If you've heard about the movie, you probably know that it was written, directed and funded by Mel Gibson, and that it documents the last 12 hours of Jesus' life, beginning in the betrayal at the Garden of Gethsemane and ending with his crucifixion and resurrection. It includes his "trial," and shows much of the ordeal that he went through before his eventual death. This movie contains by far the most graphic, and arguably realistic, depictions of scourging (the brutal whipping that served to punish Roman criminals) and crucifixion ever committed to film.
But what is the message of the film? Many have called the graphic violence self-defeating, replacing the supposed message of hope found in the Gospels with unflinching brutality. I disagree.
As a Christian, I saw this movie as a window into the physicality of the punishment that Jesus received. We are taught that God loves us and that our sins are forgiven, but we are rarely forced to think about the extent of Jesus' suffering and sacrifice, the physical and spiritual burden that Jesus had to bear on our behalf. Thus Christianity can often encourage complacency. The power of this film is that it takes these images of suffering and forces you to watch them, voyeuristically bearing witness to the passion-or suffering-of Jesus. When the Roman soldiers are whipping Jesus, you hear his flesh ripping away from his body and see the blood splatter on the ground. When they are nailing Jesus to the cross, you see the nails go through his hands and hear his cries of pain. Far from being self-defeating, the violence is Gibson's way of telling us that Jesus was an actual person and the physical punishment inflicted upon him was a reality.
At the same time, however, I think that it is important to remember that "The Passion" is just a movie. James Caviezel is just an actor, and Gibson's direction is not without its faults. More importantly, the act of seeing the film can in no way compare with the power of the original message to those of us who believe it. In other words, the images are powerful, to be sure, but I am just as concerned as others at the fact that there is so much "passion" about "The Passion."
Yet in the end, I found that watching the film was an incredible and undeniably moving experience. Gibson did have a cameo in the film, which came during the crucifixion. Gibson's hands hold the nails in place and pound them into Jesus' hands, a symbolic indication of his belief that he, along with everyone else in the world, was responsible for driving those nails into Jesus. To those of us who believe the same, and believe that what we saw on the screen actually happened more or less as it was depicted, it was impossible for us not to be reminded of this life-changing fact.