|
By
WAYNE KLEIN
This ain't no "King of
Kings." Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ"
created a storm of controversy when it was
released to theaters earlier in the year. Focusing
on the last twelve hours of Jesus Christ's life
the film didn't retreat from the brutality as
previous biblical epics had done. Jim Caviezel's
performance as Christ is an act of faith in
itself, as he had to endure many hardships to play
the role. It was reportedly a very difficult film
to shoot for lots of different reasons.
Regardless of how one feels about religious films,
one has to admire Gibson's courage in the face of
charges of an anti-Semitic bias. He didn't turn
the other cheek so much as ignored his critics and
moved ahead to produce the film he wanted. And it
took an act of faith for Gibson to sink his own
money into such a risky production given the
political and religious climate we live in.
Is this a perfect film? No, the film is far from
it. But "The Passion of the Christ" is
dramatically flawed but gripping nevertheless
because it is so unrelenting in its portrayal of
the events from the gospels. I'd not recommend
this film for those easily offended by gore or
violence. Certainly, the charges of anti-Semitism
appear to hold water but given that the film was
adapted directly from the gospels with minimal
changes, one has to question whether it would have
been right simply for our PC time for Gibson to
make any sort of changes for that reason. The film
reflects the time the gospels were written in but
hopefully not all the values that we as a society
stand for today. In a world where politics have
become religion and vice versa, it's refreshing to
see an artist take a stand regardless of the
political pressure he may face. While I don't
always agree with Gibson (or his fine film for
that matter), I admire the quality of character
and courage it took for him to make this statement
of faith.
"The Passion of the Christ" looks glorious on this
DVD. Every detail from the grains of sand to the
red-stained sunset comes to life. Caleb
Deschanel's ("The Right Stuff," "The Black
Stallion") cinematography vividly captures the dry
texture of skin under the unforgiving Middle
Eastern sun and the anguish on the faces of the
faithful. The rich colors and significant violence
make this a film inappropriate for young children
(just as most R rated horror films are
inappropriate). The violence is realistic and
unrelenting in its detail and the DVD faithfully
reproduces it all. I'd definitely stick with the
widescreen edition if possible since the
cinematography loses much of its power when it's
reduced to a series of static close-ups or cropped
images. The image may be smaller but the visual
impact is more significant. The beautifully
textured and detailed 5.1 soundtrack plays all
around you engulfing you in the events you're
witnessing.
A powerful film that doesn't make apologies for
its presentation, "The Passion of the Christ"
plays like the flip side of "Jesus of Nazareth."
Although it lacks the punchy "modern" quality of a
cheesy but enjoyable film like "Jesus Christ
Superstar," it more than makes up for this loss
with its intensity and devotion to the story of
Christ's last twelve hours on Earth. |
