So now I’ve seen The Passion of the Christ.  This movie has been anticipated by Christian and non-Christian alike, mainly because of the entire hubbub that flooded the media about its supposed anti-Semite qualities.  Hogwash.  I think most serious people, Christian, Jew, and the religiously unaffiliated alike can see through that smokescreen.  Yes, there are some Jewish characters that are portrayed in a negative light.  The story is set in first century Jerusalem, for goodness’ sake!  With the exception of the Roman soldiers, everyone is Jewish, the sympathetic and unsympathetic alike.  Anyone who has read the Gospels, or ever been to a Good Friday or Easter service, for that matter, knows the story already.  We needn’t waste our time refuting these accusations – just go see the film.

But I was very interested, once the film was released on Ash Wednesday, to hear what the movie critics thought.  Enough speculation, enough reporting about early drafts of the script that were supposedly stolen.  I wanted to hear what people who make their living critiquing movies were going to say after they actually saw the film.  Let’s hear what the verdict is, now that the film is released.

One of the first reviews I read was from Entertainment Weekly’s film critic, Lisa Schwarzbaum.  She gave it a “C.”  A “C?” I asked.  I had anticipated that this would be a film one would either love or hate, but a “C” – that seemed too mediocre a reaction, too lukewarm.  So I read with morbid curiosity why Schwarzbaum doesn’t recommend this film.  Here are some highlights.

“[Mel Gibson] proclaims in his gaudily tormented, pornographically blood-drenched, anything but literal interpretation of the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life: Behold the movie star…”

“…the Traditionalist Catholic filmmaker only appears to be preaching a stern sermon to a crowd of modern moviegoing [sic] sinners in need of a dose of shock and awe.  In reality, he is talking to himself alone, a mutter of confession without absolution.”

“Gibson has made a movie for nobody, really, but Gibson.”

“The Passion of the Christ is Gibson’s obsessive meditation on his own cross of fame.”

“It’s a weave of Gospel versions, narrative add-ons … and the age-old Gibsonian homoerotic fascination with the sight of a handsome male body undergoing torture.”

“And it’s clear, too, why Gibson doesn’t treat the depiction of Jesus’ suffering with more seemliness (not to mention empathy for those ticket-buying Christians who might bring children to the meeting tent, only to have those kids traumatized by something they shouldn’t need to see to be good Christians): because his eyes are riveted by the ecstasy of pain.”

“[The Passion of the Christ is] a call to revenge rather than an inspiration to lead a godly life by loving one’s neighbor.”

Did you get all that?  Schwarzbaum has figured out the real reason Mel Gibson made this film.  His secret’s out.  That’s right.  It’s all about himself.  It’s all about Mel, and his homoerotic, self-obsessed sadomasochistic fetishes.  How dare he market his film to a religious audience, when in reality he has made a “slasher” film that good, church-going people like Lisa Schwarzbaum don’t really need to see, don’t need to be confronted with, to be “good Christians.”  Such a selfish, selfish, Mel…

It brings to mind the words of singer/songwriter Don MacLean, “They didn’t listen, they’re not listening still.  Perhaps they never will…”

I went to see this movie myself last night.  I’m a Christian believer.  You’d think that people like me would be the harshest critics of this film.  It is, after all, a film entirely about the one we call Lord and Savior.  This is our religion on display up there.  So, speaking as a man who is not ashamed to say that he loves Christ, let me tell this to Mel Gibson.  Thank you.  Thank you for showing the world exactly what our God endured for us, exactly what was necessary for our redemption, and exactly how much we are loved.  

This is not a movie.  It does not “entertain” you.  This is a work of art.  It edifies you.  Catholics who are familiar with the Stations of the Cross devotion will have an innate familiarity with this film, for that is just what it is.  It is the most gut-wrenching, the most vivid, the most gruesome and realistic – and in the end the most touchingly beautiful – Stations of the Cross you will ever participate in.  Unconsciously, I found myself praying through most of the film. 

Will Protestants have the same reaction to this masterpiece of religious art?  I’m not sure.  The first things to be removed from the sanctuaries during the Protestant Rebellion were the crucifixes, the artistic reminders of what Christ endured for us.  However, the numbers are showing that the greatest support for Mel Gibson’s film is coming from Evangelical Protestant circles.  This is a work that all Christians need to see. 

Yes, I said “need” to see, despite what Lisa Schwarzbaum would have us believe.  Christians today desperately need to see this.  We need the blood.  We need the gore.  We need to see the suffering, the agony.  We say the words from the Nicene Creed, “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God … who suffered, died, and was buried.  On the third day He rose again…” and we don’t know what it means.  We don’t really understand.  We’ve fallen asleep, and we need to be woken up, even if that means shaking us violently.

St. Paul said in his first Letter to the Corinthians, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2).  St. Augustine wrote that “We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.”  But there is no Easter without Good Friday.  The Resurrection means nothing – nothing – without the Passion.  

And how might non-religious people react to The Passion?   It may inspire many to read the Gospel accounts on their own, to learn more about why it was that Christ willingly suffered as He did.  Many will hopefully be touched and have their lives changed by Gibson’s film.  No doubt there will be conversions.  At the very least it should inspire the viewer to ponder the question asked by Pontius Pilate, Qui veritas?  What is truth? 

One friend sent me an email after she saw the film and said, while she was shocked by the brutality, she couldn’t help but think that at any time during the torture and crucifixion, Christ could have said, “enough!” and ended it.  This much is made painfully clear in Gibson’s film.  No one “murdered” Jesus.  Not the Jews, not the Romans.  Christ says to His Apostles, “I lay down my life willingly, and I will take it up again.”  He told Pilate, “You would have no authority over me if it were not granted to you by my Father.”  His mother Mary wonders at one point in the film when her son will choose to end this.  But He never did.  He endured it--all of it--out of love for us, to the bitter end.  “See, Mother,” Jesus tells the weeping Mary, “I make all things new.”  This is how God loves.

But not all will be moved so.  No, many will sit through this film and see it as nothing but a blood-and-gore flick with religious overtones.  They just won’t get it.  They won’t let themselves get it.  Because this is not a film that you can “get.”  This is a film that “gets” you, if you let it.  And many just don’t want to be “gotten.”  They are too comfortable, sleepwalking through life with “Do Not Disturb” signs hanging from their necks.  So, this move isn’t about Christ, they tell themselves.  It isn’t about me.  No, it’s about Mel Gibson and “his own cross of fame.”  Gibson has made a movie for nobody but Gibson.  That is what this really is about, must be about.  It’s not about me.  It doesn’t ask anything of me.

And they tell themselves what they need to hear in order to sleep better at night.  And so they go right back to sleep.  With The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson is trying to do us a favor.  He is trying to shake us awake.  The question is, are you ready to exchange your dreams for reality?