I know this is a bit out of time for a movie that came out several years ago, but like the "Left Behind" series of books it is impossible to gloss over the vast importance that Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ contributed to the way that fundamentalist christians see their relationship to Jesus. In reality, this movie is a cheap torture porn horror movie that is meant to artificially create a reason to show a massive amount of blood and gore, then convince you that the inevitable feeling of uneasiness in your stomach is a religious experience. The Passion is not a religious movie, it is a high budget propaganda film that should have been more aptly called, Let's Kick the Shit Out of Jesus for a Couple Hours.
When I first saw the movie, it produced two specific lines of thought in my head. The first was that this was just a bloody spectacle for the purpose of shocking people and making money. The second was that I was secretly was pining to see Mel Gibson make other favorite religious stories into meaninlessly graffic cinematic adventures. I am particularly looking forward to his remake of Sodom & Gomorrah. I think his Mad-Max flair can make an amazing scene where Lot's daughters rape him, that will look great with a few dozen pints of stage blood and an IMAX lens.
As I have said, the complete idea of the movie was to gross people out. The zietgeist of the nation would convince the masses that this normal negative reaction to seeing so much blood and a graphic portrayal of what would have been a relatively routine state execution should be interpreted as a movement of faith. It is not. If you see the movie and think you are having a religious experience by getting to know the story of Christ better, then you have been fooled into their trap. This is a cheap version of Saw or Hostel, only with a 2000 year old half-cocked plot meant to make money.
While we are discussing this abomination of a movie, there are a couple other obvious errors I would like to briefly discuss. Since the point of the movie was to be as "authentic" as possible to the time and story, these errors are particualrly disconcerting.
First, the Roman soldiers in the moive, including the Prefect Pilate, were speaking Latin--this did not happen until many decades later. The Romans at this time spoke Greek. Considering all the work this movie went through to portray the Judeans as speaking Aramaic, it is unusual that they made this large of an error.
Second, one of the main style aspects of the movie was the brutal beating of Jesus. While the lashes would have been horrible (and are enumerated at 39 likely in accordance with the Bible's numerology such that 40 would have killed him; not a literal 39), there is no reason to beleive that the soldiers would have beat him the way that they did. Remember, there were 3 people being executed that day, and if you remember the movie, the other 2 arrive at Golgatha mostly untouched. Keep in mind that the soldiers moivng him from the court to the execution site are never told that this prisoner is to be beaten more, nor do they even speak his language and know who he is. This element as well was invented to make the movie more interesting.
Usually reviews like this are meant to carry the implication that one should not see the movie being reveiwed; this is not the case for this particular film. For those interested in these types of social interactions with people of extreme faith, it is good to know where they are coming from and in what frame of mind they make their key decisions. Just don't fall into the trap of thinking anything like this ever actually happened.
P.S. - The "tear from God" thing was really corny and I laughed aloud in the theatre; that didn't go over well. Just a warning.
