The Passion of the Christ (sometimes referred to as
The Passion) is a 2004 American
drama filmA drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by
Mel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
and starring
Jim CaviezelJames Patrick Caviezel, Jr. is an American film actor, usually credited as Jim Caviezel. He is known for the roles of Jesus Christ in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, Bobby Jones in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, Detective John Sullivan in Frequency, Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte...
as Jesus. It depicts the
PassionThe Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
of Jesus largely according to the
New TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
Gospels of
MatthewThe Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
,
MarkThe Gospel According to Mark , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second book of the New Testament. This canonical account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the three synoptic gospels. It was thought to be an epitome, which accounts for its place as the second...
,
LukeThe Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
and
JohnThe Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
. It also draws on other devotional writings, such as those disputedly attributed to
Anne Catherine EmmerichBlessed Anne Catherine Emmerich was a Roman Catholic Augustinian nun, stigmatic, mystic, visionary and ecstatic....
.
The Passion of the Christ covers the final 12 hours of Jesus' life beginning with the
Agony in the GardenThe Agony in the Garden refers to the events in the life of Jesus between the Last Supper and Jesus' arrest. Jesus' struggle praying and discussing with God, before accepting his sacrifice, before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane also denotes a state of mind - agony.-Scriptural...
and ending with a brief depiction of his
resurrectionThe Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus states that Jesus returned to bodily life on the third day following his death by crucifixion. It is a key element of Christian faith and theology and part of the Nicene Creed: "On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures"...
. Flashbacks of Jesus as a child, the
Sermon on the MountThe Sermon on the Mount is a collection of sayings and teachings of Jesus, which emphasizes his moral teaching found in the Gospel of Matthew...
, the
Last SupperThe Last Supper is the final meal that, according to Christian belief, Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "communion" or "the Lord's Supper".The First Epistle to the Corinthians is...
, etc. are also included.
The film has been highly controversial and received mixed reviews, with the complaint that the extreme violence in the movie obscures its message." Catholic sources have questioned the authenticity of the non-Biblical material the film drew on.
The film's dialogue is entirely in reconstructed
AramaicIt is generally agreed that the historical Jesus primarily spoke Aramaic, perhaps along with some Hebrew and Greek . The towns of Nazareth and Capernaum, where Jesus lived, were primarily Aramaic-speaking communities, although Greek was widely spoken in the major cities of the Eastern Mediterranean...
and
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
with vernacular
subtitlesSubtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added...
. The film was a major commercial hit, grossing in excess of $600 million during its theatrical release, becoming the highest grossing non-English language film of all time.
Plot
The film opens in
GethsemaneGethsemane is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem most famous as the place where, according to Biblical texts, Jesus and his disciples are said to have prayed the night before Jesus' crucifixion.- Etymology :...
as
JesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
prays and is tempted by
SatanSatan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
, while his apostles,
PeterSaint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
, James and
JohnJohn the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Apostle, (Aramaic Yoħanna, (c. 6 - c. 100) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, another of the Twelve Apostles...
sleep. After receiving thirty pieces of silver, one of Jesus' other apostles,
JudasJudas Iscariot was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He is best known for his betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver.-Etymology:...
, approaches with the temple guards and betrays Jesus with a
kissAccording to the Synoptic Gospels, Judas identified Jesus to the soldiers by means of a kiss. This is the kiss of Judas, also known as the Betrayal of Christ, which occurs in the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper, and leads directly to the arrest of Jesus by the police force of the...
. As the guards move in to arrest Jesus, Peter cuts off the ear of
MalchusIn the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Bible, Malchus is the servant of the Jewish High Priest, Caiaphas, who participated in the arrest of Jesus...
, but Jesus heals the ear. The temple guards arrest Jesus and the apostles flee. John tells
MaryMary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
and
Mary MagdaleneMary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
of the arrest. Peter follows Jesus at a distance.
CaiaphasJoseph, son of Caiaphas, Hebrew יוסף בַּר קַיָּפָא or Yosef Bar Kayafa, commonly known simply as Caiaphas in the New Testament, was the Roman-appointed Jewish high priest who is said to have organized the plot to kill Jesus...
holds trial over the objection of some of the other priests, who are expelled from the court. When questioned by Caiaphas whether he is the son of God, Jesus replies "I AM." Caiaphas is horrified and tears his robes and Jesus is condemned to death for blasphemy. Three times Peter denies knowing Jesus but then runs away sobbing. Meanwhile, the remorseful Judas attempts to return the money to have Jesus freed but is refused by the priests. Tormented by demons, he flees the city and hangs himself with a rope he finds on a dead donkey.
Caiaphas brings Jesus before
Pontius PilatePontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...
to be condemned to death, but after questioning Jesus, Pilate sends him instead to the court of
HerodHerod Antipater , known by the nickname Antipas, was a 1st-century AD ruler of Galilee and Perea, who bore the title of tetrarch...
, as Jesus is from Herod's ruling town of Nazareth. After Jesus is returned, Pilate offers the crowd that he will chastise Jesus and then will set him free. Pilate attempts to have Jesus freed by giving the people an option of freeing Jesus or the violent criminal
BarabbasBarabbas or Jesus Barabbas is a figure in the Christian narrative of the Passion of Jesus, in which he is the insurrectionary whom Pontius Pilate freed at the Passover feast in Jerusalem.The penalty for Barabbas' crime was death by crucifixion, but according to the four canonical gospels and the...
. To Pilate's dismay, the crowd demands to have Barabbas freed and Jesus killed. In an attempt to appease the crowd, Pilate has Jesus brutally scourged and mocked with a crown of thorns, yet the crowd continues to demand that Jesus be crucified. Pilate reluctantly orders Jesus' crucifixion.
As Jesus carries the cross along the
Via DolorosaThe Via Dolorosa is a street, in two parts, within the Old City of Jerusalem, held to be the path that Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion. The current route has been established since the 18th century, replacing various earlier versions...
to
CalvaryCalvary or Golgotha was the site, outside of ancient Jerusalem’s early first century walls, at which the crucifixion of Jesus is said to have occurred. Calvary and Golgotha are the English names for the site used in Western Christianity...
,
SeraphiaSaint Veronica or Berenice, according to the "Acta Sanctorum" published by the Bollandists , was a pious woman of Jerusalem who, moved with pity as Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, gave him her veil that he might wipe his forehead...
wipes Jesus's face with her
veilThe Veil of Veronica, or Sudarium , often called simply "The Veronica" and known in Italian as the Volto Santo or Holy Face is a Catholic relic, which, according to legend, bears the likeness of the Face of Jesus not made by human hand The Veil of Veronica, or Sudarium (Latin for sweat-cloth),...
.
Simon of CyreneSimon of Cyrene was the man compelled by the Romans to carry the cross of Jesus as Jesus was taken to his crucifixion, according to all three Synoptic Gospels...
is unwillingly pressed into carrying the cross with Jesus. Jesus is then
crucifiedThe crucifixion of Jesus and his ensuing death is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD. Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross...
. As he hangs from the cross, Jesus prays forgiveness for those who did this to him and redeems a
criminalThe Penitent thief, also known as the Thief on the Cross or the Good Thief, is an unnamed character mentioned in the Gospel of Luke who was crucified alongside Jesus and asked Jesus to remember him in his kingdom....
crucified next to him. After Jesus gives up his spirit and dies, a single drop of rain falls from the sky, triggering an earthquake which destroys the Temple and rips the cloth covering the
Holy of HoliesThe Holy of Holies is a term in the Hebrew Bible which refers to the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle and later the Temple in Jerusalem where the Ark of the Covenant was kept during the First Temple, which could be entered only by the High Priest on Yom Kippur...
in two, to the horror of Caiaphas and the other priests. Satan is then shown screaming in defeat. The story ends with Jesus rising from the dead and exiting his tomb.
Cast
- Jim Caviezel
James Patrick Caviezel, Jr. is an American film actor, usually credited as Jim Caviezel. He is known for the roles of Jesus Christ in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, Bobby Jones in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, Detective John Sullivan in Frequency, Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte...
as Jesus Christ
- Maia Morgenstern
Maia Morgenstern is a Romanian film and stage actress, described by Florin Mitu of AMOS News as "a symbol of Romanian theater and film". In the English-speaking world, she is probably best known for the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ...
as MaryMary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
- Monica Bellucci
Monica Anna Maria Bellucci is an Italian actress and fashion model.-Early life:Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy as the only child of Luigi Bellucci, who was born in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, East Pakistan...
as Mary MagdaleneMary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
- Rosalinda Celentano
Rosalinda Celentano is an Italian actress. She played Satan in the movie The Passion of the Christ . The most recent film she played in was Der Todestunnel. She is the daughter of Adriano Celentano.-External links:...
as SatanSatan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
- Francesco DeVito as Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
- Chokri Ben Zagden as James
- Christo Jivkov as John
John the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Apostle, (Aramaic Yoħanna, (c. 6 - c. 100) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, another of the Twelve Apostles...
- Luca Lionello
Luca Lionello is an Italian actor. His father was the actor and voice dubbing artist Oreste Lionello. An actor since 1986, Luca Lionello came to international attention in 2004, when he played the role of Judas Iscariot in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.He was an atheist until 2004, when...
as Judas IscariotJudas Iscariot was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He is best known for his betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver.-Etymology:...
- Hristo Shopov
Hristo Naumov Shopov is a Bulgarian actor. Shopov's father, Naum Shopov, is a famous Bulgarian actor as well.He is most noted for his portrayal of Pontius Pilate in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. He has become one of Bulgaria's most successful actors, making his debut in 1981 with...
as Pontius PilatePontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...
- Claudia Gerini
Claudia Gerini is an Italian actress and showgirl.-Biography:Born in Rome from employees parents, in 1985 she won National Competition of Miss Teenager....
as Claudia Procles
- Fabio Sartor as Abenader
Pontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...
- Luca De Dominicis
Luca De Dominicis . He was the walk-on actor of King Herod Antipas on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.-External links:...
as Herod ÁntipasHerod Antipater , known by the nickname Antipas, was a 1st-century AD ruler of Galilee and Perea, who bore the title of tetrarch...
- Mattia Sbragia
Mattia Sbragia is an Italian character actor.Mattia Sbragia has been performing in films, on television, and in the theater for almost thirty years. He made his motion picture debut in 1974, in Franco Rossetti's Nipoti Miei Diletti...
as Caiphas |
Toni Bertorelli as Annas ben Seth Annas [also Ananus or Ananias], son of Seth , was appointed by the Roman legate Quirinius as the first High Priest of the newly formed Roman province of Iudaea in 6 AD; just after the Romans had deposed Archelaus, Ethnarch of Judaea, thereby putting Judaea directly under Roman rule.Annas officially...
Jarreth Merz as Simon of CyreneSimon of Cyrene was the man compelled by the Romans to carry the cross of Jesus as Jesus was taken to his crucifixion, according to all three Synoptic Gospels...
Sergio Rubini- Biography :He was born in Grumo Appula but soon moved to Rome to study acting. After some roles in theater, he debuted in a feature film with Figlio mio infinitamente caro , which was followed by Desiderando Giulia and Il caso Moro...
as DismasThe Penitent thief, also known as the Thief on the Cross or the Good Thief, is an unnamed character mentioned in the Gospel of Luke who was crucified alongside Jesus and asked Jesus to remember him in his kingdom....
Francesco CabrasFrancesco Cabras is an Italian actor. He played the role of Gesmas on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, played the chief of the rebels on Kurt Wimmer's Equilibrium as Francesco Calabras, and Rasputin on Louis Nero's Rasputin...
as GesmasThe impenitent thief was one of the two thieves who was crucified alongside Jesus. According to the Gospels, he taunted Jesus about not saving himself, while the penitent thief asked for mercy. The impenitent thief is given the apocryphal name Gestas, which first appears in the Gospel of Nicodemus,...
Giovanni Capalbo as Cassius
Roberto Bestazoni as MalchusIn the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Bible, Malchus is the servant of the Jewish High Priest, Caiaphas, who participated in the arrest of Jesus...
Sabrina Impacciatore as SeraphiaSaint Veronica or Berenice, according to the "Acta Sanctorum" published by the Bollandists , was a pious woman of Jerusalem who, moved with pity as Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, gave him her veil that he might wipe his forehead...
Pietro Sarubbi as BarabbasBarabbas or Jesus Barabbas is a figure in the Christian narrative of the Passion of Jesus, in which he is the insurrectionary whom Pontius Pilate freed at the Passover feast in Jerusalem.The penalty for Barabbas' crime was death by crucifixion, but according to the four canonical gospels and the...
Matt Patresi as Janus-General:*Janus , the two-faced Roman god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings*Janus , a moon of Saturn*Janus Patera, a shallow volcanic crater on Io, a moon of Jupiter...
Emilio De MarchiEmilio De Marchi was an Italian operatic tenor. He had a significant career during the late 19th century and early 20th century, appearing at major theatres on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1900, he entered the annals of musical history as the creator of the role of Cavaradossi in Giacomo...
as Scornful Roman
Roberto Visconti as Scornful Roman
Lello Giulivo as Brutish Roman
Abel Jafry as 2nd Temple Officer |
Themes
In
The Passion: Photography from the Movie "The Passion of the Christ", Gibson says: "This is a movie about love, hope, faith and forgiveness. He [Jesus] died for all mankind, suffered for all of us. It's time to get back to that basic message. The world has gone nuts. We could all use a little more love, faith, hope and forgiveness."
He also explains one of his appearances in the film, the close-up of his hands nailing Jesus to the cross: "It was me that put Him on the cross. It was my sins [that put Jesus there]."
New Testament
According to director
Mel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
, the primary source material for
The Passion of the Christ is the four
GospelA gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
narratives of Christ's
passionThe Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
. The film also draws from other parts of the
New TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. The line spoken by Jesus, "Behold Mother, I make all things new," is taken from the
Book of RevelationThe Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
.
Hebrew Bible
The Passion of the Christ also refers to the
Hebrew BibleThe Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
. The film begins with an
epigraphIn literature, an epigraph is a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document or component. The epigraph may serve as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example, or to link the work to a wider literary canon, either to invite comparison or to enlist a conventional...
from the
Fourth Song of the Suffering ServantIsaiah 53, taken from the Book of Isaiah, is the last of the four Songs of the Suffering Servant, and tells the story of the Man of Sorrows or "The Suffering Servant", which became a common theme in medieval and later Christian art. The passage is known for its interpretation by many Christians to...
from
IsaiahThe Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...
. In the opening scene set in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus crushes a serpent's head in direct visual allusion to Genesis 3:15. Throughout the film, Jesus quotes from the
PsalmsThe Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
, beyond the instances recorded in the
New TestamentThe New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
.
Traditional iconography and stories
Many of the depictions in
The Passion of the Christ deliberately mirror traditional representations of the
PassionThe Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
in art. For example, the fourteen
Stations of the CrossStations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion. The tradition as chapel devotion began with St...
are central to the depiction of the
Via DolorosaThe Via Dolorosa is a street, in two parts, within the Old City of Jerusalem, held to be the path that Jesus walked, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion. The current route has been established since the 18th century, replacing various earlier versions...
in
The Passion of the Christ. All of the stations are portrayed except for the eighth station (Jesus meets the women of
Jerusalem, a deleted scene on the DVD) and the fourteenth station (Jesus is laid in the tomb). Gibson was also visually inspired by the representation of Jesus on the
Shroud of TurinThe Shroud of Turin or Turin Shroud is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma in a manner consistent with crucifixion. It is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, northern Italy. The image on the shroud is...
.
At the suggestion of actress
Maia MorgensternMaia Morgenstern is a Romanian film and stage actress, described by Florin Mitu of AMOS News as "a symbol of Romanian theater and film". In the English-speaking world, she is probably best known for the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ...
, the
Passover SederThe Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted on the evenings of the 14th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, and on the 15th by traditionally observant Jews living outside Israel. This corresponds to late March or April in...
is quoted early in the film.
MaryMary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
asks "Why is this night different than other nights?", and
Mary MagdaleneMary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
replies with the traditional response: "Because once we were slaves and we are slaves no longer".
The conflation of
Mary MagdaleneMary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
with the adulteress saved from stoning by Jesus has some precedent in tradition but according to the director was done for
dramatic reasonsArtistic licence is a colloquial term, sometimes euphemism, used to denote the distortion of fact, alteration of the conventions of grammar or language, or rewording of pre-existing text made by an artist to improve a piece of...
. The names of some of the characters in the film are traditional and extra-Scriptural, such as the thieves crucified alongside the Christ, Dismas and Gesmas (also
GestasThe impenitent thief was one of the two thieves who was crucified alongside Jesus. According to the Gospels, he taunted Jesus about not saving himself, while the penitent thief asked for mercy. The impenitent thief is given the apocryphal name Gestas, which first appears in the Gospel of Nicodemus,...
).
Catholic devotional writings
Screenwriters
Mel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
and
Benedict FitzgeraldBenedict Fitzgerald is an American screenwriter who co-wrote the screenplay for The Passion of the Christ with Mel Gibson. His other writing credits include a television screenplay of Moby-Dick in 1998 and Wise Blood in 1979....
said that they read many accounts of Christ's
PassionThe Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
for inspiration, including the devotional writings of Roman Catholic mystics. A principal source is
The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ the reported (yet disputed) visions of the stigmatic German nun
Anne Catherine EmmerichBlessed Anne Catherine Emmerich was a Roman Catholic Augustinian nun, stigmatic, mystic, visionary and ecstatic....
(1774–1824), as written by to the poet
Clemens BrentanoClemens Brentano, or Klemens Brentano was a German poet and novelist.-Overview:He was born in Ehrenbreitstein, near Koblenz, Germany. His sister was Bettina von Arnim, Goethe's correspondent. His father's family was of Italian descent. He studied in Halle and Jena, afterwards residing at...
. A careful reading of Emmerich's book shows the film's high level of dependence on it.
However,
Clemens BrentanoClemens Brentano, or Klemens Brentano was a German poet and novelist.-Overview:He was born in Ehrenbreitstein, near Koblenz, Germany. His sister was Bettina von Arnim, Goethe's correspondent. His father's family was of Italian descent. He studied in Halle and Jena, afterwards residing at...
's attribution of the book
The Dolorous Passion to Emmerich has been subject to dispute, with allegations that Brentano wrote much of the book himself; a Vatican investigation concluding that: "It is absolutely not certain that she ever wrote this". In his review of the movie in the catholic publication
America, Jesuit priest John O' Malley used the terms "devout fiction" and "well-intentioned fraud" to refer to the writings of Clemens Brentano.
Among the many elements taken from the Dolorous Passion are scenes such as the suspension of Jesus from a bridge after his arrest by the Temple guards, the torment of Judas by demons after he had handed over Jesus to the Sanhedrin, the wiping up of the blood of Jesus after his scourging, and the dislocation of Jesus’ shoulder so that his palm would reach the hole bored for the nail. A second source mentioned was
The Mystical City of God by
María de ÁgredaMaría Fernández Coronel y Arana, Abbess of Ágreda or, known in religion as Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda , also known as the Lady in Blue and the Blue Nun, was born, and died, in Ágreda, a town located in the province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain...
(1602–1665), a 17th-century Spanish nun.
Differences from traditional Passion story
Certain elements of
The Passion of the Christ do not have precedent in earlier depictions of the
PassionThe Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
. In the Garden of Gethsemane scene at the beginning of the movie, Satan appears and attempts to distract Jesus while he is praying. Jesus then crushes a serpent beneath his heel (this is a reference to the protoevangelium, Genesis 3:15 – a prophecy of Messiah); this does not occur in any of the gospels. In another example,
Judas IscariotJudas Iscariot was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He is best known for his betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver.-Etymology:...
is tormented by demons who appear as children to him. The film gives focus to the fragile relationship of
Tiberius CaesarTiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...
with
Pontius PilatePontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...
through Pilate's discussion with his wife about imperial orders to avert further Judean revolts. The movie clearly identifies
Simon of CyreneSimon of Cyrene was the man compelled by the Romans to carry the cross of Jesus as Jesus was taken to his crucifixion, according to all three Synoptic Gospels...
as Jewish, although the
Synoptic GospelsThe gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes exactly the same wording. This degree of parallelism in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence structures can only be...
provide only his name and place of origin. In the film, a Roman soldier derides Simon (who helps Jesus bear the cross) by derisively calling him
Jew. In contrast, Simon is described as a pagan in
The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Other scenes unique to
The Passion of the Christ include the one in which the crucified thief who taunted Jesus has his eye pecked out by a crow, and the flashback of the carpenter Jesus building an elevated, four-legged table for a
RomanThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. The scene of Satan carrying a demonic baby during Christ’s flogging has been construed as an imitation of traditional depictions of the Madonna and Child. Mel Gibson described this scene as follows:
"...it's evil distorting what’s good. What is more tender and beautiful than a mother and a child? So the Devil takes that and distorts it just a little bit. Instead of a normal mother and child you have an androgynous figure holding a 40-year-old ‘baby’ with hair on his back. It is weird, it is shocking, it's almost too much – just like turning Jesus over to continue scourging him on his chest is shocking and almost too much, which is the exact moment when this appearance of the Devil and the baby takes place."
Script and language
Gibson originally announced that he would use two old languages without subtitles and rely on "filmic storytelling." Because the story of the
PassionThe Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
is so well-known, Gibson felt the need to avoid
vernacularA vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
languages in order to surprise audiences: "I think it's almost counterproductive to say some of these things in a
modern languageA modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication and dead classical languages such as Latin, Attic Greek, Sanskrit, and Classical Chinese, which are studied for...
. It makes you want to stand up and shout out the next line, like when you hear 'To be or not to be' and you instinctively say to yourself, 'That is the question.'" The script was written in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
by Gibson and
Benedict FitzgeraldBenedict Fitzgerald is an American screenwriter who co-wrote the screenplay for The Passion of the Christ with Mel Gibson. His other writing credits include a television screenplay of Moby-Dick in 1998 and Wise Blood in 1979....
, then
translatedTranslation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
by
William FulcoThe Reverend William J. Fulco, S.J. is a Jesuit priest and National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California in the United States....
, S.J., a professor at
Loyola Marymount UniversityLoyola Marymount University is a comprehensive co-educational private Roman Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions located in Los Angeles, California, United States...
, into
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, reconstructed Aramaic, and Hebrew. Gibson chose to use
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
instead of
GreekKoine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....
, which was the "lingua franca" of that particular part of the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
at the time, so that the audience could easily distinguish between the sound of Italianate
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Semitic Aramaic. Fulco sometimes incorporated deliberate errors in pronunciations and word endings when the characters were speaking a language unfamiliar to them, and some of the crude language used by the Roman soldiers was not translated in the subtitles. The pronunciation of Latin in the film is closer to ecclesiastical Latin than to "more historically accurate" classical Latin. (Clear instances of this can be heard when Pontius Pilate says "veritas" and "ecce".)
Filming
The film was produced
independentlyAn independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
and filmed in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
– primarily at
Cinecittà StudiosCinecittà is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.-History:The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"...
in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, and in the old city of
MateraMatera is a town and a province in the region of Basilicata, in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Matera. The town lies athwart a small canyon, which has been eroded in the course of years by a small stream, the Gravina.- History :...
, and at
CracoCraco is a commune and medieval village located in the Region of Basilicata and the Province of Matera in Italy. About 25 miles inland from the Gulf of Taranto at the instep of the “boot” of Italy...
(
BasilicataBasilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...
). The estimated
$The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
30 million production cost, plus an additional estimated $15 million in marketing costs, were fully borne by Gibson and his company,
Icon ProductionsIcon Productions LLC is an American independent production company founded in August 1989 by actor/director Mel Gibson and Australian producing partner Bruce Davey.-History:Icon started when Gibson was having trouble in financing the 1990 film Hamlet...
. It was released on
Ash WednesdayAsh Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter...
, February 25, 2004. It was rated R by the
Motion Picture Association of AmericaThe Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...
for "sequences of graphic violence".
Newmarket FilmsNewmarket Films is an American film production and distribution company which is a subsidiary of Newmarket Capital Group. It was founded in 1994.-Brief summary:...
distributed the theatrical version of the film, and
20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
distributed the VHS/DVD/Blu-ray version of the film.
Gibson consulted several theological advisors during filming, including
Fr. Jonathan MorrisFr. Jonathan Morris is a Roman Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of New York and a news contributor and analyst for the Fox News Channel. He currently serves as one of several parochial vicars at the Basilica of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in New York City . Before joining the archdiocese, Fr...
, who would later go on to become a news analyst and contributor. During filming, assistant director Jan Michelini was struck twice by
lightningLightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
. The second time this happened, the lightning bolt also hit
James CaviezelJames Patrick Caviezel, Jr. is an American film actor, usually credited as Jim Caviezel. He is known for the roles of Jesus Christ in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, Bobby Jones in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, Detective John Sullivan in Frequency, Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte...
.
Music
Three
CDThe Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
s were released with
Mel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
's co-operation: (i) the
film soundtrackThe Passion of the Christ is the soundtrack, on the Sony label, of the 2004 Academy Award-nominated film The Passion of the Christ starring James Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Christo Jivkov, Hristo Shopov, Francesco De Vito and Monica Bellucci...
of
John DebneyJohn C. Debney is an American film composer. He received an Academy Award nomination for his score for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ...
's original orchestral score conducted by
Nick IngmanNicholas Ingman is an orchestra conductor and composer.Early recordings include:*'Big Beat' *'The Love Album' *'Terminator'...
; (ii)
The Passion of the Christ: SongsThe Passion of the Christ: Songs is an album of songs inspired by The Passion of the Christ. It was produced by Mark Joseph and Tim Cook and executive produced by Mel Gibson. It won the 2005 GMA Music Award for Special Event Album of the Year...
, by producers
Mark JosephMark Joseph is a multimedia producer, author, and founder/CEO of MJM Entertainment Group and Bully! Pulpit. He lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife and five children.-Early life and education:Mr...
and Tim Cook, with original compositions by various artists, and (iii)
The Passion of the Christ: Songs Inspired By. The first two albums each received a
2005 Dove awardThe 36th Annual GMA Dove Awards, also called the 36th Annual GMA Music Awards, were held on April 13, 2005 recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 2004. The show was held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee and was hosted by Steven Curtis Chapman, CeCe Winans, Rebecca St...
, and the soundtrack received an Academy Award nomination of Best Music Score.
A preliminary score was composed and recorded by
Lisa GerrardLisa Gerrard is an Australian musician, singer, and composer who rose to prominence as part of the music group Dead Can Dance with former music partner Brendan Perry....
and
Patrick CassidyPatrick Cassidy is an Irish classical composer.Largely self taught, with no formal music education, he has worked in many various formats, including TV and films. In 2004, he cowrote the album Immortal Memory with Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance...
, but was incomplete at film's release.
Jack LenzJack Lenz is a Canadian Bahá'í composer. He has written, performed, and produced music for film, television, and theatre, along with working on non-soundtrack album ventures. He is also the founder of Live Unity Enterprises, an organization devoted to the production of music for the Bahá'í...
was the primary musical researcher and one of the composers; several clips of his compositions have been posted online.
Title change
Although Gibson wanted to call his film
The Passion, on October 16, 2003 his spokesman announced that the title used in the United States would be
The Passion of Christ because Miramax had already registered the title
The Passion with the MPAA for the 1987 novel by
Jeanette WintersonJeanette Winterson OBE is a British novelist.-Early years:Winterson was born in Manchester and adopted on 21 January 1960. She was raised in Accrington, Lancashire, by Constance and John William Winterson...
. Later, the title was changed again to
The Passion of the Christ for all markets.
Distribution and marketing
Gibson began production on his film without securing outside funding or distribution. In 2002, he explained why he could not get backing from the Hollywood studios: "This is a film about something that nobody wants to touch, shot in two dead languages. In
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
they think I am insane, and maybe I am." Gibson and his
Icon ProductionsIcon Productions LLC is an American independent production company founded in August 1989 by actor/director Mel Gibson and Australian producing partner Bruce Davey.-History:Icon started when Gibson was having trouble in financing the 1990 film Hamlet...
company provided the film's sole backing, spending about $30 million on production costs and an estimated $15 million on marketing. After early accusations of anti-Semitism, it became difficult for Gibson to find an American distribution company.
20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
had a first-look deal with Icon and passed on the film in response to public protests. In order to avoid the spectacle of other studios turning down the film and to avoid subjecting the distributor to the same intense public criticism he had received, Gibson decided to distribute the movie in the United States himself, with
Newmarket FilmsNewmarket Films is an American film production and distribution company which is a subsidiary of Newmarket Capital Group. It was founded in 1994.-Brief summary:...
.
Gibson departed from the usual film marketing formula. He employed a small-scale television advertising campaign, and added faith guru
Rick HendrixRichard Binghames Hendrix Jr. , better known by the name Rick Hendrix, is an American entertainment promoter and songwriter of southern gospel, country music and pop music...
with no press junkets. Yet
The Passion of the Christ was heavily promoted by many church groups, both within their organizations and to the general public, often giving away free tickets.
Domestic release
The film opened in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on February 25, 2004 (
Ash WednesdayAsh Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter...
, the beginning of
LentIn the Christian tradition, Lent is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer – through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial – for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and...
). It earned $83,848,082 in its opening weekend, ranking it 4th overall in domestic opening weekend earnings for 2004. It went on to earn $370,782,930 overall in the United States.
Government censorship
In
Malaysia, government
censorthumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
s initially banned it completely, but after Christian leaders protested, the restriction was lifted, but only for Christian audiences, allowing them to view the film in specially designated theatres. In
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, the film was not banned. However, it never received theatrical distribution because no Israeli distributor sought to market the movie.
International box office
Despite the various controversies and refusals of certain governments to allow the film to be viewed in wide release,
The Passion of the Christ earned $611,899,420 worldwide. The movie was also a relative success in certain countries with large Muslim populations, such as in Egypt, where it ranked 20th overall in its box office numbers for 2004.
Theatrical re-release
An edited version titled
The Passion Recut was released on March 11, 2005, with five minutes of the most explicit violence deleted to broaden the audience for the film. Gibson explained his reasoning for the new version of the film:
After the initial run in movie theaters, I received numerous letters from people all across the country. Many told me they wanted to share the experience with loved ones but were concerned that the harsher images of the film would be too intense for them to bear. In light of this I decided to re-edit The Passion of the Christ.
Despite the attempt to tone down the content, the
Motion Picture Association of AmericaThe Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...
deemed the film too violent to rate PG-13, so Gibson released it as unrated. The re-release did not end up being a commercial success, only showing for three weeks before its poor box office results caused it to be pulled from theaters.
Home media
On August 31, 2004, the film was released on
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
,
VHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
, and later
D-VHSD-VHS is a digital recording format developed by JVC, in collaboration with Hitachi, Matsushita, and Philips. The "D" in D-VHS originally stood for Data VHS, but with the expansion of the format from standard definition to high definition capability, JVC renamed it Digital VHS and uses that...
in North America. As with the original theatrical release, the film's release on home video formats proved to be very popular. Early reports indicated that over 2.4 million copies of the film were sold by the middle of the day. The film was available on DVD with English and Spanish subtitles, and on
VHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
tape with English subtitles. On February 17, 2009, the film was released on
Blu-rayBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
in North America as a two-disc Definitive Edition set. It was also released on Blu-ray in Australia a week before Easter.
Although the original DVD release of
The Passion of The Christ sold well, it contained no extra materials other than soundtrack language selections. The no-frills edition provoked speculation about when a
special editionThe terms special edition, limited edition and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition and others, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints or recorded music and films, but now including...
would be released. On Tuesday, January 30, 2007, a two-disc Definitive Edition of
The Passion of The Christ was released in the American markets, and March 26 elsewhere. It contains several
documentariesDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
,
soundtrackA soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
commentariesOn disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
,
deleted sceneIn Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
s,
outtakeAn outtake is a portion of a work that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and DVD reissues of many albums and films as bonus tracks or features, in film often, but not...
s, the 2005
UnratedA re-edited film is a film that has been edited from the original theatrical release.-Types of re-editing:Films edited for format, length, and content....
version, and the original 2004 theatrical version.
The British version of the 2 disc DVD contains two deleted scenes. In the first deleted scene, Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem which is the eighth station of the cross, "Jesus falls to the ground as the women wail around him and Simon of Cyrene attempts to hold up the cross and help up Jesus simultaneously. Afterwards, while both are holding up the cross, Jesus says to Simon, "Do not weep for me, but for yourselves and for your children". In the second scene Pilate washes his hands and turns to Caiaphas and says "Look you to it" (ie: the Pharisees wish to have him crucified). Pilate turns to Abanader and says "Do as they wish". The scene then shows Pilate calling to his servant who is carrying a wooden board on which Pilate writes 'Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews' in Latin and Hebrew. He then holds the board above his head in full view of Caiaphas, who after reading it challenges Pilate on its content. Pilate replies (...) angrily to Caiaphas in Aramaic (content not translated). The disc contains only two deleted scenes in total. No other scenes from the movie are shown on disc. 2.
Television broadcast
On April 17, 2011 (
Palm SundayPalm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four Canonical Gospels. ....
),
Trinity Broadcasting NetworkThe Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
(TBN) presented a world television premiere of the film at 7:30PM ET/PT, with multiple showings scheduled. TBN presented the film with much of the graphic violence left in; as a result, TBN rated the film "
TV-MA-VThe TV Parental Guidelines system was first proposed on December 19, 1996 by the United States Congress, the television industry and the Federal Communications Commission , and went into effect by January 1, 1997 on most major U.S...
" – a rarity for many Christian networks.
Critical reviews
The film received mixed reviews from critics; critics have praised the performance of
Jim CaviezelJames Patrick Caviezel, Jr. is an American film actor, usually credited as Jim Caviezel. He is known for the roles of Jesus Christ in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, Bobby Jones in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, Detective John Sullivan in Frequency, Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte...
as Jesus. The review aggregator
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 50% gave the film positive reviews, based on 260 reviews total; with the consensus that "the graphic details of Jesus'
tortureTorture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
make the movie tough to sit through and obscure whatever message it is trying to convey."
MetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reported the film had an average score of 47 out of 100, based on 43 reviews.
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film four out of four stars, and called it "the most violent film I have ever seen", also reflecting on how the movie personally impacted him as a former altar boy.
New York PressNew York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...
film critic
Armond WhiteArmond White is a New York-based film and music critic known for his provocative and idiosyncratic film criticism, which some have characterized as contrarian. He is currently the editor of City Arts, for which he also writes articles and reviews...
praised Gibson's work, comparing him to
DreyerCarl Theodor Dreyer, Jr. was a Danish film director. He is regarded by many critics and filmmakers as one of the greatest directors in cinema.-Life:Dreyer was born illegitimate in Copenhagen, Denmark...
, for transforming Art into spirituality. However,
SlateSlate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
reviewer
David EdelsteinDavid Edelstein is the chief film critic for New York Magazine, as well as the film critic for NPR's Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning. He lives in Brooklyn, New York....
called it "a two-hour-and-six-minute
snuff movieA snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...
," while
Jami BernardJami Bernard is an author and media consultant, an award-winning film critic for The New York Post and The New York Daily News, and the founder of Barncat Publishing . She has appeared in documentaries as herself, including the Independent Film Channel's Indie Sex series , on which she was a...
of the
New York Daily NewsThe Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
called it "the most virulently anti-Semitic movie made since the German propaganda films of World War II."
TimeTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine listed it as one of the most violent films of all time.
The June 2006 issue of
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
named
The Passion of the Christ the most controversial film of all time, followed by
Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
's film
A Clockwork OrangeA Clockwork Orange is a 1971 film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. It was written, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick...
.
Independent promotion and discussion
A number of independent websites such as
MyLifeAfter.com and
Passion-Movie.com were launched to promote the film and its message and to allow people to discuss the film's effect on their lives. Documentaries such as
Changed Lives: Miracles of the Passion chronicled stories of miraculous savings, forgiveness, new-found faith, and the story of a man who confessed to
murderingHomicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
his girlfriend after authorities determined her death was due to
suicideSuicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. Another documentary,
Impact: The Passion of the Christ, chronicled the popular response of the film in the United States,
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and examined the claims of anti-Semitism against Mel Gibson and the film.
Questions of historical and biblical accuracy
Despite criticisms that Gibson deliberately and severely departed from historical accounts of first century Judea and Biblical accounts of Christ's crucifixion, some scholars defend the film as not meaning to be historically accurate. Biblical scholar
Mark GoodacreMark Goodacre is a New Testament scholar and Professor at Duke University's Department of Religion. He has written extensively on the Synoptic Problem; that is, the origins of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke...
protested that he could not find one documented example of Gibson explicitly claiming the film to be historically accurate. Gibson has been quoted as saying, "I think that my first duty is to be as faithful as possible in telling the story so that it doesn't contradict the Scriptures. Now, so long as it didn't do that, I felt that I had a pretty wide berth for artistic interpretation, and to fill in some of the spaces with logic, with imagination, with various other readings."
In the film, Romans use Latin amongst themselves, Jews do the same with Aramaic, and the two groups adopt one or the other of these languages in communicating with each other. The latter is historically improbable, however, as the eastern parts of the Roman empire were extensively Hellenized, and Greek was the lingua franca.
When asked about the film's faithfulness to the account given in the New Testament, Father Di Noia of the Doctrinal Congregation replied: "Mel Gibson's film is not a documentary but a work of artistic imagination" and "Gibson's film is entirely faithful to the New Testament."
Promotional screenings
Gibson was criticized by
Abraham FoxmanAbraham H. Foxman is the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League.-Early life:Foxman, an only son, was born in Baranovichi, just months after the USSR took the town from Poland in the Nazi-Soviet Pact and incorporated it into the BSSR. The town is now in Belarus...
, National Director of the
Anti-Defamation LeagueThe Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
(whose stated purpose is to fight anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry in the U.S.), for holding private screenings for prominent, politically and socially conservative Christian and Jewish religious leaders yet not inviting those who had already criticized the film.
Disputed papal endorsement
In early December 2003,
Passion of the Christ co-producer
Stephen McEveetyStephen "Steve" McEveety is an American film producer. The son of Joseph McEveety, and nephew of Bernard McEveety and Vincent McEveety, Hollywood film directors/producers, he has over 30 years experience in senior positions in the entertainment industry....
provided the film to Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's secretary. Archbishop Dziwisz returned the film to McEveety and said he had watched it with John Paul II. On December 16,
Daily Variety reported that the pope had seen the film, and on Dec. 17,
Wall Street Journal columnist
Peggy NoonanPeggy Noonan is an American author of seven books on politics, religion, and culture and a weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal...
reported that John Paul II had said: "It is as it was," sourcing McEveety, who said he heard it from Dziwisz.
National Catholic ReporterThe National Catholic Reporter is the second largest Catholic newspaper in the United States; its circulation reaches ninety-seven countries on six continents. Based in midtown Kansas City, Missouri, NCR was founded by Robert Hoyt in 1964 as an independent newspaper focusing on the Catholic Church...
journalist
John AllenJohn L. Allen, Jr. is an American journalist based in Rome who specializes in news about the Catholic Church. He is senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and vaticanologist of CNN and NPR. Allen is also the author of several books about the Catholic Church...
published a similar account on the same day, quoting an unnamed senior Vatican official. The following day,
ReutersReuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
and the
Associated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
each independently confirmed the story, citing Vatican sources. On December 24, an anonymous Vatican official told
Catholic News ServiceCatholic News Service is an American news agency covering the Roman Catholic Church. CNS was established in 1920 and is a leading source of news for Catholic print and broadcast media throughout the world....
, "There was no declaration, no judgment from the pope." On January 9, John Allen defended his earlier reporting, saying that his official source was adamant about the veracity of the original story. In a January 18 column,
Frank RichFrank Rich is an American essayist and op-ed columnist who wrote for The New York Times from 1980, when he was appointed its chief theatre critic, until 2011...
interviewed the Italian translator who quoted Dziwisz as saying that the pope called the film "incredible" and said "it is as it was." Rich attacked the marketing of the film and suggested Dziwisz wielded too much influence over the pope. The next day Archbishop Dziwisz told CNS, "The Holy Father told no one his opinion of this film." This denial resulted in a round of commentators who accused the film producers of fabricating a papal quote to market their movie.
However, the
Icon ProductionsIcon Productions LLC is an American independent production company founded in August 1989 by actor/director Mel Gibson and Australian producing partner Bruce Davey.-History:Icon started when Gibson was having trouble in financing the 1990 film Hamlet...
spokesman stood by the story, and a source close to the situation said McEveety had asked for and received Vatican officials' permission to repeat the "It is as it was" statement before speaking to Noonan. Journalist
Rod DreherRod Dreher is an American writer and editor. He was a conservative editorial writer and a columnist for The Dallas Morning News, but departed that newspaper in late 2009 to affiliate with the John Templeton Foundation. He has also contributed in the past to The American Conservative and National...
reported that McEveety had received an email from papal spokesman Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls on December 28, backing the Noonan account and ending: "I would try to make the words 'It is as it was' the leit motive [sic] in any discusion [sic] on the film. Repeat the words again and again and again."
Peggy Noonan had also received email confirmation of the quote from Navarro-Valls before writing her December 17 column. Complicating the situation, Navarro-Valls told Dreher that the email sent to McEveety was not genuine, suggesting it was fabricated. However Noonan verified that all of the Navarro-Valls emails came from the same Vatican IP address. The
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
reported that they had previously confirmed the accuracy of the quote from Navarro-Valls when the story first broke. On CNN,
John AllenJohn L. Allen, Jr. is an American journalist based in Rome who specializes in news about the Catholic Church. He is senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and vaticanologist of CNN and NPR. Allen is also the author of several books about the Catholic Church...
reported Vatican sources who claim to have heard Dziwisz on other occasions affirm the accuracy of the quotation.
On January 22, Navarro-Valls released the following official statement:
"The film is a cinematographic transposition of the historical event of the Passion of Jesus Christ according to the accounts of the Gospel. It is a common practice of the Holy Father not to express public opinions on artistic works, opinions that are always open to different evaluations of aesthetic character."
Allegations of anti-Semitism
Before the film was even released, there were prominent criticisms of perceived
anti-SemiticAntisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
content in the movie.
20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
told
New YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
Assemblyman
Dov HikindDov Hikind is an American politician in the state of New York. He is a Democratic New York State Assemblyman. Hikind is an Orthodox Jew representing Brooklyn's Assembly district 48...
they had passed on distributing the film in response to a protest outside the News Corp. building. Hikind warned other movie companies that "they should not distribute this film. This is unhealthy for Jews all over the world."
A joint committee of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Department of Inter-religious Affairs of the
Anti-Defamation LeagueThe Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
obtained a version of the script before it was released in theaters. They released a statement, calling it
one of the most troublesome texts, relative to anti-Semitic potential, that any of us had seen in twenty-five years. It must be emphasized that the main storyline presented Jesus as having been relentlessly pursued by an evil cabal of Jews, headed by the high priest CaiaphasJoseph, son of Caiaphas, Hebrew יוסף בַּר קַיָּפָא or Yosef Bar Kayafa, commonly known simply as Caiaphas in the New Testament, was the Roman-appointed Jewish high priest who is said to have organized the plot to kill Jesus...
, who finally blackmailIn common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
ed a weak-kneed PilatePontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...
into putting Jesus to death. This is precisely the storyline that fueled centuries of anti-Semitism within Christian societies. This is also a storyline rejected by the Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
at Vatican II in its document Nostra AetateNostra Aetate is the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council. Passed by a vote of 2,221 to 88 of the assembled bishops, this declaration was promulgated on October 28, 1965, by Pope Paul VI.The first draft, entitled "Decretum de...
, and by nearly all mainline Protestant churches in parallel documents . . . . Unless this basic storyline has been altered by Mr. Gibson, a fringe Catholic who is building his own church in the Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
area and who apparently accepts neither the teachings of Vatican II nor modern biblical scholarship, The Passion of the Christ retains a real potential for undermining the repudiation of classical Christian anti-Semitism by the churches in the last forty years.
The ADL itself also released a statement about the yet to be released movie:
For filmmakers to do justice to the biblical accounts of the passion, they must complement their artistic vision with sound scholarship, which includes knowledge of how the passion accounts have been used historically to disparage and attack Jews and Judaism. Absent such scholarly and theological understanding, productions such as The Passion could likely falsify history and fuel the animus of those who hate Jews.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the head of the
Toward TraditionToward Tradition is a politically conservative non-profit organization founded by Rabbi Daniel Lapin based in Mercer Island, Washington, United States...
organisation, criticized this statement, and said of Foxman, the head of the ADL, "what he is saying is that the only way to escape the wrath of Foxman is to repudiate your faith."
In
The NationThe Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, reviewer
Katha PollittKatha Pollitt is an American feminist poet, essayist and critic. She is the author of four essay collections and two books of poetry...
said, "Gibson has violated just about every precept of the (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) conference's own 1988 "Criteria" for the portrayal of Jews in dramatizations of the Passion (no bloodthirsty Jews, no rabble, no use of Scripture that reinforces negative stereotypes of Jews, etc.) ... The priests have big noses and gnarly faces, lumpish bodies, yellow teeth;
Herod AntipasHerod Antipater , known by the nickname Antipas, was a 1st-century AD ruler of Galilee and Perea, who bore the title of tetrarch...
and his court are a bizarre collection of oily-haired,
epiceneEpicene is an adjective for loss of gender distinction, often specific loss of masculinity. It includes:* effeminacy — a man with characteristics that are traditionally feminine...
perverts. The "good Jews" look like Italian movie stars (Italian sex symbol
Monica BellucciMonica Anna Maria Bellucci is an Italian actress and fashion model.-Early life:Bellucci was born in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy as the only child of Luigi Bellucci, who was born in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, East Pakistan...
is
Mary MagdaleneMary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
); Mary, who would have been around 50 and appeared 70, could pass for a ripe 35." Jesuit priest Fr.
William FulcoThe Reverend William J. Fulco, S.J. is a Jesuit priest and National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California in the United States....
, S.J., of
Loyola Marymount UniversityLoyola Marymount University is a comprehensive co-educational private Roman Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions located in Los Angeles, California, United States...
– and the film's
AramaicAramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
dialogue translator – specifically disagreed with that assessment, and disagreed with concerns that the film accused the Jewish community of
deicideDeicide is the killing of a god. The term deicide was coined in the 17th century from medieval Latin *deicidium, from de-us "god" and -cidium "cutting, killing")...
.
One specific scene in the movie perceived as an example of anti-Semitism was in the dialogue of Caiaphas, when he states "His blood [is] on us and on our children!", a quote historically interpreted by some as a curse taken upon by the Jewish people. Certain Jewish groups asked this be removed from the film. However, only the subtitles were removed; the original dialogue remains in the Aramaic soundtrack.
When asked about this scene, Gibson said, "I wanted it in. My brother said I was wimping out if I didn't include it. But, man, if I included that in there, they'd be coming after me at my house. They'd come to kill me." In another interview when asked about the scene, he said, "It's one little passage, and I believe it, but I don't and never have believed it refers to Jews, and implicates them in any sort of curse. It's directed at all of us, all men who were there, and all that came after. His blood is on us, and that's what Jesus wanted. But I finally had to admit that one of the reasons I felt strongly about keeping it, aside from the fact it's true, is that I didn't want to let someone else dictate what could or couldn't be said."
In the
New RepublicThe magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, Leon Wieseltier said: "In its representation of its Jewish characters,
The Passion of the Christ is without any doubt an anti-Semitic movie, and anybody who says otherwise knows nothing, or chooses to know nothing, about the visual history of anti-Semitism, in art and in film. What is so shocking about Gibson's Jews is how unreconstructed they are in their stereotypical appearances and actions. These are not merely anti-Semitic images; these are classically anti-Semitic images."
Asked by Bill O'Reilly if his movie would "upset Jews", Gibson responded, "It's not meant to. I think it's meant to just tell the truth. I want to be as truthful as possible." In a
Globe and Mail newspaper interview, he added, "If anyone has distorted Gospel passages to rationalize cruelty towards Jews or anyone, it's in defiance of repeated Papal condemnation. The Papacy has condemned
racismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
in any form... Jesus died for the sins of all times, and I'll be the first on the line for culpability".
Conservative columnist
Cal ThomasJohn Calvin "Cal" Thomas is an American conservative syndicated columnist, pundit, author and radio commentator.-Life and career:...
also tried to dispel the allegations of anti-Semitism, saying "To those in the Jewish community who worry that the film, which is scheduled for release next Easter season, might contain anti-Semitic elements, or encourage people to persecute Jews, fear not. The film does not indict Jews for the death of Jesus." Two Orthodox Jews, Rabbi Daniel Lapin and conservative talk-show host and author
Michael MedvedMichael Medved is an American radio host, author, political commentator and film critic. His Seattle, Washington-based nationally syndicated talk show, The Michael Medved Show, airs throughout the U.S...
, also vocally rejected claims that the film is anti-Semitic. They have noted the film's many sympathetic portrayals of Jews:
Simon of CyreneSimon of Cyrene was the man compelled by the Romans to carry the cross of Jesus as Jesus was taken to his crucifixion, according to all three Synoptic Gospels...
(who helps Jesus carry the cross),
Mary MagdaleneMary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
, the Virgin Mary, St. Peter,
St. JohnSaint John the Evangelist is the conventional name for the author of the Gospel of John...
, Veronica (who wipes Jesus' face and offers him water), and several Jewish priests who protest Jesus' arrest during
Caiaphas's trial of JesusThe Sanhedrin trial of Jesus refers to the Canonical Gospel accounts of the trial of Jesus before the Jewish Council, or Sanhedrin, following his arrest and prior to his trial before Pontius Pilate...
.
Bob Smithouser of Plugged in Online believed that film was trying to convey the evils and sins of humanity rather than specifically targeting Jews, stating "The anthropomorphic portrayal of Satan as a player in these events brilliantly pulls the proceedings into the supernatural realm – a fact that should have quelled the much-publicized cries of anti-Semitism since it shows a diabolical force at work beyond any political and religious agendas of the Jews and Romans."
Moreover, Senior Vatican officer Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, who has seen the film, addressed the matter so:
Anti-Semitism, like all forms of racism, distorts the truth in order to put a whole race of people in a bad light. This film does nothing of the sort. It draws out from the historical objectivity of the Gospel narratives sentiments of forgiveness, mercy, and reconciliation. It captures the subtleties and the horror of sin, as well as the gentle power of love and forgiveness, without making or insinuating blanket condemnations against one group. This film expressed the exact opposite, that learning from the example of Christ, there should never be any more violence against any other human being.
Allegation of excessive violence
Several critics were troubled by the film's explicitly detailed violence, and especially cautioned parents to avoid taking their children to the cinema. Although only one sentence in three of the Gospels mentions
Jesus's floggingThe Flagellation of Christ, sometimes known as Christ at the Column or the Scourging at the Pillar, is a scene from the Passion of Christ very frequently shown in Christian art, in cycles of the Passion or the larger subject of the Life of Christ. It is the fourth station of the modern alternate...
, and it is unmentioned in the fourth,
The Passion of the Christ devotes ten minutes to the portrayal of the flogging. Film critic
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, who rated the movie four-out-of-four stars, said in his review:
The movie is 126 minutes long, and I would guess that at least 100 of those minutes, maybe more, are concerned specifically and graphically with the details of the torture and death of Jesus. This is the most violent film I have ever seen.
Ebert also mentioned that the R-rated film merits the MPAA NC-17 rating in a "Movie Answer Man" response, adding that no level-minded parent should ever allow children to see it.
A. O. ScottAnthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
, in
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, said, "'The Passion of the Christ' is so relentlessly focused on the savagery of Jesus' final hours that this film seems to arise less from love than from wrath, and to succeed more in assaulting the spirit than in uplifting it."
David EdelsteinDavid Edelstein is the chief film critic for New York Magazine, as well as the film critic for NPR's Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning. He lives in Brooklyn, New York....
,
Slate's film critic, dubbed the film "a two-hour-and-six-minute
snuff movieA snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...
–
The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre – that thinks it's an act of faith", and further criticised Gibson for focusing on the brutality of Jesus' execution, instead of his religious teachings.
During
Diane SawyerLila Diane Sawyer is the current anchor of ABC News' flagship program, ABC World News. Previously, Sawyer had been co-anchor of ABC Newss morning news program, Good Morning America ....
's interview of him, Gibson said:
I wanted it to be shocking; and I wanted it to be extreme ... So that they see the enormity – the enormity of that sacrifice; to see that someone could endure that and still come back with love and forgiveness, even through extreme pain and suffering and ridicule. The actual crucifixion was more violent than what was shown on the film, but I thought no one would get anything out of it.
Response from evangelicals
The Passion of the Christ received support and endorsement from most known evangelical leaders and representatives of USA's conservative church organizations:
Billy GrahamWilliam Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
,
James DobsonJames Clayton "Jim" Dobson, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian author, psychologist, and founder in 1977 of Focus on the Family , which he led until 2003. In the 1980s he was ranked as one of the most influential spokesman for conservative social positions in American public life...
, Mission America Coalition,
Salvation ArmyThe Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
,
Promise KeepersPromise Keepers is an international conservative Christian organization for men. While it originated in the United States, it is now world-wide...
,
National Association of EvangelicalsThe National Association of Evangelicals is a fellowship of member denominations, churches, organizations, and individuals. Its goal is to honor God by connecting and representing evangelicals in the United States. Today it works in four main areas: Church & Faith Partners, Government Relations,...
,
Campus Crusade for ChristCampus Crusade for Christ is an interdenominational Christian organization that promotes evangelism and discipleship in more than 190 countries...
,
Focus on the FamilyFocus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...
,
Pat RobertsonMarion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a media mogul, television evangelist, ex-Baptist minister and businessman who is politically aligned with the Christian Right in the United States....
,
Southern Baptist Theological SeminaryThe Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , located in Louisville, Kentucky, is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention . The seminary was founded in 1859, at Greenville, South Carolina. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to Louisville...
,
Trinity Broadcasting NetworkThe Trinity Broadcasting Network is a major American Christian television network. TBN is based in Costa Mesa, California, with auxiliary studio facilities in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New...
,
Rick WarrenRichard Duane "Rick" Warren is an American evangelical Christian minister and author. He is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, currently the eighth-largest church in the United States...
,
Southern Baptist ConventionThe Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...
,
Jerry FalwellJerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
,
Max LucadoMax Lucado is a best-selling author and writer and preacher at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas...
,
Young LifeYoungLife is a worldwide, non-profit, Evangelical Christian organization. YoungLife consists of many branches of ministry , but most commonly the name "YoungLife" refers to the outreach arm of the organization directed toward high school students...
,
Tim LaHayeTimothy F. LaHaye is an American evangelical Christian minister, author, and speaker. He is best known for the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction, which he co-wrote with Jerry B. Jenkins. He has written over 50 books, both fiction and non-fiction.-Early life:LaHaye was born in Detroit,...
, Chuck Colson,
Lee StrobelLee Patrick Strobel is a writer, creationist, former journalist and former megachurch pastor. He is the author of several books, including four which received ECPA Christian Book Awards and a series which addresses challenges to a Biblically inerrant view of Christianity...
,
Northern Baptist Theological SeminaryNorthern Baptist Theological Seminary is a seminary located in Lombard, Illinois, USA, near Chicago. It was founded in 1913 by the Second Baptist Church of Chicago to prepare students for church leadership, and it continues to represent a theologically conservative alternative within its...
, Mothers of Pre-Schoolers (MOPS). The
United Methodist ChurchThe United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
stated that many of its members, like other Christians, felt that the movie was a good way to evangelize non-believers. As a result, many congregations planned to be at the theaters, some of whom set up tables to answer questions and share
prayersPrayer has been an essential part of Christianity since its earliest days. Prayer is an integral element of the Christian faith and permeates all forms of Christian worship...
.
Accolades
Wins
- National Board of Review, Award for Freedom of Expression (2004)
- People's Choice Awards
The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show recognizing the people and the work of popular culture. The show has been held annually since 1975 and is voted on by the general public. The People's Choice Awards air on CBS and are produced by Procter & Gamble and Survivor magnate Mark Burnett...
– Favorite Motion Picture Drama (2004)
- Satellite Awards
The Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama...
– Best DirectorThe Satellite Award for Best Director is one of the annual Satellite Awards given by the International Press Academy.- 1990s :- 2000s :- 2010s :...
– Mel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
- Moviefone
Moviefone is an American-based movie listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, theatre information, film reviews, or advance tickets...
Moviegoer Awards – Best Picture
- Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy Award
EMMA is an Organization which raises awareness of discrimination through media campaigns, social networking, and the EMMA Awards....
– Best Film Production
- Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy Award
EMMA is an Organization which raises awareness of discrimination through media campaigns, social networking, and the EMMA Awards....
– Best Film Actress – Maia MorgensternMaia Morgenstern is a Romanian film and stage actress, described by Florin Mitu of AMOS News as "a symbol of Romanian theater and film". In the English-speaking world, she is probably best known for the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ...
- Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA, Golden Reel Award
Founded in 1953, Motion Picture Sound Editors is an honorary society of motion picture sound editors. The society's goals are to educate others about and increase the recognition of the sound editors, show the artistic merit of the soundtracks, and improve the professional relationship of its...
– Best Sound Editing in a Feature Film – Music – Michael T. Ryan
- Golden Knight Film Festival – Grand Prix – Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
- Golden Knight Film Festival – Best Actor – Hristo Shopov
Hristo Naumov Shopov is a Bulgarian actor. Shopov's father, Naum Shopov, is a famous Bulgarian actor as well.He is most noted for his portrayal of Pontius Pilate in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. He has become one of Bulgaria's most successful actors, making his debut in 1981 with...
- ShoWest / USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
/ Coca-ColaCoca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
– Consumers Choice for Favorite Movie Award
- American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers –ASCAP Henry Mancini Award – John Debney
John C. Debney is an American film composer. He received an Academy Award nomination for his score for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ...
- Hollywood Film Festival
The Hollywood Film Festival is an annual Film festival which is located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Festival was established in 1997 by Carlos de Abreu and his wife, model Janice Pennington....
, USA – Hollywood Producer of the Year – Mel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
- Catholics in Media Associates – Film Award – Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
- Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain – Best Foreign Film
- GMA Dove Award, The Passion of the Christ Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Instrumental Album of the Year (2004)
Nominations
- Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
, USA – Oscar for Academy Award for Best CinematographyThe Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
(2004) – Caleb DeschanelJoseph Caleb Deschanel, A.S.C. is an American film cinematographer and film/television director.-Early life:Deschanel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a French father and an American mother, who raised him in her Quaker religion. He went to Severn School for high school...
- Academy Awards, USA – Oscar for Best Makeup
The Academy Award for Best Makeup is the Oscar given to the best achievement in makeup for film. Usually, only three films are nominated each year rather than five as in most categories...
(2004) – Keith VanderlaanKeith VanderLaan was nominated for an Academy Award for Makeup for his work in The Passion of the Christ .-External links:...
, Christien TinsleyChristien Tinsley is a make-up artist. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Makeup for his work in The Passion of the Christ . He won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 2008 "for the creation of the transfer techniques for creating and applying 2D and 3D makeup known as Tinsley...
- Academy Awards, USA – Oscar for Best Original Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
(2004) – John DebneyJohn C. Debney is an American film composer. He received an Academy Award nomination for his score for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ...
- American Society of Cinematographers
The American Society of Cinematographers is an educational, cultural, and professional organization. It is not a labor union, and it is not a guild. Membership is by invitation and is extended only to directors of photography and special effects experts with distinguished credits in the film...
, USA – ASC Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases (2004) – Caleb DeschanelJoseph Caleb Deschanel, A.S.C. is an American film cinematographer and film/television director.-Early life:Deschanel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a French father and an American mother, who raised him in her Quaker religion. He went to Severn School for high school...
- Motion Picture Sound Editors
Founded in 1953, Motion Picture Sound Editors is an honorary society of motion picture sound editors. The society's goals are to educate others about and increase the recognition of the sound editors, show the artistic merit of the soundtracks, and improve the professional relationship of its...
Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing for Music in a Feature Film (2004)
- Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards
The Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, commonly called the Critics' Choice Awards, are bestowed annually by the Broadcast Film Critics Association to honor the finest in cinematic achievement. Nominees are selected by written ballots in a week-long voting period, and are announced in...
– BFCA Award for Best Popular Movie (2004)
- Irish Film and Television Awards
The Irish Film and Television Awards were first awarded in 2003. Its sole aim is to celebrate Ireland's notably talented film and television community...
– Jameson People's Choice Award for Best International Film
- Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA, Golden Reel Award
Founded in 1953, Motion Picture Sound Editors is an honorary society of motion picture sound editors. The society's goals are to educate others about and increase the recognition of the sound editors, show the artistic merit of the soundtracks, and improve the professional relationship of its...
– Best Sound Editing in Domestic Features – Dialogue & ADR
- MTV Movie Awards
The MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV . It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. The nominees are decided by producers and executives at MTV. Winners are decided online by the general...
– Best male performance – James CaviezelJames Patrick Caviezel, Jr. is an American film actor, usually credited as Jim Caviezel. He is known for the roles of Jesus Christ in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, Bobby Jones in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, Detective John Sullivan in Frequency, Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte...
See also
- Cultural depictions of Jesus
Jesus has inspired artistic and cultural works for nearly two millennia. The following lists cover various media to include items of historic interest, enduring works of high art, and recent representations in popular culture. These entries represent portrayals that a reader has a reasonable...
- Saint Mary
Saint Mary is a film from Islamic Republic of Iran by Iranian director Shahriar Bahrani released in 2007, depicting the life of Mary mother of Jesus from classical Islamic readings....
- The Messiah
Mesih, more commonly and officially referred to as The Messiah, but also referred to as 'Jesus', "Good Tidings of the Savior" in Persian, 'Jesus, the Spirit of God', 'Messia' is a 2008 film from the Islamic Republic of Iran, directed by Nader Talebzadeh, depicting the life of Jesus from an...
- The Passion
The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
- "The Passion of the Jew
"The Passion of the Jew" is episode 114 of the Comedy Central series South Park and was originally broadcast on March 31, 2004. The episode is a satire of the movie The Passion of the Christ, which was released in 2004.- Plot :...
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