Analysis of the Movie The Passion of the Christ

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Hi,

Interesting movie!

Let's take a closer look at each of the three questions, which you can draw on for your final copy.

RESPONSE:

This movie,THE PASSION OF CHRIST, portrays the last hours of the life of Jesus of Nazareth - from his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane to the removal of his body from the cross. Its depiction of the extreme brutality of his execution has great visual impact. Gibson is a Roman Catholic, so there has need much criticism from the Catholic Church for extra-biblical information and descending from the order of the events, amongst as other issues (see attached resources, form which this response is drawn.

1) How the different "worlds" of the New Testament represented in the film?

The Jewish world is basically represented as a foe of Jesus, especially in the extra-biblical scenes which help divide the characters into friends and foes. While there are certainly dissenters (Nicodemus calls the council proceedings "a beastly travesty," voices in the crowd call Jesus a holy man, Simon of Cyrene almost carries Jesus as well as the cross), the film gives the strong impression of implacable and murderous Jewish hostility to Jesus (http://www.bc.edu/research/cjl/meta-elements/texts/cjrelations/resources/reviews/gibson_cunningham.htm).

One Christian critic stated:

"...the reaction of so many Christians who claim, "I didn't see any anti-Semitism." Having seen The Passion of the Christ when it debuted (our scholars' group was expressly excluded from the previews shown around the country to great fanfare), I have no doubt that Gibson has substantially magnified the culpability of Jews at the expense of fidelity to gospel accounts. With few exceptions, the Jewish antagonists in this Passion drama, most notably Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, are obsessed with brutalizing Jesus. They are avaricious and bloodthirsty reiterations of the same ugly tropes that have plagued Christian representations of Jews for centuries. The figure of Satan moves conspiratorially among the Jewish crowd and the Sanhedrin, drawing an unmistakable visual connection between them; those Jewish boys who encounter Judas turn into demons. The association of Jews with the devil (see John 8:44) is another trope that has had tragic consequences." (http://www.crosscurrents.org/BoysSpring2004.htm),

And, the portrayal of the high priests and the destruction of portions of the Temple visually situate Jewish institutions, and perhaps Judaism itself, on the side of the unbelieving dark forces. On the other hand, Roman figures are handled differently and represented as brutal and vicious scourgers and executioners who are plainly ...