The passion of the Christ

Language : Aramaic / Latin / Hebrew / Jewish Palestinian Aramaic

 

Year of release : 2004

 

Run time : 2h7min

 

Genre : Religious / Spiritual / Epic Biblical Drama / Horror

 

Cast : Jim Caviezel, Monica Bellucci, Maia Morgenstern

 

 

Adapted from 'Passion of Jesus',the Bible and the New Testament, the movie is directed,co-written and produced by Mel Gibson.

 

The movie starts on the night Jesus is taken, in the Gethsemane Garden. He is praying,afraid of the things to come,asking God for help.

Satan appears and tries to scare him,and relinquish his mission,but Jesus ignores him.

 

The army of the J2w!sh temple comes to take him,and one of them loses his ear in a fight with Jesus' disciples. Jesus is taken,chained like an animal,thrown off a bridge,and taken to the temple,where he's questioned by the rabb!es about the things he said about himself.

 

They don't like his answers,and beat him some more('cause that's how you prove you're a good person,and your faith).

They take him to Pontius Pilate,who wants nothing to do with their schemings ,and sends him to Herod.

 

This is a movie I could only watch twice(although I bought the original videotape,but never watched it, I watched it once at the cinema and then,in 2008 when they played it on Romanian tv.Now when I watched it, for the 3d time in 20 years,I skipped the flagellation scene),in almost 20 years, although I loved it. Due to its nature I cried a lot,and found it very hard to watch. The torture scenes,especially the flagellation are unbearable.

Don't go into it thinking it's a movie about Jesus,and it's a drama! The movie has horror elements,like when Judas is mocked and beaten by the kids who change their faces,and the devil appearing like a demon from horror movies.

Mel Gibson wanted to make an accurate movie,so he did his research. I read Sotirios Crotos' (he used to be a doctor before joining Jesus' apprentices) testimony who said Jesus' crown was made from crawling thorns,which are the most dangerous,the place they pierced turns black and blue immediately as if poisoned..and if pulled out,it comes out with the flesh! He said his whole head was full of blood cloths,his beard full of spit(people spat on him),his face and neck full of blood. His back from his shoulders to his waist was raw flesh!He said,never,in his years of practicing medicine,has he ever seen such a shattered and broken back!

 

The world created,with the set design and costumes, was beautiful.

 

The actors were all great,especially Jim Caviezel,-who played Jesus and wore prosthetics and brown eye contact lenses- , as we get to see him interacting with his mother,and then condemned and tortured.

 

The movie has great visual effects.

 

The soundtrack was beautiful.

 

Rating : The stuff dreams are made of !

 

 

Depicted in pictures : Mel Gibson giving Jim Caviezel instructions