Review: ‘Passion’ brutally truthful historical movie

Joelle Schumacher
Entertainment Editor
Mar. 4, 2004, Page 4

As a Roman Catholic, I have been going to Mass ever since I was born.
This means I have attended Easter Sunday Mass for 18 years. Each year, I hear the narrative of the Passion during Mass.
Nothing, though, could have prepared me for Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.”
As the show started, the audience fell silent. And I have never sat in a movie theater as quiet as during the split seconds between the end of the movie and the beginning of the credits.
I was slightly disappointed when the film opened in the Garden of Gethsemane.
I was expecting to see the Last Supper and other important events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion.
But the script was well thought-out, using effectively placed flashbacks to incorporate events from before Gethsemane.
The brutality of the soldiers when bringing Jesus into custody and the torture inflicted all the way through was almost more than I could bear. More than half of the two hour, six minute film was filled with the bloody beatings.
I found myself wiping tears from my eyes and covering my mouth to stifle gasps of shock.
Other audience members must have been similarly affected because I could hear sniffling, gasps and quiet moans throughout the theater. I wanted to look away or cover my eyes, but I was captivated.
The only problem I have with this movie is that characters were never introduced; they just appeared. I think Gibson over-assumed that everyone knew the story extremely well. I recognized most scenes from the Bible, but still had a difficult time following who was who.
In order to match names with faces, I had to keep referring my mind back to the Scriptures I’ve heard during Mass and in catechism classes.
The acting is superb. The emotion is awesome. The intensity is incredible. This could very well be the most beautiful, and yet the most disturbing, movie I ever see. The scenes with the demons and Mary’s flashback scene will stay with me for a long time.
I would recommend this movie to anyone wishing to see a brutally truthful account of the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life. Bring tissues and prepare your heart, mind, soul and stomach for the gruesome scenes.
This movie had an incredibly powerful effect, bringing the story to a completely new level for me.
I can only imagine the effect making it must have had on Gibson, the entire cast and crew and especially on James Caviezel, who played Jesus and is also a devout Roman Catholic.