First Passion viewers emerge stunned

The Telegraph News UK ^ | 03/27/2004 | Jonathan Petre

[tomball]

Some given free tickets walk out before the end, reports Jonathan Petre

They emerged from the cinema whey-faced, red-eyed and numb: whatever their expectations had been, the first members of the public to see Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ were in various degrees of shock.

Some could not stand the two hours of scourging, blood and crucifixion, and eight of the 180-strong audience at yesterday's afternoon screening at the Odeon in Maidstone, Kent, walked out angrily long before the end.

One woman had to be comforted with cups of tea after she had been escorted out on the brink of tears.

Pearl Crown, 82, said: "It was awful, just awful. I should never have come. I have never seen anything so violent and awful in my life."

Mrs Crown and her husband, Frank, 88, were among those who received free tickets to the screening from a group of local churches led by St Luke's in Maidstone, which spent £20,000 buying all the seats for the first three days.

She said her Methodist faith had not been rocked by the film but she could not bear to watch the torture meted out to Christ, brutally enhanced by the digital soundtrack and graphic visual images of a Hollywood production. Her husband warned: "If you are sensitive, do not come and see this film."

Another man who left in a hurry after the scourging scene was blunter. "I am offended that the Church has decided to give out free tickets to a film like this. It is almost blasphemous."

But that view was not shared by the majority who filed out at the end dazed and struggling for words, but clearly moved.

"I'm gobsmacked after seeing that film," said Jo Marvell, 27, a holistic therapist. "I feel a bit drippy and embarrassed. I just want to go home."

A non-churchgoer - she had been in a church last month for the first time since her christening because she was preparing to get married - her eyes glistened.

"I don't like brutality and I covered my eyes for most of the time," she said. "Part of me believes in God and part of me doesn't. I don't think I feel differently."

Her boyfriend, Jeremy Druce, 37, said: "I didn't expect to come out feeling as upset as I do. It is very brutal, very moving. It moved me spiritually a little but more in despair at mankind."

Valerie Hawkins, 62, said: "I felt it reminded me of what our faith cost and what we owe. Sometimes we forget the price and that someone had to pay it. I feel numb."

James Williams, 18, who described himself as a lapsed churchgoer, said: "With most films, you come out feeling you want to talk about them. Here you come out in shock."

Russ Hughes, the director of worship and prophecy at St Luke's, defended the church scheme to give out free tickets to the film.

"This is a great way to reintroduce people to Jesus. This is not about attracting people into church but, if one person commits themselves to Jesus as a result, it will be worth the £20,000."

[B4Ranch]

email I received;

"The Passion of the Christ" a hit in Beirut, Damascus
BEIRUT, (AFP) - Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion of the Christ," accused by some Jewish organizations of encouraging anti-Semitism, is
drawing a sizeable if unexceptional audience here while apparently touching an emotional nerve in the Syrian capital, Damascus.



"Coming out of the theater . I saw a lot of people in tears," reported Fayez Wehbe, who saw the film -- with Arabic sub-titles -- in Damascus.

Certain sequences are in Aramaic, the language that was dominant in the Holy Land at the time of Christ and which can still be heard in certain towns in Syria, notably Maalula and Saadnaya near Damascus.

"Some members of the audience could not conceal their astonishment on hearing some expressions -- such as Ya Illah (My God) -- that are close to Arabic," said Wehbe.
Added another Syrian cinema-goer: "The fact that this film is being shown in the current Middle East context, which opposes Israel and the Arabs, explains part of its success."

Given its popularity in Damascus a fourth showing has been added to the three that had been initially offered, with people often buying tickets in the morning to be sure of getting a place.

The film has spawned reams of commentary because of its unflinchingly graphic portrayal of Christ's crucifixion. In some quarters it has been seen as promoting anti-Semitism by a negative depiction of Christ's fellow Jews, while that view has been strongly rejected in others.

Here in Beirut, the film has been warmly received. Lebanon's Maronite church has described it as "impressive" and found it not to be anti-Semitic.

"It is very sad, extremely impressive," commented Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, the spiritual head of the Maronite church.
"We don't see any anti-Semitism there."

An official from one of Beirut's larger movie houses said "the public has come in strong numbers to see 'The Passion' but it has not been an exceptional rush."

North of the capital, in the heavily Christian Junieh region, the film is selling well, although it is off limits to youths under the age of 15.

Elsewhere in the Arab world, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat saw the film at his headquarters in Ramallah on the West Bank and pronounced it "moving."

"The Passion of the Christ" will also be shown in Cairo, where it is likewise forbidden to minors because of its violent scenes, starting March 31, and has been available to movie goers in the Gulf state of Qatar since last Sunday.

"We submitted 'The Passion of the Christ' to the censorship committee, which had no objection to its screening" in Qatar, said Abdul Rahman Mohsen, the director general of a private Qatari cinema company.

The committee usually censors scenes or images depicting prophets from the holy books.

The film is being shown three times a day in a cinema in Doha and will be screened for at least one month, Mohsen said.

Three other Gulf states are currently still reviewing the film, he said.

The movie will be shown to the public in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) beginning March 31 after having been given the green light by the ministry of culture and information, the UAE's Gulf News reported Sunday.

[Eala]

It's because the mod moved it to chat - I don't get it, but he did.

Yah. I've seen some odd moves by a mod lately...

[Eala]

That is an excellent review. Thanks!

[Ciexyz]

The blood and gore didn't last the whole two hours, it was more like fifteen minutes. I personally didn't watch the flogging scene, I covered my face with a sweater and plugged my ears to mute the sounds. It seemed like ten or fifteen minutes, I didn't check my watch for the exact time.

The girl next to me was sobbing on her boyfriend's shoulder and by the end of the movie she was curled up in a fetal position with her head on his shoulder.

People in my group were passing out kleenex to each other and sobbing. I could hear people thruout the theater gasping out loud and sobbing.

[Eala]

That was a very moving review.
But is the author Anglican or Catholic?

The author is in the Anglican Province of Christ the King, not the Roman Catholic church. But there is a tendency to use the term "Anglo-Catholic" to describe where APCK exists among the broad spectrum of Anglicanism, and I believe that sometimes, or generally, that is what he refers to when he uses "Catholic."