Back, And The Passion
Well, I've done my penance of four tests spanning three days over the second half of last week, and I think my brain and body have just about recovered from all of that. Despite Wesley's Clean-Up Day on Saturday, I basically did little over the weekend except watch a couple of movies. They were, however, two of the most thought-provoking films I've seen in a while, though for completely different reasons: The Passion of the Christ and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. They did share one thing in common in that the cinematography for each were outstanding.
I could probably fill pages and pages about either movie, but I'll tackle The Passion first and comment on Eternal Sunshine later this week.
I had commented my initial thoughts about The Passion over at Amy's quandmeme.net before going to see the movie, and I finally did this past Friday. To react to some of the more controversial issues that Mel Gibson has gotten flack for in recent weeks, I do agree that the gore could have possibly been cut down by a few minutes to make way for a few extra, precious minutes of screen time displaying more of the story, like more of Palm Sunday or after the Resurrection. This seemed to be the cautious consensus during Wesley's discussion of the film this Sunday.
What I liked about the film is that it made me think. I would have to say that, seeing the movie when I did, I will be thinking a lot more about the events of Holy Week than I ever have before. The gore didn't turn me away from the movie, though it was a little too intense at times. (That was Gibson's choice and tactic.) It certainly drove Jesus' suffering home in a very graphic way, and the juxtaposition of Jesus' memories of his life while the beatings and crucifixion were happening were very, very poignant. I think I also probably got the most emotional while Mary was trying to get to Jesus' side one last time. While the flashbacks and Mary's motherly concern played out, one of our Singers songs from this year's Tour, "On My Cross," also kept playing through my head. The song's lyrics emphasize the fact that Jesus went through all of that for us, and specifically, for me, and that nearly broke me down. (I think the lyrics just written down don't exactly do the song justice, but you can get the idea.) Some people even said that their reactions to the suffering leaned towards making them feel completely unworthy. And I can see why.
The movie wasn't perfect, I suppose; people who know more about the Gospels than me have pointed out several inconsistencies of the movie with the scriptures. At best, then, the film is Mel Gibson's interpretation of the Passion story with some commercialism and creative license thrown in. But I agreed after last night's discussion that I am glad the movie was made, and I'm glad I saw it, if for no other reason than for opening my eyes a little bit and making people think and talk about it and reason things out for themselves. Maybe the average person who didn't know the story will get a skewed version of it, but hopefully some of those people who are curious because of the film will seek out the sources and discover it all on their own.
There are so many other aspects I could ramble on about, including Satan's role in the movie, the portrayal of the Jews, the CGI effect of Jim Cavieziel's eyes that were so piercing, and so on and so forth, but that's for another time and place. For now, I just wanted to put my most recent thoughts out there.
Next up: Spotless Sunshine with the Minds and the Eternal and the ... sorry, yeah. It took me a while to get the title down-pat.
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