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Night at the Movies: The Passion of the Christ


Scrivener
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If you want to read my full review do a CNTRL+F search for 'Scrivener' here: http://www.aintitcool.com/tb_display.cgi?id=17065#736652

I'll warn you, that above review has got some strong language. I can get pretty passionate (Ha) myself when confronted with wonton and gratuitious narrow-mindedness, bigotry, and stupidity. The review below has been edited for general audiences.

The quick hit: I thought it was brilliant... the kind of cinematic art that, while ironic, is only matched by Terrantino's recent Kill Bill. My one quibble is technical... I hated the subtitles. Even though they were used rather sparingly, the film still would have been better off without them. IMO, they were just distracting, especially since the movie did a brilliant job of presenting itself visually. The music was moving and the performances brilliant and heartwrenching (Oscar caliber performances all around). The flashbacks were carefully plotted and placed in just the right places to help maintin a certain ammount of empathy with Jesus - to embelish the fact that he was a living, breathing, eating, drinking, laughing, crying person just like YOU. Subtle use of supernatural elements tie together themes of fate and spiritual manipulation. Even Judas and the priests were puppets of the devil - who is portrayed as a pale and eerily sexless creature. We see the characteristic Roman brutality with quick glimpses of demons and spirits... there's so much more there for people intelligent and open minded enough to look for it. It's not meant to be a MOVIE so much as a window into actual events. Now I can see how people would consider this movie very brutal - it graphically depicts the torture and beatings Christ endured. Now when people say "important film" it's usually because it can't stand on its own merits as a film worth seeing again. Not so in this case... not only is this the single most important film of all time, it stands as THE most brilliantly crafted and magnicant film you will ever see. It is beautiful, wonderful, and moving. Go. See. It. Now.

11/10

I just wish more people would start reviwing this like a MOVIE instead of using the topic as an excuse to bash Christianity.

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quote:


Originally posted by Scrivener:

[QB] not only is this the single most important film of all time, it stands as THE most brilliantly crafted and magnicant film you will ever see. It is beautiful, wonderful, and moving. Go. See. It. Now.

11/10/QB]


I have come to trust your reviews, but for someone like me with PTSD (can't stand gratuitous gore), how gory is it? Compare it to any movie you think I've seen, bearing in mind that I have NO intentions of seeing Kill Bill, stopped watching Saving Private Ryan within the first ten minutes (or close to that) but have watched the entire LOTR trilog more than once.

Being a Christian myself, I want to see this movie but can't, if I'm going to suffer discomfort as a result.

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I have come to trust your reviews, but for someone like me with PTSD (can't stand gratuitous gore), how gory is it?

I wouldn't say its gory so much as bloody. They show Jesus being whipped and he gets beat and cut up pretty good. I have seen dozens of movies far worse than this in terms of gore - such as Saving Private Ryan or Scream. If those two films rated a 9 on the gore factor I'd put The Passion at a 7 (Peter Jackson's own 'Dead Alive holds' a gore factor of 10). The two scenes that really seemed to affect the audience the most were 1) when Jesus was being scourged by the Roman soldiers... there were some brief shots of the whips actually cutting into Jesus' flesh... and 2) the nails being hammered into Jesus' hands. But even these were portrayed in such a way as to make it more similar to a Renaissance painting than a depiction of graphic violence. The strategy here is to show you a brief scene of brutality, then cut to a shot of something else where the violence happens off-screen while the music and sound hold that previous scene in your mind. I'd say it's closer to Braveheart than anything else. The movie will obviously affect each person differently... especially if you let the music get under your skin... but the violence really is just limited to beatings and lots of blood (There's no guts or heads rolling or anything like that). I felt pretty detached and analytical while watching it, but thats what happens when you have a trained eye and watch 10+ movies a week. Hope that helps.

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  • 6 months later...

I had to revive this thread. I bought this as soon as I could and watched it last night. I cried through the whole thing and even at times today while explaining the parts that touched me sooo much.

The way the movie expressed the bond between a mother and a child was beautiful. Whether it was the actors or the directing...I am unsure all I know is I felt it.

The beating was a bit much for me, I covered my eyes most of the time, but imagining what that family went through at that time was, for lack of anything better, incredible.

I really can't even describe my feelings. I guess I never viewed him as a person, if that makes sense.

The only part I can definatley say I found silly was the depiction of the "devil" after he "lost". I don't know how I owuld have liked to see that but that part made me wonder what they were thinking!

Truly a great movie though

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