[Pyro7480]

It was John Derbeyshire on National Review Online's 'The Corner' that linked me to this article. He said, "No, haven't seen The Passion yet, and likely won't be. I have a suspicion that if I DO see it, my reaction will be close to this guy's," linking to the article. I've seen similar screeds like this on FR over the past few days. Is this really how some Christians are reacting to this movie?

[Reelect President Dubya]

In fact, I have never before wanted to enjoy a movie so much.

"Enjoy" a crucifixion?

It's evident who the real barbarian is.

[Puppage]

I said that I was extraordinarily optimistic

Are you also an extraordinary atheist?

[over3Owithabrain]

I trust my own judgment more than anyone else's, excluding perhaps my wife. We both saw it and didn't feel at all like this writer. The movie is well made, and Jesus and His love is fittingly the focus. The flashback scenes add far more than what is being reported. Of course there are stylistic interpretations by Gibson as with any movie. But it does the Gospel account total justice. It is not a feel-good Jesus smiling and handing out flowers movie, it's not supposed to be.

[Thane_Banquo]

I think people don't realize how barbaric the original crucifixion was. So when liberals see this, they naively assume it wasn't as gory as Gibson made it out to be.

Truth is, it was probably gorier. And people need to know the true brutality of the crucifixion to fully appreciate the Gift they have been given.

[Rodney King]

It is also so, well, so anti-humanity Yes it is. Exactly.

[Jaded]

Most of the review is the same as 75% of the others. Except that line about: The flashbacks seem, with one touching exception depicting Jesus as a child, to be mere attempts to push Catholic eucharistic theology onto the audience. The eucharistic theology part was in the gospels. So is divide and conquer the new approach from the media?

[biblewonk]

--snip--Everyone is gruesome and grotesque, apart from a handful of people such as the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and the apostle John. Mary, by the way, is hardly off of the screen, when in fact she is seldom mentioned in the Gospel accounts.

I expected this.

[biblewonk]

--snip--I suppose we should not be surprised. Gibson made Braveheart and The Patriot, with all of their disembowelings, throat cuttings and, of course, massive historical absurdities. Somehow I thought he'd be more sophisticated with something this important.

Another part of our lunch break conversation.

[biblewonk]

Hollywood tends to make "Rocky" style violence. The blows that Rocky and whoever exchanged would have individually stopped any fight but they do 10 rounds worth. The human body in Hollywood is able to withstand unlimited punishment. I don't intend to see the movie.

[MissNomer]

While I haven't seen the movie yet (planning to tomorrow night), from what I've heard from those who have, I don't believe I will agree with this reviewer. However, I was deeply impressed by the following:

"We would have crucified Him. We would crucify Him. You, me, us. We'd smile, be tolerant and loving, do the right thing as we see it, and crucify Him. Then go home to hug our children and talk about how bad the world had become."

I think there's a lot of truth in this one quote, apart from its relationship to the review. Reminds me of the C.S. Lewis quote about busybodies and oh-so-compassionate liberal types persecuting others "with the approval of their own conscience."

All this notwithstanding, the point to be taken from this movie and the Gospels is that it's not about what people did or would do. It's about what He did for us.

[hosepipe]

Crucifixion ain't nice, the sword in the side was a blessing..
Crucifixion ends your life by lack of being able to breathe.
after almost unbelieveable torture before...

Romans we're not nice people and nether we're the Sanhedrin.. Feeding chistians too tigers and lions was mericiful in comparison.. Even Nero when he dipped christians into wax with a wick and burned them like candles (set on a pole) at his orgys was not as painful...

The price Jesus paid is all that more precious is the point of the movie.. Geese, you buy them books they eat the pages... or use the paper for other puposes..

[kimoajax]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. While we may all have read and heard that "Greater love has no man than that he lay down his life for another," it is not all that surprising that a realistic picture of the gravity of those words would tend to make one feel just a bit uncomfortable if not naked....exposing the more sanitized fairytale veiws of the meaning of Christ as useless fig leaves.

[Rennes Templar]

"Herod is some cross-dressing lunatic, the Pharisee leaders, some of the brightest men of the age, are all obscene brutes and the Roman soldiers and the mob resemble crazed gargoyles."

This is exactly why Christ came at that time. If it weren't so, He wouldn't have needed to do what He did.

[liberallarry]

It is populated with medieval-type caricatures, screaming out of context, laughing at suffering...
Everyone is gruesome and grotesque, apart from a handful of people such as the Virgin Mary...
Herod is some cross-dressing lunatic, the Pharisee leaders, some of the brightest men of the age, are all obscene brutes and the Roman soldiers and the mob resemble crazed gargoyles...
Barabas...was a Zealot leader, possibly a local aristocrat. We read our Hebrew and Greek, know about Essenes, Sadducees and Jewish life and culture. We understand. Yet here he is portrayed as a dribbling psychotic. As are most of the Jews in the movie...
Jews are generally shown as hideous, stupid and barbaric, but then so are the Romans...
Apart from Pontius Pilate, who is here compassion embodied. The thing is, he was a notorious killer who crucified thousands of people without a second thought...

The author is saying that Gibson portrays medievil myths and prejudices as truth. If he's correct then so is the ADL.

[Publius6961]

I did not plan to see this movie, but if it irritates the perverts that much, nothing prevents me from buying tickets!

: )

[GSWarrior]

Repeat after me: "It's only a movie."

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

What did this Guy expect a CRUCIFICION to be the last twelve hours of my Lords life were brutal to say the least i plan on taking my family to see this movie if nothing else i fully expect to walk away with a deeper understanding of what sufferage my Christ endured in his last hours

But on the other hand everyone must remember ITS A MOVIE Christ has already died for our sins you cnat add to it or take away from it He did what he was Born to do just as Mel is doing what he was Born to do.

We all have a path and as far as i can tell Mel is following his to the letter with his previous cinematic adventures he has brought us to the edge and back again with Braveheart and The Patriot.

If this moie is half the calibre of Just those two it will be well worth the price of admission !

[bird4four4]

Barabas. He was a Zealot leader, possibly a local aristocrat

Mar 15:7 And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.

Joh 18:40 Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.

Hardly what I'd consider an aristocrat. A robber and a murderer, who was rightly portrayed as a dribbling psychotic

[PoisedWoman]

Is this really how some Christians are reacting to this movie?

Pretty much. I saw it Monday, wrote a review here on Tuesday more favorable than this one, but saying that I basically numbed out about 1//3 of the way through, detached, had no emotional response whatsoever. I liked Gibson's depiction of Satan, found it thought-provoking--revelatory, really. I enjoyed the art direction very much. But the brutality of the action was a turnoff. It did churn up some deeply held doubts about whether God loves me. I've never been able to link blood and gore with love, though I was educated from nursery school through college in traditional Catholic schools that espoused beliefs as conservative as Gibson's.

I'm very familiar with the passion of Christ--those stations of the cross, you know, that once were displayed on the walls of every Catholic church. As children we went from station to station, pondered Christ's suffering, prayed on our knees.

Now three days after digesting this movie, I'm a little depressed about Christianity and my relationship to it. It always seemed more a religion for men than for women. I probably would have been better off staying home from the movie, perhaps from church, quite frankly. I knew in advance that I coould not stand violence. And I've been known to faint at the sight of blood (Florence Nightingale, I'm not.) I would advise others to keep their children home along with others who may recoil from blood and gore.

[CFC__VRWC]

Has anyone else noticed a pattern about these diatribes against The Passion?

"I have always had a very deep and abiding faith in Jesus (or something similar)and so I approached this movie with an open mind, BUT ...

Sounds an awful lot like the legions of Mobys showing up around here claiming to be "true conservatives who voted for Bush in 2000, BUT ...".

Is it too much to ask of these screeching drama queens to a least TRY to come up with even a smidgen of an original idea?