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The Passion of the Christ
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The Passion of the Christ is a 2004 film co-written, co-produced and directed by Mel Gibson. It is based on Catholic accounts of the arrest, trial, torture, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, events commonly known as "The Passion". The film was rated R by the MPAA for "sequences of graphic violence." The film’s dialogue is in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew, with subtitles. It is the highest grossing non-English language film and the most successful R-rated film in the United States.
film opens in Gethsemane in medias res as Jesus prays and is tempted by Satan, while his apostles, Peter, James, and John sleep.
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The Passion of the Christ is a 2004 film co-written, co-produced and directed by Mel Gibson. It is based on Catholic accounts of the arrest, trial, torture, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, events commonly known as "The Passion". The film was rated R by the MPAA for "sequences of graphic violence." The film’s dialogue is in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew, with subtitles. It is the highest grossing non-English language film and the most successful R-rated film in the United States.
Plot
The film opens in Gethsemane in medias res as Jesus prays and is tempted by Satan, while his apostles, Peter, James, and John sleep. After receiving thirty pieces of silver, one of Jesus' other apostles, Judas Iscariot, approaches with the temple guard and betrays Jesus with a kiss. Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus, but Jesus heals the ear. The temple guard arrest Jesus and the apostles flee. John tells Mary and Mary Magdalene of the arrest, and Peter follows Jesus at a distance. Caiaphas holds a trial of Jesus 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", which to Caiaphas justifies the charge of blasphemy, and Jesus is condemned to death. Three times Peter denies knowing Jesus, and the remorseful Judas returns the money. Tormented by demons, Judas flees the city and hangs himself with a rope from a dead donkey. Crows fly down and peck his eyes out, and eat them.
Caiaphas brings Jesus before Pontius Pilate to be condemned to death, but after questioning Jesus, Pilate sends him instead to the court of Herod Antipas, as Jesus is from Herod's ruling town of Nazareth. After Jesus is returned, Pilate offers the crowd that he will chastise Jesus and will be set free. Jesus is viciously scourged but the people still demand Jesus to be crucified. Though, Pilate gives the people an option of freeing Jesus or Barabbas. When Barabbas is chosen, Jesus is sentenced to be crucified. As Jesus carries the cross along the Via Dolorosa to Calvary, Veronica wipes Jesus's face with her veil. Simon of Cyrene is unwillingly pressed into carrying the cross for Jesus. Jesus is crucified, and after his death, a single drop of rain falls from the sky. Jesus is lowered from the cross to his mother Mary, who looks directly at the audience in this Pietà. The movie ends with Jesus's resurrection and exit from the tomb, with the holes in his hands from the nails visible as he walks.
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 Him there]."
Source material
New Testament
According to director Mel Gibson, the primary source material for The Passion of the Christ is the four Gospel narratives of Christ's passion. The film also draws from other parts of the New Testament. The line spoken by Jesus, "Behold Mother, I make all things new," is taken from the Book of Revelation.
Old Testament
The Passion of the Christ also references the Old Testament. The film begins with an epigraph from the Fourth Song of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah. 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 Psalms, beyond the instances recorded in the New Testament.
Traditional iconography and stories
Many of the depictions in The Passion of the Christ deliberately mirror traditional representations of the Passion in art. For example, the fourteen Stations of the Cross are central to the depiction of the Via Dolorosa 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).
Early in the film, Mary quotes from the Passover Seder, "Why is this night different than other nights?", and Mary Magdalene replies with the traditional response: "Because once we were slaves and we are slaves no longer".
The conflation of Mary Magdalene with the adulteress saved from stoning by Jesus has some precedent in tradition but according to the director was done for dramatic reasons. 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 Gestas).
Catholic devotional writings
Screenwriters Mel Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald said that they read many accounts of Christ's passion for inspiration, including the devotional writings of Catholic mystics. A principal source is The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ the meditations of the stigmatic, German nun Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824), as told to the poet Clemens Brentano. Elements taken from Emmerich include the suspension of Jesus from a bridge after his arrest by the Temple guards, 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 for the nail. A second source mentioned was The Mystical City of God by Maria de Agreda (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 Passion. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus converses with the devil and crushes a serpent beneath his heel; this does not occur in any of the gospels. In another example, Judas Iscariot is tormented by demons who appear as children to him. The film also gives focus to the fragile relationship of Tiberius Caesar with Pontius Pilate through Pilate's discussion with his wife about imperial orders to avert further Judean revolts. The movie clearly identifies Simon of Cyrene as Jewish although the Synoptic Gospels provide only his name and place of origin. In the film, a Roman soldier derides Simon of Cyrene (who helped Jesus bear the cross) by derisively calling him Jew. In contrast, Simon of Cyrene is described as a pagan in The Dolorious Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Other scenes unique to The Passion of the Christ include when the crucified thief who taunted Jesus has his eye pecked out by a crow. The flashback of the carpenter Jesus building an elevated, four-legged table for a Roman is also particular to this film. The scene of Satan carrying a Demon baby during Christ’s flogging has been construed as a perverse mockery 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."
Production
Script and language
Gibson originally announced that he would use two dead languages without subtitles and rely on "filmic storytelling." Because the story of the Passion is so well-known, Gibson felt the need to avoid vernacular languages in order to surprise audiences: "I think it's almost counterproductive to say some of these things in a modern language. 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 English by Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald, then translated by William Fulco, S.J. into Latin, reconstructed Aramaic, and Hebrew. Gibson chose to use Latin instead of Greek so that the audience could easily distinguish between the sound of Italianate Latin 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 movie was filmed in Italy, specifically in Matera and Craco (Basilicata) and Cinecittà Studios, Rome. Gibson consulted several theological advisors during filming, including Fr. Jonathan Morris, who would later go on to become a news analyst and contributor. During filming, assistant director Jan Michelini was struck twice by lightning. The second time this happened, the lightning bolt also hit James Caviezel.
Post-production
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 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 Angeles they think I am insane, and maybe I am." Gibson and his Icon Productions 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 Fox 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 Films.
Gibson departed from the usual film marketing formula. He employed a small-scale television advertising campaign, 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.
Theatrical release
Domestic release
The movie opened in the United States on February 25, 2004 (Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent). 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, ranking it 12th in all-time domestic earnings, and the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time in North America.
International release
Government censorship
The movie was banned in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. In Malaysia, government censors 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 Israel the film was not banned, despite the call from some ultra-Orthodox rabbis and left-leaning political parties to do so. 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, ranking it #41 for all-time worldwide grosses, and #2 for an R rated movie, behind The Matrix Reloaded (a film it eclipsed by some $80 million domestically). The movie was also a large success in certain countries with large Muslim populations, such as in Egypt, where it ranked 20th overall in their 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 America 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 video
On August 31, 2004, the film was released on DVD, VHS, and later D-VHS 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 VHS tape with English subtitles. On February 17, 2009, the film was released on Blu-ray in North America as a two-disc Definitive Edition set.
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 edition would be released. On 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 documentaries, soundtrack commentaries, deleted scenes, outtakes, the 2005 re-edited version, and the original 2004 theatrical version.
Critical reviews
The film received generally mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 50 percent of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 260 reviews total; with the consensus that "the graphic details of Jesus' torture make the movie tough to sit through and obscure whatever message it is trying to convey." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 47 out of 100, based on 43 reviews.
Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars.
The June 2006 issue of Entertainment Weekly named The Passion of the Christ the most controversial film of all time, followed by Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange.
Controversies surrounding the film
Questions of historical accuracy
Paula Fredriksen criticized the historical accuracy of the film, saying, "The point of Gibson's errors is not that they are there, but that they give the lie to Gibson's strident assertions of historical accuracy." However, biblical scholar Mark Goodacre protested that he could not find one documented example of Gibson explicitly claiming the film to be historically accurate. In fact, Gibson had 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."
Promotional screenings
Gibson was criticized for holding private screenings for prominent, politically and socially conservative Christian and Jewish religious leaders; yet seemingly refusing to include those who had already criticized the film, such as Abraham Foxman.
Disputed papal endorsement
In early December 2003, Passion of the Christ co-producer Stephen McEveety provided the film to Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's secretary. 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 Noonan reported that John Paul II had said: "It is as it was," sourcing McEveety, who said he heard it from Dziwisz. National Catholic Reporter journalist John Allen published a similar account on the same day, quoting an unnamed senior Vatican official. The following day, Reuters and the Associated Press each independently confirmed the story, citing Vatican sources. On December 24, an anonymous Vatican official told Catholic News Service, "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 Rich 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 the Dziwisz wielded too much influence over the pope. The next day 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 Productions 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 Dreher 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 Times reported that they had previously confirmed the accuracy of the quote from Navarro-Valls when the story first broke. On CNN, John Allen 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 allegations of anti-Semitic content in the movie. 20th Century Fox told New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind 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 League 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 Caiaphas, who finally blackmailed a weak-kneed Pilate 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 Church at Vatican II in its document Nostra Aetate, 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 Angeles 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 South African-born head of the Toward Tradition 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 Nation, reviewer Katha Pollitt 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 Antipas and his court are a bizarre collection of oily-haired, epicene perverts. The "good Jews" look like Italian movie stars (Italian sex symbol Monica Bellucci is Mary Magdalene); Mary, who would have been around 50 and appeared 70, could pass for a ripe 35." Jesuit priest Fr. William Fulco, S.J., of Loyola Marymount University — and the film's Aramaic dialogue translator — specifically disagreed with that assessment, and disagreed with concerns that the film accused the Jewish community of Deicide.
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 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 Republic, 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 racism in any form... Jesus died for the sins of all times, and I'll be the first on the line for culpability".
Movie reviewer Cal Thomas 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 Michael Medved also vocally rejected claims that the film is anti-Semitic. They have noted the film's many sympathetic portrayals of Jews: Simon of Cyrene (who helps Jesus carry the cross), Mary Magdalene, the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, St. John and Veronica (who wipes Jesus' face and offers him water).
Moreover, Senior Vatican officer Darío Cardinal 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.
Criticism of excessive violence
Certain 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 flogging, and it is unmentioned in the fourth, The Passion of the Christ devotes ten minutes to the portrayal of the flogging. Film critic Roger Ebert, 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. Scott, in The New York Times, 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 Edelstein, Slate's film critic, dubbed the film "a two-hour-and-six-minute snuff movie — 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 Sawyer'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 Protestants
Fundamentalist Protestant groups criticised the film for its Catholic and ecumenical overtones, especially the addition of noncanonical scenes of Jesus with his mother (which they say encourages Mariolatry).
Pop culture references
The Passion of the Christ and the controversy surrounding it have been repeatedly referenced, on several television programs.
In the South Park episode "The Passion of the Jew", Eric Cartman uses the film's popularity to preach a Final Solution to devout Christians who have no idea of what he is talking about (he makes anti-Semitic speeches in German that the Christians mistake for Aramaic). Meanwhile, Stan Marsh and Kenny McCormick watch The Passion and refer to it as "a snuff film". They launch into a quest to find Mel Gibson and get their money back. In the end, Cartman is humiliated and Gibson comes across as insane, to the point where Kyle states "I don't know why I was worried about a movie directed by THAT guy".
In the Family Guy episode "North by North Quahog", Peter Griffin steals the negatives for the sequel The Passion of the Christ 2: Crucify This, citing his hope to save the world from two hours of "Mel Gibson/Jesus Mumbo-Jumbo". He is subsequently chased by Mel Gibson in a parody of the Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest.
In the Drawn Together episode "The One Wherein There Is a Big Twist", Princess Clara produces a blatantly anti-Semitic film depiction of Christ's crucifixion (Jewish caricatures are shown whipping a cross-bearing Christ), parodying the anti-Semitic controversy surrounding The Passion of the Christ.
G4's X-Play has parodied the film in the form of an advertisement for a sequel, entitled "Passion of the Christ 2: Judgment Day," in which Jesus is portrayed as a vengeful killer.
Though not referenced directly, The Simpsons episode "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass" has Marge Simpson criticizing Ned Flanders' highly acclaimed movies based on Biblical stories due to their graphic violence. This parallels The Passion being criticized for using the Bible to show violence to its audience a year earlier; one of Ned's movies is called "The Passion of Cain and Abel" and the title's font is the same as that on TPOTC's poster. Another episode, "Pranksta Rap", briefly shows a parody, entitled "The Salad of the Christ" with a Jesus-tomato being violently whipped by Roman centurion-carrots.
Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan remarked on the controversy surrounding the film in his "Cracked" show of 2004 saying "This movie has gotten into a lot of trouble for saying that the Jews killed Jesus. Well, it wasn't the Mexicans!"
The English author Howard Jacobson, in the Channel 4 documentary Christianity: A History, alluded to the film and its controversy while looking the early history of Christianity.
Awards
The film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Original Score (music), Best Cinematography, and Best Makeup; but did not win any of the three awards.
Cast
Music
Three CDs were released with Mel Gibson's co-operation: (i) the film soundtrack of John Debney's original orchestral score conducted by Nick Ingman; (ii) The Passion of the Christ: Songs, by producers Mark Joseph and Tim Cook, with original compositions by various artists, and (iii) the eponymously-titled The Passion of the Christ: Songs Inspired By.
A preliminary score was composed and recorded by Lisa Gerrard and Patrick Cassidy, but was incomplete at film's release. Jack Lenz was the primary musical researcher and one of the composers; several clips of his compositions have been posted online..
See also
External links
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