The Passion...

[Priest4hire]

The Passion of the Christ as a Christmas gift fills my head with weird images. There's just something about the whole Dickinson Christmas motif and the graphic depiction of Jesus being scourged that doesn't mesh. Besides, should one really be watching that on his birthday? 

If nothing else the movie was gutsy. Christian films have mixed results in the box office and it is an ultra-violent film with subtitles. Before it came out I doubt anyone would imagine the highest grossing R rated film would be in an array of dead languages. Certainly the difficulty in getting it distributed shows that. 

[Deckard25]

  Well, I don't think it's necesarily selfish. Sometimes you really don't know what that person wants and they have a hard time telling you so you 1) guess as best as you can and just hope you remember to include a gift receipt with it or 2) you get them a gift certificate.

  No need to apologize, though. Maybe you just haven't received many gifts like that. Usually when someone has been given a gift completely contrary to their preferences, they make a huge habit thereafter to be extremely mindful of a person's tastes when they themselves shop for presents. It only takes one time, usually.

Yeah, i suppose it is not necessarily selfish and true you really at times do not what a person wants unless you really know that person deep down. Gift certificates always work.     

No, i have never had a gift such as that, that i am not used to receiving gifts as holidays are rather uneventful around my house.     

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

Does this movie make a good christmas gift or not? Discuss!

well i cant be any worse than the time i receive the phantom menance as a secret santa gift because someone heard i like star wars (it was star trek actually)

[Tarantulas]

Again, "The Passion" is porn for christians.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

again insulting remarks are utterly irrelavent to any adult conversation.  much like this one.

[Tarantulas]

again insulting remarks are utterly irrelavent to any adult conversation.  much like this one.

Just because you are not intelligent enough to understand my statement, doesn't mean that it somehow lacks merit.

[Nunyerbiz]

I think he understood that it was intentionally inflammatory.

[Tarantulas]

I think he understood that it was intentionally inflammatory.

It's only inflammatory because it is an accurate comparison of what Gibson did to overly dramatize the movie to whip people into a frenzy.

Would it have sold as many tickets if it hadn't been so brutal?  No.

How do I know? Because.....

christians love the idea of jesus being brutalized by the Romans.  So, they love the pain and agony portrayed on the screen.  They also loved the antisemitic commentary of the film... just go back and read the exit interviews....

Why have two actors kiss when they can have full penative sex on screen?  Sure sells a lot more popcorn...

Therefore, "The Passion" is porn for christians.

[mrthejazz]

I think he understood that it was intentionally inflammatory.

It's only inflammatory because it is an accurate comparison of what Gibson did to overly dramatize the movie to whip people into a frenzy.

Would it have sold as many tickets if it hadn't been so brutal?  No.

How do I know? Because.....

christians love the idea of jesus being brutalized by the Romans.  So, they love the pain and agony portrayed on the screen.  They also loved the antisemitic commentary of the film... just go back and read the exit interviews....

Why have two actors kiss when they can have full penative sex on screen?  Sure sells a lot more popcorn...

Therefore, "The Passion" is porn for christians.

Hmmm...and the alternative would be?

Ohh! I know! Jesus skipping in lollipop gumdrop land sliding down a mountain of chocolate ice cream only to be hugged by pontius pilot at the bottom of said mountain, and then all the jews give Jesus a high five.

But that wouldn't be accurate. Perhaps a more stoic approach? Maybe the camera faces away from Jesus and shows the random people walking by while in the background you hear Jesus getting the shit beat of him. Or maybe Mel should have cut out all the scenes where bad stuff happens to Jesus, because heaven forbid, we can show guys getting ass raped in movies, and having their eyeballs cut out, and people being placed on a curb with their mouth open and having the back of their skull kicked in, but we totally have a snuff film when there's a little flogging, (except if Kubrick does it.)

And the blood! The blood! Everybody whines about the blood! But you throw a Tarantino film in front of their faces where it practically gushes out comically  and nobody gets squeamish. I mean, if The Passion is porn for Christians (ie brutality) then virtually every violent movie ever made is porn for everybody else. (Or maybe porn is porn for everybody else, either way).

I love playing devil's advocate! 

[Tyrant]

  I think Mel's intention was to be realistic. Romans really did torture people like that, historically. As I said on a much earlier post here, it was probably even worse than that, but there's only so much gore you can throw up on a screen before people are grabbing their popcorn and walking out to ask the manager for a refund.

  What about other movies with tons of gore in it? Never seen them, but I hear people talk about all the Saw movies and Hostile and whatever else. These films are probably far more graphic than Passion was from what I've heard.

  So, yeah. Probably not a good gift. Unless it's asked for.

[Tarantulas]

  I think Mel's intention was to be realistic. Romans really did torture people like that, historically. As I said on a much earlier post here, it was probably even worse than that, but there's only so much gore you can throw up on a screen before people are grabbing their popcorn and walking out to ask the manager for a refund.

  What about other movies with tons of gore in it? Never seen them, but I hear people talk about all the Saw movies and Hostile and whatever else. These films are probably far more graphic than Passion was from what I've heard.

  So, yeah. Probably not a good gift. Unless it's asked for.

The above posts back up my statement...

The only thing that people talk about in reference to Passion is the violence.  The violence was highly sensationalized (wither christians want to admit it or not)

Mel knew that the only way to sell this mythological tale was to amp up the violence and gore.  Make the violence so extreme to create controversy, and then just wait while the church groups fill your antisemitic pockets with their hard earned cash.

I've seen many a passion play that found no need to resort to this level of theatrical violence.

The biggest thing that christians should be upset about is the differences between the new testament account of the events of christs death, and the events portrayed in the passion.

christians went ape shit off horny jesus in "The Last Temptation of Christ", yet they love bloody jesus in Passion.... why?  violence.

[AmazingThor]

Mel Gibson himself may be anti-Semitic, but I don't think Passion was meant to be. As for the violence, it was just a new way to spin an old tale. I mean, if you take out the gore, you're left with a skeleton of a movie. At least Last Temptation told a good story. You can call it blasphemous, but it was also cinema. Passion amounted to little more than a religious video game. I think people need to stop making movies out of the Bible. The stories are too well known. If you want to make a religious movie, focus on some notable Christians. There are some good stories throughout church history just waiting to be mined. (No I am not a seminary student all though my dad is a preacher)

[Tarantulas]

Mel Gibson himself may be anti-Semitic, but I don't think Passion was meant to be. As for the violence, it was just a new way to spin an old tale. I mean, if you take out the gore, you're left with a skeleton of a movie. At least Last Temptation told a good story. You can call it blasphemous, but it was also cinema. Passion amounted to little more than a religious video game. I think people need to stop making movies out of the Bible. The stories are too well known. If you want to make a religious movie, focus on some notable Christians. There are some good stories throughout church history just waiting to be mined. (No I am not a seminary student all though my dad is a preacher)

Again, I've been to many passion plays that were equally compelling that didn't need to rely on gore to get the message across.

[msmpls]

Mel Gibson himself may be anti-Semitic, but I don't think Passion was meant to be. As for the violence, it was just a new way to spin an old tale. I mean, if you take out the gore, you're left with a skeleton of a movie. At least Last Temptation told a good story. You can call it blasphemous, but it was also cinema. Passion amounted to little more than a religious video game. I think people need to stop making movies out of the Bible. The stories are too well known. If you want to make a religious movie, focus on some notable Christians. There are some good stories throughout church history just waiting to be mined. (No I am not a seminary student all though my dad is a preacher)

Again, I've been to many passion plays that were equally compelling that didn't need to rely on gore to get the message across.

somehow I doubt the truth of this statement. (Just saying based on the tone of your other posts and your general disgust with Christianity)

[RandyMistie]

Mel Gibson himself may be anti-Semitic, but I don't think Passion was meant to be. As for the violence, it was just a new way to spin an old tale. I mean, if you take out the gore, you're left with a skeleton of a movie. At least Last Temptation told a good story. You can call it blasphemous, but it was also cinema. Passion amounted to little more than a religious video game. I think people need to stop making movies out of the Bible. The stories are too well known. If you want to make a religious movie, focus on some notable Christians. There are some good stories throughout church history just waiting to be mined. (No I am not a seminary student all though my dad is a preacher)

Again, I've been to many passion plays that were equally compelling that didn't need to rely on gore to get the message across.

somehow I doubt the truth of this statement. (Just saying based on the tone of your other posts and your general disgust with Christianity)

Hmmm... well, I am not a christian and have really bad associations with the religion, but I own both DVD versions of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and a VHS of Franco Zefferelli's "Jesus of Nazereth", (I love Franco's stuff, both in America and in Italy)  The myth of Jesus is not objectionable to me, (or probably to Tarantulas, although I don't mean to speak for him), just the evil that SOME people tend to do with it.