THE PASSION 
OF THE CHRIST

A MEL GIBSON MOVIE

John Antony

This is not the first time the story of Jesus hits celluloid. Most probably, not the last time either. But Mel Gibson’s upcoming movie, ‘The Passion of The Christ’, may remain as the benchmark Christ movie of all times. Passion only depicts the last 12 hours of Jesus, but in it’s complete, stunning, bloody, intriguing brutality.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote about Jesus – “A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was the perfect act.” 

But perfecting it on celluloid still left room for improvement, felt Mel Gibson, Hollywood superstar of films like ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Lethal Weapon’ series and Oscar-winning director of the period drama ‘Braveheart’. Jesus Christ is perhaps history’s most filmed personality with almost one hundred films trying to understand him, out of which at least a dozen are serious attempts in tune with history. Prominent among them were ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ and ‘The Gospel According to St. Mathew’.  

Evidently, Mel Gibson has seen them all. Still, he wanted to better them. As the middle-aged superstar, known also for his Christian faith, said in a recent interview – “My heart was toying with the idea of making this, for over 10 years now ”. 

The principal way his Christ movie differs from all others is what it depicts – just the last 12 hours of Christ. The hours when Jesus perspired blood foreseeing the ordeal that awaited him, was betrayed by one of his disciples, captured by Jewish leaders using Roman soldiers, tortured barbarically, forced to take a heavy wooden cross along the way to Calvary and crucified under a death sentence that was so inhuman that, as historians note, Roman criminals were never put to death by it. 

The film’s title derives its name from what early Christians traditionally called this ordeal – The Passion of Christ. Biblically, Christ’s passion is the supreme sacrifice that forms the cornerstone of Christian faith – the fact that Jesus, despite foreseeing (and even predicting) the terrible ordeal that awaited him, willingly walked into suffering as atonement for the sins of humanity. 

Gibson’s movie is as close to history as possible, being based on all the four separate accounts (gospels) written by two of Jesus’ disciples St. Mathew & St. John and two contemporaries St. Mark and St. Luke. Apart from the gospels, Gibson based his movie on an inspirational book on Jesus’ final hours, ‘The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ’ by Anne Catherine Emmerich.  

Gibson himself wrote the script of the film with help from ace scriptwriter Ben Fitzgerald. As much as the script is based on gospel accounts of Christ’s passion, Gibson and Fitzgerald have added some elements, especially brief flashbacks. In one such poignant flashback, a grief-stricken Mary is caught reminiscing about boy Jesus falling down during play, while seeing him staggering under the weight of the massive cross during the walk to Calvary.  

Mel Gibson wanted to do the film completely in Aramaic, the ancient language that Jesus and his contemporaries spoke. But when he insisted that there wouldn’t be also any subtitles in English or any other language, most prospective studios shunned away from the project. Finally, Gibson’s own production company Icon took on the project. Says Gibson, - “It (Aramaic) will lend even more authenticity and realism to the film. Subtitles would somehow spoil the effect that I want to achieve. It would alienate you and you'd be very aware that you were watching a film if you saw lettering coming up on the bottom of it. Hopefully, I'll be able to transcend the language barriers with my visual storytelling”. 

Surprisingly, after the first previews of Passion were shown in US recently, executives from 20^th Century Fox have evinced keen interest in the film. Fox, belonging to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation empire, already has an ongoing distribution agreement with Icon. There are chances that Passion will be released worldwide by Fox. 

The movie has one of the most meticulously selected casts of recent times. History’s most famous man of all times is played by Jim Caviezel, the tall soft-spoken Hollywood actor with “eyes like the oceans”. Gibson wanted Caviezel for many reasons, best among them being his looks that convey the Jesus persona perfectly – confident, sober & compassionate looking without even speaking a word. Besides, Jim Caviezel is a devout Christian and even 33 years old – the age when Christ was tortured and crucified.

The rest of the cast is drawn from quite a few countries, with Romanian actress Maria Morgenstern playing Jesus’ Mother Mary and Italian actress Monica Bellucci playing Mary Magdalen. 

Jim Caviezel's admits that his performance as Jesus is inspired rather than based on natural talent. “Truthfully, it was never up to me." He humbly says, "My answer was always that I'm interested in letting God work through me to play this role. I believe the Holy Spirit has been leading me in the right direction and to get away from my own physical flesh and allow the character of Jesus to be played out the way God wants it - that's all I can do.”  

Of course, Caviezel had the toughest role to enact, hanging down from the Cross for days and co-operating to extents that is humanly possible in carrying the Cross and taking spits, slaps & flagellation.  

However, there are already indications that Passion won’t pass without ruffling a few feathers. A section of the powerful Jewish media lobby in US has already protested against Passion, arguing that Gibson’s film will unleash a new wave of anti-Semitic sentiment across the world. But Gibson brushes away all such arguments. Backing his views, is the modern stance taken by Roman Catholics and other major Christian denominations about the Jewish role in Christ’s crucifixion – that Jews might have demanded and caused the crucifixion of Jesus, but it is the collective sin of humanity that caused his suffering and death. Besides, this suffering was something Christ had anticipated and could have escaped, but didn’t. 

But all these were no solace for Mel Gibson, who was on a mission to portray the suffering of Christ with historical accuracy. Historically, it was Jews, especially Jewish High Priests and their dedicated followers who conspired, caught, handed over and demanded the cruelest of death for Jesus, from their rulers, the Romans.  

History, indeed, does hold the potential for ruffling some feathers. Hopefully, as Gibson says, “Passion may eventually help put things in the right perspective, the perspective of truth” 

Passion is exclusively shot in Matera, a town in south Italy that still has 2000-year-old structures closely resembling the Jerusalem and Judea of Jesus’ time. Gibson and his crew created a 2.5-acre, startlingly realistic set for the $25 million film. The set is a massive collection of exquisitely created individual sets like temple, courtyard, Praetorium, Pilate’s Palace etc.  

Much of the credit for Passion will go to ace cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and award winning costume designer Maurizio Millenotti, who have together ensured a painting like quality to the visuals. The inspiration for Gibson was the obscure Renaissance painter Caravaggio whose works Gibson rates as “violent, dark, spiritual and stunningly real”. Gibson’s cinematographer applied his genius in light & shades and his costume designer exclusively used hand made costumes to achieve this style that Gibson wanted. 

Evidently, Passion is a ‘labor of love’ for Mel Gibson. Says the veteran actor-director, “My hope is that this movie has a tremendous message of faith, hope, love & forgiveness as well as a message of tremendous courage and sacrifice. My hope is that it will affect people on a very profound level and somehow change them”. As Jim Caviezel added, “Believe me when I say this to you, when people get to the crucifixion scene, by that time I believe there will be many who can't take it and will have to walk out, I guarantee it. And I believe there will be many who will stay and be drawn to the truth.” 

For ardent Christians like Gibson and Caviezel, making Passion was almost a duty. Millions of Christians the world over may also vouch for the film, when it is finally released. But Jesus is still an enigma for millions of non-believers who range from those who think that he was merely a great teacher, to those who believe that he was a holy man, to those who think that he was somehow intimate with God. But, historically, defense for Christ has often come from the most unlikely quarters.