By Tracy Domingo
News Assistant
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
This verse, Isaiah 53:5, serves as the launching point for Mel Gibson’s notorious film “The Passion of the Christ” and provides audiences with a remarkably complete but succinct summation of the breathtaking film and 2000-year-old story.
After all the pandemonium, criticism, praise and outcry that the movie has raised prior to its Ash Wednesday release, the film is finally out and ready for the public to view.
However, even after all the hype and scrutiny that has preceded the film’s debut, nothing can prepare audiences for what awaits them in the theater.
Directed, produced and co-written by Gibson, the movie provides an explicit portrayal of the last 12 hours of the life on Earth of Jesus of Nazareth based upon the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The timeless story begins in the Garden at Gethsemane where Jesus (James Caviezel) is shown praying in agony before his capture. It is in this opening scene that audiences are introduced to Satan (Rosalinda Celentano), a ghoul-like creature who eerily appears in various scenes as she taunts the sufferings of the Christ.
After his arrest in the Garden from the betrayal by Judas, Jesus is taken into custody by the Sanhedrin, a governing body of high Jewish priests and Pharisees. From there Jesus is turned over to Pontius Pilate (Ivano Marescotti), a seemingly sympathetic Roman governor who gives the final order to crucify Jesus in the film.
Throughout the film, Jesus’ mother Mary (Maia Morgenstern) and Mary of Magdalene (Monica Bellucci) are shown repetitiously agonizing over the sufferings of Jesus.
Audiences, no matter what religious affiliation, will without a doubt join them in their agony as Jesus’ suffering is re-enacted in a vivid, bloody and horrific contemporary cinematic style never seen before now. In one of the goriest scenes, Jesus is lashed repeatedly by Roman soldiers and flesh is ripped off his limp body as he lies helplessly in puddles of blood. But even that does not surpass the gripping scene when nails are pounded through flesh and bone into Jesus’ hands and feet.
Submitted February 26, 2004