The Passion of the Christ
Wow. It’s not a movie, exactly; it’s more of a video installation of a passion play. Gibson really likes him some slo-mo, and the gore does cross the line into absurdity at times (more than once, Jim Caviezel looks like he got the business end of a bottle of A-1), so it’s sometimes hard to take seriously. So is Satan, because although Gibson’s visual interpretation of him is an interesting one, it doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the movie, and the midget baby business is best left to Lynch. With that said, it does have its power. The moment when the guy who’s helping him haul the cross up the hill tells him, “Almost there — it’s almost over,” I got tears in my eyes. Then again, that could just mean that it’s successfully manipulative. I don’t know what I think of the movie, overall, but I do know that it’s sticking in my mind, so it does its job. (3/1/04)
Tags: movies
An old entry, but ’tis the season and all.
Something on Facebook yesterday prompted me to dig up this English translation of an exchange from Ingmar Bergman’s 1962 film “Nattvardsgästerna” [“Winter Light”]. Reading it is a poor substitute for hearing it delivered so beautifully by the actor Allan Edwall (a Swede whom I never saw in anything else), but…
***
Algot Frövik: The passion of Christ, his suffering…Wouldn’t you say the focus on his suffering is all wrong?
Tomas Ericsson: What do you mean?
Algot Frövik: This emphasis on physical pain. It couldn’t have been all that bad. It may sound presumptuous of me — but in my humble way, I’ve suffered as much physical pain as Jesus. And his torments were rather brief. Lasting some four hours, I gather? I feel that he was tormented far worse on another level. Maybe I’ve got it all wrong. But just think of Gethsemane, Vicar. Christ’s disciples fell asleep. They hadn’t understood the meaning of the last supper, or anything. And when the servants of the law appeared, they ran away. And Peter denied him. Christ had known his disciples for three years. They’d lived together day in and day out — but they never grasped what he meant. They abandoned him, to the last man. And he was left alone. That must have been painful. Realizing that no one understands. To be abandoned when you need someone to rely on — that must be excruciatingly painful.
But the worst was yet to come. When Jesus was nailed to the cross — and hung there in torment — he cried out, “God, my God! Why hast thou forsaken me?” He cried out as loud as he could. He thought that his heavenly father had abandoned him. He believed everything he’d ever preached was a lie. The moments before he died, Christ was seized by doubt.
Surely *that* must have been his greatest hardship? God’s silence.
***
That five-minute scene of two people talking has haunted me more than anything in the 127 minutes of Gibson’s shock-show.