The Passion of the Christ

This article is about the film. For the passions of Jesus Christ, see Passion (Christianity).

The Passion of the Christ
File:Thepassionposterface-1-.jpg Theatrical release poster featuring Jesus Christ as the Ecce Homo
Directed by	Mel Gibson
Produced by	Bruce Davey Mel Gibson Stephen McEveety Enzo Sisti
Screenplay by	Mel Gibson Benedict Fitzgerald William Fulco (translation)
Based on	The Passion in the New Testament of the Bible
Starring	Jim Caviezel Monica Bellucci Maia Morgenstern Hristo Shopov
Music by	John Debney
Cinematography	Caleb Deschanel
Edited by	John Wright
Production company	Icon Productions
Distributed by	Newmarket Films 20th Century Fox
Release dates	February 25, 2004 (2004-02-25)
Running time	126 minutes 122 minutes (recut)
Country	United States
Language	Aramaic Latin Hebrew
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$611.9 million

The Passion of the Christ (sometimes referred to as The Passion) is a 2004 American epic biblical drama film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ. It depicts the Passion of Jesus largely according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It also draws on pious accounts such as the Friday of Sorrows along with other devotional writings, such as the reputed Marian apparitions attributed to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich.

The film covers primarily the final 12 hours of Jesus' life, beginning with the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the insomnia and grievance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but ending with a brief depiction of his resurrection. Flashbacks of Jesus as a child and as a young man with Mary his mother, giving the Sermon on the Mount, teaching the Twelve Apostles, and at the Last Supper are some of the images depicted. The film was shot in Italy, and the dialogue is entirely in reconstructed Aramaic, vernacular Hebrew and Latin with subtitles.

The film has been controversial and received mixed reviews, with some critics claiming that the extreme violence in the film "obscures its message." Catholic sources have questioned the authenticity of the non-biblical material upon which the film drew. The film, however, was a major commercial hit, grossing in excess of $600 million during its theatrical release. The Passion of the Christ is the highest grossing R-rated film in United States history, the highest grossing religious film, and the highest grossing non-English-language film of all time.

Plot

The film opens in Gethsemane as Jesus prays and is tempted by Satan, while his disciples Peter, James and John (James' brother) sleep. Satan appears in Jesus' form, and tempts him by saying, "It's not right for one man to die for their sins." After Jesus' sweat becomes like blood and drips to the ground, a snake comes out from Satan. Jesus hears his disciples calling him, then he steps on the snake's head, and the Devil disappears. After receiving thirty pieces of silver, Judas, another of Jesus' disciples, approaches with the temple guards and betrays Jesus with a kiss on the cheek. As the guards move in to arrest Jesus, Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus, a servant of the high priest Caiaphas, but Jesus heals the ear. As the disciples flee, the temple guards arrest Jesus and beat him during the journey to the Sanhedrin. John tells Mary and Mary Magdalene of the arrest while Peter follows Jesus at a distance. Caiaphas holds trial 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". Caiaphas is horrified and tears his robes, and Jesus is condemned to death for blasphemy. Peter, who is secretly watching, is confronted three times and denies three times, but then runs away sobbing after remembering that Jesus had foretold that. Meanwhile, the remorseful Judas attempts to return the money to have Jesus freed, but is refused by the priests. Tormented by Demons, he flees the city and hangs himself upon a tree with a rope he finds on a dead donkey.

Caiaphas brings Jesus before Pontius Pilate to be condemned to death, but after questioning Jesus and finding no fault in him, Pilate sends him instead to the court of Herod Antipas, as Jesus is from Herod Antipas' ruling town of Nazareth, Galilee. After Jesus is again found not guilty and returned, Pilate offers the crowd that he will chastise Jesus and then will set him free. He then attempts to have Jesus freed by giving the people an option of freeing Jesus or the violent criminal Barabbas. To his dismay, the crowd demands to have Barabbas freed and Jesus killed. In an attempt to appease the crowd, Pilate orders that he be punished, but not killed. Jesus is brutally scourged and mocked with a crown of thorns by his guards. However, Caiaphas, with the crowds backing, continues to demand that Jesus be crucified, and Barabbas released. Pilate washes his hands and reluctantly orders Jesus' crucifixion.

As Jesus carries the cross along the Via Dolorosa to Calvary, Veronica wipes Jesus' face with her veil. Simon of Cyrene is unwillingly pressed into carrying the cross with Jesus. Jesus is then crucified. As he hangs from the cross, Jesus prays forgiveness for those who did this to him and redeems a criminal crucified next to him. After Jesus gives up his spirit and dies, a single drop of rain falls from the sky, triggering an earthquake which destroys the Temple and rips the cloth covering the Holy of Holies in two, to the horror of Caiaphas and the other priests. Satan is then shown screaming in agonizing defeat. Jesus is taken down from the cross. In the end, Jesus rises from the dead and exits the tomb.

Cast

• Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ
• Maia Morgenstern as Mary
• Monica Bellucci as Mary Magdalene
• Hristo Zhivkov as John
• Francesco De Vito as Peter
• Luca Lionello as Judas Iscariot
• Hristo Shopov as Pontius Pilate
• Rosalinda Celentano as Satan
• Claudia Gerini as Claudia Procles
• Fabio Sartor as Abenader
• Luca De Dominicis as Herod Ántipas
• Mattia Sbragia as Caiaphas
• Chokri Ben Zagden as James
• Toni Bertorelli as Annas ben Seth
• Jarreth Merz as Simon of Cyrene
• Sergio Rubini as Dismas
• Francesco Cabras as Gesmas
• Giovanni Capalbo as Cassius
• Roberto Bestazoni as Malchus
• Sabrina Impacciatore as Seraphia
• Pietro Sarubbi as Barabbas
• Matt Patresi as Janus
• Emilio De Marchi as Scornful Roman 1
• Roberto Visconti as Scornful Roman 2
• Lello Giulivo as Brutish Roman
• Ted Rusoff as Chief Elder

Themes

In The Passion: Photography from the Movie "The Passion of the Christ", director Mel 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."

Source material

New Testament

According to Mel Gibson, the primary source material for The Passion of the Christ is the four canonical Gospel narratives of Christ's passion. The film includes a trial before Herod Antipas, which is only found in the Gospel of Luke. Many of the utterances from Jesus in the film cannot be directly sourced to the Gospel and are part of a wider Christian narrative. The film also draws from other parts of the New Testament. The portion spoken by Jesus in the film, "I make all things new," is found in the Book of Revelation.

Tanakh

The film also refers to the Tanakh. 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 film 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). Gibson was also visually inspired by the representation of Jesus on the Shroud of Turin.

At the suggestion of actress Maia Morgenstern, the Passover Seder is quoted early in the film. Mary asks "Why is this night different from 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 not from the best scriptures, which did not contain the adulteress story of John 8) and according to the director was done for dramatic reasons. The names of some 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 Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald said that they read many accounts of Christ's Passion for inspiration, including the devotional writings of Roman Catholic mystics. A principal source is The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ the reported visions of the stigmatic German nun Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824), as written by the poet Clemens Brentano. A careful reading of Emmerich's book shows the film's high level of dependence on it.

However, Clemens Brentano's attribution of the book The Dolorous Passion to Emmerich has been subject to dispute, with allegations that Brentano wrote much of the book himself; a Vatican investigation concluding that: "It is absolutely not certain that she ever wrote this". In his review of the movie in the Catholic publication America, Jesuit priest John O' Malley used the terms "devout fiction" and "well-intentioned fraud" to refer to the writings of Clemens Brentano.

Among the many elements taken from the Dolorous Passion are scenes such as the suspension of Jesus from a bridge after his arrest by the Temple guards, the torment of Judas by demons after he had handed over Jesus to the Sanhedrin, 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 bored for the nail.

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 scene at the beginning of the movie, Satan appears and attempts to distract Jesus while he is praying. Jesus then crushes a serpent beneath his heel (this is a reference to the protoevangelium, Genesis 3:15 – a prophecy of Messiah); this does not occur in any of the gospels. In another example, Judas Iscariot is tormented by children who appear as demons to him. The film 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 (who helps Jesus bear the cross) by derisively calling him Jew. In contrast, Simon is described as a pagan in The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Other scenes unique to the film include the one in which the crucified thief who taunted Jesus has his eye pecked out by a crow, and the flashback of the carpenter Jesus building an elevated, four-legged table for a Roman. The scene of Satan carrying a demonic baby during Christ's flogging has been construed as a perversion of traditional depictions of the Madonna and Child. 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 old 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., a professor at Loyola Marymount University, into Latin, reconstructed Hebrew. Gibson chose to use Latin instead of Greek, which was the lingua franca of that particular part of the Roman Empire at the time, since there is no source for the Koine Greek spoken in that region. The street Greek spoken in the ancient Levant region of Jesus day is not the exact Greek language used in the Bible. 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.

Filming

Old city of Matera

The film was produced independently and shot in Italy – primarily at Cinecittà Studios in Rome, in the old city of Matera, and in the ghost town of Craco (Basilicata). The estimated US$30 million production cost, plus an additional estimated $15 million in marketing costs, were fully borne by Gibson and his company, Icon Productions. It was released on Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2004. It was rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "sequences of graphic violence". Icon Entertainment distributed the theatrical version of the film, and 20th Century Fox distributed the VHS/DVD/Blu-ray version of the film.

Gibson consulted several theological advisers during filming, including Fr. Jonathan Morris. During filming, assistant director Jan Michelini was struck twice by lightning. Minutes later, Jim Caviezel was also struck.

Music

Three albums were released with Mel Gibson's co-operation: (1) the film soundtrack of John Debney's original orchestral score conducted by Nick Ingman; (2) The Passion of the Christ: Songs, by producers Mark Joseph and Tim Cook, with original compositions by various artists, and (3) The Passion of the Christ: Songs Inspired By. The first two albums each received a 2005 Dove award, and the soundtrack received an Academy Award nomination of Best Original Music Score.

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.

Post-production

Title change

Although Mel 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 Films 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. The Passion of the Christ was heavily promoted by many church groups, both within their organizations and to the public. The United Methodist Church stated that many of its members, like other Christians, felt that the movie was a good way to evangelize non-believers. As a result, many congregations planned to be at the theaters, some of whom set up tables to answer questions and share prayers. Rev. John Tanner, pastor of Cove United Methodist Church, Hampton Cove, Alabama has said: "They feel the film presents a unique opportunity to share Christianity in a way today's public can identify with."

Evangelical support

The Passion of the Christ received enthusiastic support from the American evangelical community. Prior to the film's release, Gibson actively reached out to evangelical leaders seeking their support and feedback. With their help, Gibson organized and attended a series of prerelease screenings for evangelical audiences and discussed the making of the film and his personal faith. In June 2003 he screened the film for 800 pastors attending a leadership conference at New Life Church, pastored by Ted Haggard, then president of the National Association of Evangelicals. Gibson gave similar showings at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church, Greg Laurie's Harvest Christian Fellowship, and to 3,600 pastors at a conference at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. From the summer of 2003 to the film's release in February 2004, portions or rough cuts of the film were shown to over eighty audiences—many of which were evangelical audiences. Gibson received numerous public endorsements from evangelical leaders, including Billy Graham, Robert Schuller, Darrell Bock, and David Neff, editor of Christianity Today. In an open letter published prior to the film's release, James Dobson, the founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, endorsed the film and defended it against its detractors. Similar public endorsements of the film were received from evangelical leaders Pat Robertson, Rick Warren, Lee Strobel, Jerry Falwell, Max Lucado, Tim LaHaye and Chuck Colson.

Release

Box office

The Passion of the Christ 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 fourth overall in domestic opening weekend earnings for 2004. It went on to earn $370,782,930 overall in the United States, and remains the highest grossing R-rated film in United States history.

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. However, it never received theatrical distribution because no Israeli distributor would market the movie.

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. The film was also a relative success in certain countries with large Muslim populations, such as in Egypt, where it ranked 20th overall in its box office numbers for 2004. The film remains the highest grossing non-English-language film of all time.

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. 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 media

On August 31, 2004, the film was released on DVD, VHS, and later D-VHS in North America by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. 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. It was also released on Blu-ray in Australia a week before Easter.

Although the original DVD release 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 was released in the North American markets, and March 26 elsewhere. It contains several documentaries, soundtrack commentaries, deleted scenes, outtakes, the 2005 unrated version, and the original 2004 theatrical version.

The British version of the two-disc DVD contains two additional deleted scenes. In the first, Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem (at the eighth station of the cross) and falls to the ground as the women wail around him, and Simon of Cyrene attempts to hold up the cross and help up Jesus simultaneously. Afterwards, while both are holding up the cross, Jesus says to the women weeping for him, "Do not weep for me, but for yourselves and for your children". In the second, Pilate washes his hands, turns to Caiaphas, and says: "Look you to it" (i.e., the Pharisees wish to have Jesus crucified). Pilate then turns to Abanader and says: "Do as they wish". The scene next shows Pilate calling to his servant, who is carrying a wooden board on which Pilate writes, "Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews", in Latin and Hebrew. He then holds the board above his head in full view of Caiaphas, who after reading it challenges Pilate on its content. Pilate replies angrily to Caiaphas in non-subtitled Hebrew. The disc contains only two deleted scenes in total. No other scenes from the movie are shown on disc 2.

Television broadcast

On April 17, 2011 (Palm Sunday), Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) presented a world television premiere of the film at 7:30 pm ET/PT, with multiple showings scheduled. The network has continued to air the film throughout the year, and particularly around Easter. TBN presents the film completely unedited; as a result, it is rated TV-MA (for graphic violence).

On March 29, 2013 (Good Friday), as a part of their special Holy Week programming, TV5 presented the Filipino-dubbed version of the film at 2:00 pm (PST, UTC+8) in the Philippines. Its total broadcast ran for two hours, but excluding the advertisements, it would only run up for approximately 1 hour instead of its full run time of 2 hours and 6 minutes. It was ended exactly at 4:00 p.m. It has been rated SPG by the MTRCB for themes, language and violence with some scenes censored for television. TV5 is the first broadcast network outside of the United States and dubbed the Vernacular Hebrew and Latin language to Filipino (through translating its supplied English subtitles).

The film also airs on Sonshine Media Network International and Sony PIX (Indian subcontinent) for the original version.

Reception

Critical reviews

The Passion of the Christ polarized critics: Jim Caviezel's performance, the musical score, the sound, the makeup, and the cinematography were praised, while the film's graphic violence and alleged antisemitic undertones were singled out for criticism. The film has a "rotten" rating of 49% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 267 reviews with an average score of 5.9 out of 10. The consensus states: "The graphic details of Jesus' torture make the movie tough to sit through and obscure whatever message it is trying to convey." The film's Metacritic score of 47 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicates "mixed or average reviews".

Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and called it "the most violent film I have ever seen"; he also reflected on how the film personally impacted him as a former altar boy. New York Press film critic Armond White praised Gibson's work, comparing him to Dreyer, for transforming art into spirituality. However, Slate reviewer David Edelstein called it "a two-hour-and-six-minute snuff movie", while Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News called it "the most virulently anti-Semitic movie made since the German propaganda films of World War II". TIME magazine listed it as one of the most violent films of all time.

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 A Clockwork Orange (1971).

Independent promotion and discussion

A number of independent websites such as MyLifeAfter.com and Passion-Movie.com were launched to promote the film and its message and to allow people to discuss the film's effect on their lives. Documentaries such as Changed Lives: Miracles of the Passion chronicled stories of miraculous savings, forgiveness, new-found faith, and the story of a man who confessed to murdering his girlfriend after authorities determined her death was due to suicide. Another documentary, Impact: The Passion of the Christ, chronicled the popular response of the film in the United States, India, and Japan and examined the claims of antisemitism against Mel Gibson and the film.

Accolades

Wins

• National Board of Review, Award for Freedom of Expression (2004)
• People's Choice Awards – Favorite Motion Picture Drama (2004)
• Satellite Awards – Best Director – Mel Gibson
• Moviefone Moviegoer Awards – Best Picture
• Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy Award – Best Film Production
• Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy Award – Best Film Actress – Maia Morgenstern
• Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA, Golden Reel Award – Best Sound Editing in a Feature Film – Music – Michael T. Ryan
• Golden Knight Film Festival – Grand Prix – Mel Gibson
• Golden Knight Film Festival – Best Actor – Hristo Shopov
• ShoWest / USA Today / Coca-Cola – Consumers Choice for Favorite Movie Award
• American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers –ASCAP Henry Mancini Award – John Debney
• Hollywood Film Festival, USA – Hollywood Producer of the Year – Mel Gibson
• Catholics in Media Associates – Film Award – Mel Gibson
• Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain – Best Foreign Film
• GMA Dove Award, The Passion of the Christ Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Instrumental Album of the Year (2004)

Nominations

• Academy Awards, USA – Oscar for Best Cinematography (2004) – Caleb Deschanel
• Academy Awards, USA – Oscar for Best Makeup (2004) – Keith Vanderlaan, Christien Tinsley
• Academy Awards, USA – Oscar for Best Original Score (2004) – John Debney
• American Society of Cinematographers, USA – ASC Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases (2004) – Caleb Deschanel
• Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing for Music in a Feature Film (2004)
• Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards – BFCA Award for Best Popular Movie (2004)
• Irish Film and Television Awards – Jameson People's Choice Award for Best International Film
• Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA, Golden Reel Award – Best Sound Editing in Domestic Features – Dialogue & ADR
• MTV Movie Awards – Best male performance – Jim Caviezel

Controversies

Questions of historical and biblical accuracy

Despite criticisms that Gibson deliberately departed from historical accounts of first-century Judea and biblical accounts of Christ's crucifixion, some scholars defend the film as not meaning to be historically accurate. Biblical scholar Mark Goodacre protested that he could not find one documented example of Gibson explicitly claiming the film to be historically accurate. Gibson has 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."

In the film, Romans use Latin amongst themselves, Jews do the same with Hebrew, and the two groups adopt one or the other of these languages in communicating with each other. Latin was substituted for the commonly spoken Greek street slang, which cannot be reproduced.

When asked about the film's faithfulness to the account given in the New Testament, Father Augustine Di Noia of the Vatican's Doctrinal Congregation replied: "Mel Gibson's film is not a documentary... but remains faithful to the fundamental structure common to all four accounts" and "Gibson's film is entirely faithful to the New Testament".

Disputed papal endorsement

In early December 2003, Passion of the Christ co-producer Stephen McEveety provided the film to Archbishop Stanisław Dziwisz, the pope's secretary. Archbishop 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 Dziwisz wielded too much influence over the pope. The next day Archbishop 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 later 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 antisemitism

Before the film was even released, there were prominent criticisms of perceived antisemitic content in the film. 20th Century Fox told New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind they had passed on distributing the film in response to a protest outside the News Corporation building. Hikind warned other 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 film:

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 head of the Toward Tradition organization, 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 Hebrew 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 film 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 the Hebrew 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."

Additionally, the film's suggestion that the Temple's destruction was a direct result of the Jews' actions towards Jesus could also be interpreted as an offensive take on an event which Jewish tradition views as a tragedy, and which is still mourned by many Jews today on the fast day of Tisha B'Av.

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".

Conservative columnist Cal Thomas also disagreed with allegations of anti-Semitism, saying "To those in the Jewish community who worry that the film [...] 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 conservative talk-show host and author 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, Veronica (who wipes Jesus' face and offers him water) and several Jewish priests who protest Jesus' arrest (Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea) during Caiaphas' trial of Jesus.

Bob Smithouser of Plugged in Online believed that film was trying to convey the evils and sins of humanity rather than specifically targeting Jews, stating: "The anthropomorphic portrayal of Satan as a player in these events brilliantly pulls the proceedings into the supernatural realm — a fact that should have quelled the much-publicized cries of anti-Semitism since it shows a diabolical force at work beyond any political and religious agendas of the Jews and Romans."

Moreover, Senior Vatican officer Cardinal Darío 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.

South Park parodied the controversy in the episodes "Good Times with Weapons", "Up the Down Steroid" and "The Passion of the Jew", all of which aired just a few weeks after the film's release.

Criticism of excessive violence

Several critics were troubled by the film's extensive, detailed violence, and especially cautioned parents to avoid taking their children to the cinema. Film critic Roger Ebert, who gave a four-out-of-four-star rating, 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 stated that the R-rated film should have instead been rated NC-17 (an MPAA rating even harsher than the R rating) in a "Movie Answer Man" response, adding that no level-minded parent should ever allow children to see it.

Film historian Michael Gurnow, in an April 2008 cover story for American Atheists, stated much the same, labeling the work a mainstream snuff film.

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 criticized 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.

See also

• Cultural depictions of Jesus
  • Saint Mary
  • The Messiah
• The Passion
• "The Passion of the Jew" (South Park episode)
• Trial movies
• List of films featuring whitewashed roles

External links

• The Passion of the Christ at IMDb
• The Passion of the Christ at Box Office Mojo
• The Passion of the Christ at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Passion of the Christ at Metacritic