I realize I'm about 8 years too late on this movie. I never had an urge to watch it, being barely religious myself, and all of the drama surrounding the movie kind of put me off. But there we were, Good Friday and all, surrounded by social media updates about Easter and the reason for the season. We sort of owed it to ourselves to watch it, you know?
Imdb synopsis: A film detailing the final hours and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. (Sheesh, even the synopsis tells you it's not like other movies)
I'm torn right down the middle for this movie.
On the one hand, it's powerful. It's intense. It's heartbreaking. You know the story, you know how it ends, but to see it visualized? To see it happen? Almost more than I could bear (see what I did there?).
However, from a movie perspective? Not so great. If you didn't know the back story, or the characters, or the religion, what would this movie be? A very long torture scene. Painful to watch, yes. But on it's own, this movie told no story. This movie gave minimum details about the characters on their own, fully relying on the viewer to be familiar with the events.
Passionate? Yes. Emotional? A tear-jerker. But as a movie? I became desensitized to what happened. The whipping, the torture, the pain- all terrible things, but to see it repeated? The continuous falling down and getting back up? The slow motion in order to make everything look more emotional? It bored me as a viewer. It impacted me spiritually, but seeing the same actions happen over and over again caused me to look away. To disconnect from the main character. Given the intensity of the story and the message the movie was trying to proclaim, that's not what I'm supposed to do.
I'm not sure how anyone can watch this movie annually. I was so heartbroken after watching I had to go to bed.
I think you're kind of missing the point of the movie. In our day and age, most people know the story of the crucifixion, the story of Christ. This film attempts to accurately depict exactly what Christ went through, physically, emotionally, spiritually. While there were a few points that weren't do the letter, they mainly stayed true to the biblical and historical context. For me, watching this movie every year is a reminder of all the things Christ sacrificed so that I might live again in Him. It might not be a traditional film in the sense of story telling, but it serves as a visual and visceral depiction of the Passion.
ReplyDeleteSo you should only watch this movie if you're religious? If the point of the movie is to understand Christ's suffering in the last 12 hours of his life, how does someone who doesn't know the details, the characters or the true meaning supposed to connect with this movie?
DeleteI wasn't impressed with the movie-making, regardless of how the story impacted me. I thought there was a lot of opportunity here. There were many directing, acting, editing, sound-designing and writing choices that were made to create a more dramatic effect. And while they definitely affected me, I thought some of the choices detracted from the story instead of making it more meaningful. I think it means different things to different people and it just didn't have the same meaning for me.