Personal thoughts on Mel Gibson's "The Passion"

Hmm.. the movie didn't have as much impact on me as I'd expected. Didn't cry, tho I did get watery-eyed at one scene. Didn't feel moved in a life-changing way as some ppl have shared in their sharings & reviews. I guess maybe there are a few reasons to that.

Firstly, I'd encourage those who've not watched it yet to avoid reading reviews & remembering too much of what others have said abt the film. I feel the best way to approach the film the first time would be to watch it not knowing what to expect, & not knowing what's gonna happen. hehe.. so maybe what I'm gonna share next will be spoilers for u.

I'll share by characters & what I got from each character, & how I feel abt film's portrayal of each, just immediate thoughts off my head.

John
In this movie, he comes across as the most level-headed person, the pillar of the Passion. & I guess that's also been how he comes across in the bible too. He felt fear, naturally, in the garden when the soldiers seem to be grabbing he & the other diciples too. So first instinct is to run, since I guess he's never been the 'warrior' type. But even in running, he did the sensible thing to inform Mother Mary. For the rest of the Passion, I think I only saw him cry openly once. When they went to the scourging grounds after Jesus was scourged. Guess he was probably overwhelmed, in the silence of the place. But through it all, I see him as the pillar of strength for Mother Mary, her support. & actually with this thought, there's a new insight. If we say that when Jesus entrusted Mother Mary to John, He was entrusting her to us too, then just as she is our Mother, our support, likewise we are her support too as children. I guess if we, either as her children or as Christians or as the ppl Jesus died for, can appreciate, even at some time if not all, Jesus' sacrifice, it is also a kind of consolation to her too. & I guess, as a model (or maybe also can say as a reflection of love), he shows us that sometimes ppl might need us to be pillar of strength during adversity. In my view, the strongest in the film (not including Jesus of course).

Perhaps aside from having to put on a brave front & be level-headed so that he can take care of both Marys, maybe he could understand why Jesus had to go through this. I see him as someone crying inside but not out. & someone who can be level-headed for he understood. I won't say I understand, but I know it had to be. I think this is another reason why I didn't really cry, coz I didn't see a need to.

 

Peter
The usual gruff that he is. Impulsive & typically one who acts before he thinks. A typical pure warrior kind. Interesting to see him as a defender of Jesus in the arrest scene. & typical of a warrior (but not a commander, at least not yet), once the leader is captured, morale is punctured, & he's like a soldier who's lost his commander, has no more will to fight. That's how I see him crumble from a defender to a deserter, a transformation that I guess seems more realistic for me.

 

Judas
I find this the best portrayal of Judas in a film. & I like the way that they follow the development (or disintegration) of his character. It is realistic a transformation that I can identify with the gradual move into utter despair, tho not so much as I've been that low before, more like if I dun pull myself out, I might head that way. Helps in checking how far into despair we are.

 

Simon of Cyrene
Nothing much of identifying with him, except the part abt being forced to be involved sometimes when I'd prefer to just be an observer. I guess now looking back, Jesus was probably there, but I never really noticed. So it's more like Simon going to help, & maybe at the end going off glad after all that he was of help, but that's it. I personally feel tho the transformation was quite fast. Maybe I find the expression dun show that much. After all it's hard really know what goes on inside him just by watching him for that short time. But then, he's still considered a supporting actor, & there's only so much that can be done to develop the character.

 

Pharisees
I think this film, & I guess the bible too, sometimes seem to make the Pharisees out to be the ultimate culpit of Jesus' suffering. Mainly coz they were the ones who incited & influenced the crowds, who led in the accusations, who were jealous, who had the most to lose (& thus protect) & masterminded this whole thing. I guess I myself have taken this stand too. To me, looking only at the scenario, I'd also think the Pharisees were the ones with the most blame. Mainly coz they came up with the plan, had all the motive. This is one group I find very hard to identify with. Mainly coz their intentions were too clear-cut & extreme. So much so that I can't really link myself to them. But no, I'm not so sure that I'm really not in this group at some point in time.

 

Jews
By Jews, I mean the common folks, both the mob & the rest of the ppl. This group I identify more with than the Pharisees. To me, they epitomised the undiscerning crowd, the lost sheep. I can sympathise with them coz they were simple folks. They dun get the chance of education like the Pharisees. What they knew, what they believed, all came from what the Pharisees taught. Given that during that time, the teaching was based more on fear of God, to them anyone who could teach the faith is to be respected. They were simple ppl with simple logic. When u claim to be the Son of God or when u say that everyone has to eat ur flesh & drink ur blood, what would simple minds think? They dun have the kinda culture of checking to see if sth is true. To them, what the authority teaches, it is true. I think it's inherent in us, anyone we deem to be authority to be followed, we can sometimes follow w/o questioning, tho with the new age, & with education more widely available, u have more ppl questioning authority, tho sometimes questioning too much too. With that also come more realisation of self too, & what self wants. I guess over time, the importance of authority has eroded with the rise of the importance of self. So much so that now, our way of following blindly is whether it is something we believe to be good for ourselves & not so much of what we fear.

 

Roman soldiers
haha.. one thing I can identify with them is the sadistic streak in me sometimes, but that is restricted to computer games when I'm venting frustration. It helps when computers aren't real living things. But when it comes to real human beings, I can't bear to be that cruel when it comes down to the crunch. I've not reached a particular point of anger or hatred in which I just wanna see blood being spilled. Ask me when I've reached, tho I hope u'll never get a chance to.

Somehow I feel this film has a familiar stereotype. The leaders are smart, the henchmen/followers are stupid (refer to mindless lost sheep aka Jews above). I mean, wouldn't it be logical to know that when u keep whipping a badly wounded person, it's only gonna make his injuries worse? He'll probably just be beaten to death even before reaching Golgotha. & the effort of getting up from a beating or a fall saps energy. Given Jesus' state, wouldn't it be logical to be thinking to 'economise' His energy & try to prevent Him from falling?? Why do they need their commander to point it out to them that Jesus couldn't go on??? & what abt the scene where they decided to turn the cross over to hammer down the nail tips???? Didn't their brains tell them that logically, they'd have killed Jesus before even raising the cross up by smashing Him to pulp that way????? They can forget abt the trouble of lifting the cross up. Talk abt inefficiency. I come to one conclusion, soldiers in this film are either stupid, or are smart enough to just quietly follow orders, & it's the stupid soldiers who keep beating the crap outta Jesus.

It interesting to see how the soldiers are portrayed. I just can't help remembering the stereotype of army personnel, NS-speak: in NS, there are the ppl who obediently follow orders & those who really enjoy soldiering, the latter are usually more sadistic & siao-on. This was what I saw in the soldiers who laugh so stupidly at every splatter of blood, at every injury they inflict. Indeed, I wonder if Mel Gibson wanted them to appear so bloodthirsty that he got them to have such a sadistic & spastic expression. This is sth I can't fathom.

The other thing I saw in the other soldiers, one that I find I can identify with, was the feeling that it's part of the job. Some soldiers were moved to pity, but they couldn't act on it or do anything to help coz they're just lowly soldiers, meant only to follow orders. I think that speaks of us. We usually find ourselves, especially in NS or in the working world, having to follow instructions, some of them questionable. I won't call it helplessness actually, coz sometimes it's not. It's part of our jobs, & I guess after a while we become numb.

 

Pilate
I had purposely left this to the last coz he struck me the most. To me, he represents all of us, who have the 'authority' to decide on what to do in our lives. Tho we might not necessarily have considerations of such a macro level, our dilemmas can still be that big personally. This is especially so in a leadership position. On my 2nd viewing, I realised sth. Either way he was already heading for disaster. No matter which decision me makes, he foresees an uprising. But he decides to tackle the one at hand first.

I see Pilate & Claudia as representations of the struggle between our minds & our hearts. Claudia used her heart to feel & decide. She could sense the truth in Jesus. Pilate was more of a head person, more practical. He sees things in terms of management - if those under u are unhappy to the point of coming up against u, first thing to do is to appease them. What he saw was the problem of maintaining peace, which also ties to the security of his job, his life & even his family's. In life, that's practically what we always face. Survival/preservation vs sacrifice for the truth. This is sth that I've been pondering abt for most my life. & actually, I've seen another dimension from this episode. The struggle is easier when it's only about ourselves. But when it also involves other ppl, our considerations become more complex. Sometimes I feel, there may not even be a 'right' choice.

 

Mother Mary & Mary Magdelene
They represent people who watch their loved ones suffer. For me, I can only draw inspiration from them when those close to me suffer. Interestingly, Mother Mary comes across as the stronger one, while Mary Magdalene seemed to cry more easily, ruled more by her feelings. From them I discovered sth else, & another reason why I didn't cry. I dun see Jesus as closely as I thought. He is a God to me, but not really so much of a close friend yet. Thus I didn't quite have that personal feelings when I was watching.

Mother Mary did move me close to tears. The only scene was when the film cut back & forth to the times when Jesus fell & Mother Mary rushing up to Him telling Him, "I'm here". I think that was the best scene, both in terms of the love it portrays & in terms of cinematics/art. It was so beautifully done.

 

Jesus & the Passion
I shared during the discussion session after the Living Stones screening that I felt this film portrayed Jesus as a superhero. I agree even more after 2nd viewing. In a way I feel under normal circumstances, a man would've died during the scourging of such manner, if not during, then probably after due to excess loss of blood. It'd be rare that someone could still be conscious after all that all the way to Calvary. I'd attribute this partly to artistic license.

Firstly, in the film, Jesus can't be scourged til His flesh is dangling from His Body. But I think if the flog can really cling to the table, wouldn't flesh be ripped out, messily? That tho, would be too gruesome a sight for ppl to see, too shocking for ppl to accept.

Secondly, I guess in order for Mel Gibson to emphasise on the suffering, he had to drag the scourging scene a bit. Thus, the injury from each blow can't be that severe such that it is logically impossible to continue flogging w/o killing Him.

Thirdly, Jesus seem to be 'energised' everytime He looks at His Mother. While it is a nice touch, & has a beautiful meaning behind it, I feel it was a little overdone such that it looked like what a typical Hollywood hero would do. Not to mention, it reminded me of the Undertaker from wrestling.

Much as I can understand that it is the use of artistic license, I can't help but feel that Jesus looks superhuman, which keeps bringing to mind more of His Divine nature. So when the Devil says, no man can carry such a heavy burden, it is easy to tell him (or rather her) back that Jesus is not any man, He is more than any of us mere mortals, He is also Divine. This is for me an ever-hard-to-understand teaching that Jesus is fully man & fully God. It is sth that I will never be able to understand by logic, so it still remains in the realm of head knowledge.

One thing good abt this "superhero" image. Having framed Jesus as a hero, abeit in our terms, Mel Gibson would understandably have to follow up on throughout the film. & for once, I could feel the glory of the cross. Credit to the use of camera angles & shooting styles. The down-up angle & the panning made Jesus on the cross look glamourous, the mood augmented with complimentary music, granted that u'll also need to understand the meaning of the cross to be able to appreciate it. But for that shot, I felt a sense of awe that I strangely do not really feel looking at the crucifix in church or elsewhere. I guess it is also partly due to the real-ness of it in the film. In churches, the crucifix just looks like a sculpture.

Ok, now more on cinematics (I think film modules in NUS has really changed how I watch a movie). The raindrop scene was a nice use of artistic license. I'd see it as a tear of God, sad to see His Son suffer. Visually, it's spectacular, the result of that tear.

The bullet-time shots were well-used too, for the throwing of the coin pouch to Judas & the fight to protect Jesus. Tension filled the air.

I also think the tension between the Romans & the Jews were pretty well-captured too. The embarrassment of Pilate when Caiaphas silenced the mob, the contempt the Roman soldiers showed to Jesus (which I saw as general contempt for a Jew, since I saw them as stupid foot soldiers).

Oh, I think Barabbas was another example of artistic license. I dun think a revolutionary would be so spastic rite? He looks more like a psychopath than a zealot. I think Mel Gibson might've wanted to make the choice more clear-cut. But to me, whenever the Passion reading was read, I'd always felt that it was understandable that the Jews would choose Barabbas. They'd probably saw him as the ppl's hero more than Jesus, coz he was fighting for what they wanted, freedom from the Romans. I'd see bit in the bible as the struggle we face in deciding between what we want & what we need (which sometimes like the Jews, is sth we dun know we actually need).

Hmm.. ok, that's all I can remember to type, for now. For those who know me quite well, I guess u'd probably notice that I've been approaching this film more in a cinematic approach than a feeling approach. If u ask me what I brought out of the cinema, I'd say it is a better visualisation of the Passion, better understanding of some things abt the Passion, from the heart, I dunno, maybe I'm not ready to feel so much abt it yet. I guess coz of that, I dun really feel that it was life-changing.

Finally, if there's one theme that runs thru the whole movie, & one which maybe the movie wants to show, it is that God was always in control every step of the Passion (I think the floating cross, another example of the absolute stupidity of the siao-on Roman soldiers, really impressed it on me, at least it got me to take notice of Jesus saying that He lay down His life by His own will & take it up again by His will as well; effective use of artistic license again).

I agree it is hard to notice it in real life, esp when we have to go thru suffering allowing God's control. I would've like to encourage that we can draw from Jesus' example, but I can see that as sth addressing more to myself than an encouragement I'm capable of giving, so let it be one which God gives.

Pls feel free to share with me ur own thoughts too. For now I guess u can just email me or post on the Oxygen message board. Most of u who come to my site would probably know abt Oxygen. For those who dun, I invite u to join this mailing list in which everyday there's someone who shares his/her reflections on the liturgical readings of the day.

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