but not enough to make myself sit through that garbage. Besides, this half?/quarter/eighth? jew is unusally sensitive to that kind of talk.
I enjoyed Apocalypto, but I admit to getting some strange thrill from excessively violent films--Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite directors. However, The Passion of the Christ was no good. The music was so stereotyped as to nearly be Sontagian camp, and that is not cool.
Yes! The music did annoy me. I really hate that vague, MiddleEastern-y drone music they use for movies like this, and "Alexander", and every other movie that takes place east of Europe. Always a muezzin moaning with brief interspersions from a hissing snake or a exotic percussion rattle.
Probably in reality some studio musician from Fresno.
Post a Comment
<< Home