Well I have almost written 90 reviews. and so I decided to watch Passion of the Christ again and make it #90. so here we go.
Plot: Simply put, this is the story of Jesus Christ from when he prayed in Gethsemane, to his torture and death, to his resurrection.
I enjoy this film. I mean in all honesty, what makes it good to me is that I am a Christian, so the Lord is my master, I believe that he did this and so on. So it makes sense to like how they put together this particular story with what he went through. Although, like anyone else who believes in a form of Christianity that's in any way different from some the things Mel Gibson and other believe, there were things that I believe didn't happen such as Satan's part in the film, the demons that tortured Judas, that woman... Serephia or Saint Veronica as she's generally called wiping Jesus' face with her veil, or...well...I'm not sure if even Mel Gibson and the others that follow the same form of Christianity as he does believe that were was some...monster or demon or whatever that thing was that randomly passed by Judas. But still, I thought this film did its part just fine generally in telling how much Jesus went through to die for our sins.
Actors/Characters:
Francesco DeVito/Peter: I thought Peter was just fine. I mean when I was younger, I was shocked that he actually said "damn" while he was denying Jesus a third time. But I thought the acting was pretty good with what the went through throughout his brief time into the film.
Christo Jivkov/John: Personally I liked John being in this film as long and as often as he was. I mean he probably wrote the deeper version of the story in his part of the Gospel and as far as he might have hinted out in his book, he did have a pretty deep relationship Jesus. So as far being the main disciple to focus on throughout the film, I think John was the right choice.
Monica Bellucci/Mary Magdalene: I find it really messed up finding out after seeing this movie again that Mary is the woman that played that Persephone chick in the Matrix sequels and that queen or whatever in Brother's Grimm. But anyways, I liked her part in this film as well and I also thought the flashback from when Jesus saved her from being stoned was a nice touch.
Luca Lionello/Judas: Judas was someone I definitely had to take a look at from watching this movie again after I actually played him in a Maundy-Thursday service which was a nice experience. That aside, I thought they told his part of the story well too, and while I do not believe he was tortured by demons before he hung himself, I think it might have worked better when it comes to him driving himself to commit suicide for betraying Jesus anyway.
Hristo Shopov/Pontius Pilate: Again, a good job in laying out what the character did. Pilate wasn't sure what to do through that whole situation and eventually he took it out his hands leading it to Jesus' death. What I personally like about this portrayal of Pilate, seeing this again after reading my Bible a lot is that at one point, he talks about how Herod put him on thin ice. You see, Herod's father once ruled over Judea and Samaria, but since Pilate ruled that land now, Herod was suspicious of him and viewed him a threat to his own rule, bad enough that control over land to begin with was being wrestled from Herod's half-brother who was an ineffective ruler. But when Pilate sent Jesus to Herod, he showed that he acknowledged Herod's position in power which put his mind at ease and actually started a friendship with Pilate. so fun fact about the two actual people.
Rosalinda Celentano/Satan: Yes, Satan was actually played by a woman. But she did an interesting job in sounding evil and tempting. Not really what I would think of if Satan really did tempt him there, but as far as drama goes, it was nice. I also like seeing Satan scream in defeat in the end. Yes that's a bit of boasting which I shouldn't do and i'm working on that, but nowadays, it's a bit more to look at some the specific stuff in that moment. Like the sound of the scream itself and the particular location. I actually can't totally tell if he's in hell or if he's in the place where Jesus died. I mean if you think about it, yes the location does look like Hell just out of the color and the all around look of the location with the really dry ground and all that, but with the particular circle that Satan is standing on, he looks like-without showing anyone or anything, he's at the place were Jesus died, if you notice the dark ruble or whatever was on the ground are sort of set in a way were it could be the some of the people that were still there and the crosses. I don't know, i'm sure it's Hell, but I hope you can sort of see where I am going at.
Maia Morgenstern/Mary (Jesus' Mother): She...was a mother. I don't think there's another simple way of putting it. The way she reacted to whatever torture was happening to Jesus, witnessing whatever sort of trial he was on, trying to get near him as he was carrying the cross while remembering some time in the past from he was a kid. I think she pulled it off well.
and of coarse, the star himself, Jim Caviezel/Jesus Christ:um...yikes. This was a hard part of pull off. Especially with what they show in particular from when Jesus gets flogged. (Man that was a brutal scene.) But I think he pulled it off pretty well. I mean I think they might have over done it with him falling so many time when he was carrying the cross but it was still a good job.
Music:Very good. very powerful.
Culture accuracy: With this i'm mostly referring to the culture of the Jews in this film. Knowing a lot more about how things were expressed in their culture back then and even farther back to...maybe the time of Moses, I liked how some of it was laid out in this film. mostly with mourning when there was that whole pack of women weeping while Jesus was carrying the cross, spitting at someone to show someone's disgust for another person I think is what i means... or tearing clothes to show someone's anger, however with that one, I think it would've been interesting if they also did the gnashing of the teeth.
Editing: It was good, but I think some things were a bit off. Because when they started flogging Jesus, I think they set it so the person who was counting the number of times he is being whipped, he actually shouted ...I think it was either 19 or 20 or something, one or two more times. Other than that, while this doesn't really have something to do with editing, I think I should add right now before I forget how there were two points where there was actual English. There was one point were someone was shouting "stop it" while everyone else was talking and another point later were someone said "it's too heavy." so yeah.
And that is my review for The Passion Of The Christ. It's not 100% accurate in my opinion, but even if it isn't, it still does it's job just fine in telling the story of our Lord dying for out sins.
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