I emerged from The Passion of the Christ depressed and spiritually bruised.
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:259
Fresh:129
Rotten:130
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: The graphic details of Jesus' torture make the movie tough to sit through and obscure whatever message it is trying to convey.
Runtime: 2 hrs 22 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: The Passion of The Christ is a film about the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth's life. The film opens in the Garden of Olives (Gethsemane) where Jesus has gone to pray after the Last Supper.... The Passion of The Christ is a film about the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth's life. The film opens in the Garden of Olives (Gethsemane) where Jesus has gone to pray after the Last Supper. Jesus resists Satan's temptations. Betrayed by Judas Iscariot, Jesus is arrested and taken back to within the city walls of Jerusalem where the leaders of the Pharisees confront him with accusations of blasphemy and his results in a condemnations of death. Jesus is brought before Pilate, the Roman Governor of Palestine, who listens to the accusations leveled at him by the Pharisees. Realizing he is confronting a political conflict, Pilate defers to King Herod in the matter. Herod returns Jesus to Pilate who gives the crowd a choice between Jesus and the criminal Barabbas. The crowd chooses to have Barabbas set free and to condemn Jesus. Jesus is handed over to the Roman soldiers and flagellated. Unrecognizable now, he is brought back before Pilate, who presents him to the crowd as if to say "is this not enough?" It is not. Pilate washes his hands of the entire dilemma, ordering his men to do as the crowd wishes. Jesus is presented with the cross and is ordered to carry it through the streets of Jerusalem all the way up to Golgotha. On Golgotha, Jesus is nailed to the cross and undergoes his last temptation -- the fear that he has been abandoned by his Father. He overcomes his fear, looks at Mary, his Holy Mother, and makes the pronouncement which only she can fully understand, "it is accomplished." He then dies: "into Thy hands I commend my Spirit." At the moment of his death, nature itself overturns. -- © Newmarket Films [More]
Starring: James Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Monica Bellucci, Mattia Sbragia
Starring: James Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Monica Bellucci, Mattia Sbragia, Claudia Gerini, Luca Lionello, Hristo Shopov
Director: Mel Gibson
Director: Mel Gibson
Screenwriter: Mel Gibson, Benedict Fitzgerald
Producer: Bruce Davey, Stephen McEveety
Composer: John Debney
Studio: Newmarket Films
Reviews for The Passion of the Christ
More sensational than spiritual, this blood-soaked take on the Stations of the Cross retells the Gospels as a horror movie. You can't help asking: where has all the love gone?
A tormented movie about torment; loopy, over-reaching and occasionally suspicious. Simultaneously, it is a daring artistic endeavour.
Dead languages and horrific violence aside, this is a film everyone should see, whether they hold any religious beliefs or not.
It's almost impossible not to be moved by Jim Caviezel's vulnerability as Christ, even if the idea that he is no 'mere' man is never in doubt.
And any power these explicit scenes have is in any case undermined by the absurd tweeness of the final moments.
It's a head-bashing experience, by turns exhausting, exhilarating, and infuriating.
A high-gloss exploitation picture, obsessed with the Death Jesus conquered, rather than the Life he gave -- and gives.
There’s no denying Gibson’s passion in bringing his vision to the screen, no matter how dodgy his religious beliefs.
Poetic filmmaking drawing on--and continuing--a long tradition of religious art.
The film's lack of discretion robs the viewer of his or own conception of Christ's crucifixion. It is an exploitative disservice to "the greatest story ever told," that reduces that illustrious narrative to an extended torture episode.
All [Gibson has] done...is to trade in the Hollywood conventions of yesteryear for the crasser, more bloodthirsty conventions of today.
If I were a Christian, I'd be appalled to have this primitive and pornographic bloodbath presume to speak for me.
For a filmmaker who wants to create an adaptation of the story of Jesus, Mel Gibson's motives seem ironically impure.
Easily the most controversial film of the year, Gibson's fil is a visually bold, relentlessly violent epos that suffers from a shallow, undernourished narrative and no characterizations to speak of.
Latest News for The Passion of the Christ
October 03, 2008:
Further Reading: Marion Cotillard and Forest Whittaker in Abel Ferrara's Mary
As the NFT in London prepares a Juliette Binoche season, Kim looks at Abel Ferrara's Mary which also stars Marion Cotillard and Forest Whittaker. More...
May 16, 2008:
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As The Passion of the Christ proved, there's a lot of money in so-called "faith-based" film marketing -- but it's proving disappointingly elusive for the major studios. More...
February 27, 2007:
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February 05, 2007:
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