Analysis of The Passion of the Christ Movie by Mel Gibson - Essay Example

?Full The Passion of the Christ Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” portrays the last twelve hours of Jesus Christ before his death starting from the garden of Gethsemane where he has been praying to God and struggling with his personal desire that the hardships he was about to experience would be taken away from him. Knowing the danger he was in, with Judas betraying him to the Sanhedrin, Jesus then said in his prayer that not his will but God’s will be done. With this resolved, he gets up to face his captors and accusers in the presence of the high priest Caiaphas who tried to find a reason for Jesus to be put to death. His sufferings then start from henceforth with the soldier spitting on him and physically hitting him, his disciples abandoned him with Peter, who swore beforehand never to leave Jesus, denying him three times as Jesus has prophesied. In the chaos that was happening, Judas hung himself after attempting to return the thirty pieces of silver the Sanhedrin gave him in exchange to betraying his master, which was not accepted. When Jesus was brought to Pontius Pilate, the crowd cried for him to be crucified and Pilate was left to no choice but to wash his hands and give Jesus to the hands of his accusers. The drama of Jesus’ flogging, with all the sweat and blood mixing as he parades with his cross to the mountain of Golgotha along with the soldiers and other prisoners were witnessed not only by the common people but by his disciples as well and Jesus’ family particularly his mother, Mary. During his crucifixion, the soldiers witnessed the miracle that happened as the earth quaked and the release of both water and blood as one soldier struck Jesus’ side to make sure he was already dead. In the temple, the priests felt the quake as well and witnessed the destruction of the curtain separating the holy place from the most holy place. The story ends with the resurrection of Jesus, with the hole on his hand proving his identity. The movie pictures Jesus who is similar to any other man who was able to feel pain, vulnerable to the harsh realities of this world like betrayal, outrage and temptations. When he was praying in the garden, Satan was depicted as a man in a black hood with a pet snake who has been torturing Jesus by questioning his ability to save the world and like anyone else, Jesus had the tendency to yield to temptation as it was presented when he said, “If it is possible, let this Chalice pass from me.” This shows to the modern man that as Jesus was able to avoid sinning by giving in to temptation, the same is true with anyone. An individual may always choose to avoid sinning by being strong when being tempted or be weak enough and succumb to temptation. However, Jesus also with his words showed that man can avoid succumbing to temptation if he yields to the will of God as he said “Let you will be done.” Jesus is also portrayed as a meek lamb brought to the slaughter as the Bible says, having no objections to the soldiers or high priest about what he is being accused of. Jesus could have had always been able to defend himself, with Pontius Pilate able to see and understand that his accusers brought Jesus to his presence because of jealousy, it would have been easy for Jesus to justify himself. Still, he did not fight back instead, he let the high priest succeed in his desire of getting Jesus hung on the cross, treated like an evil criminal, flogged and spat on yet without retaliation. The Jesus story portrayed in the film is a very moving story which is directed not only to those who believe in Jesus but also to those who do not believe because of ignorance. At some angle, the movie acts as an educational means to proclaim the reality behind the passion of Jesus, why he came to die and what sort of manner he died. This has been a great contribution to understanding and imagining the hardships Jesus had gone through only to save humanity from their sins. I believe seeing the movie which has courageously shown the brutality of the death of a man, makes a person sit and analyze then perhaps realize the reason of his existence as he watched the reason why Jesus existed on this earth more than two thousand years ago. Gibson intelligently chose his actors, crossing nations in search for those who are close to depicting the features of the characters and also those who could speak the languages used in the movie. This is seen as a strong point for the movie, taking in consideration the originality of it concept, attempting to get back to the setting of the story in its original setting and with the languages that were largely used in Israel during those days. The portrayal of other characters were all meticulously considered as seen in their attires which made the film more believable and might be considered close to the what really happened. Roman soldiers were clothed like the Roman soldiers during the time of Jesus as seen in history books and other related sources while the members of the Sanhedrin were also rightly dressed with the costumes one sees depicted in pictures and paintings preserved before and during the time of Jesus. The production is simply awesome with the right cast of characters whose high performances made the movie believable and moving. The lighting and sound effects were also great as they added to the portrayal of scenes that makes one’s bones shiver like the darkening of day during the crucifixion, the earthquakes and lightning, the blowing of strong winds and other effects that helps the audience ‘feel’ what was going on. I think the film interprets Jesus not only as the Son of God but also the son of Mary which cannot be refuted because the Bible claims it to be the truth. However, consequently, this then puts Mary at a higher pedestal than she was meant to be because the aforementioned concept then makes Mary to be the mother of God which now becomes controversial. There are many beliefs regarding the deity of Jesus and Mary and to the former, there would be no questions raised but to the latter, I think Mary was just used as an instrument to the ‘humanization’ of Jesus who is also God. And this could be where objections would be raised because of the different perceptions to the position of Mary. However, if one sticks to the teachings of the Bible, it could be clearly seen that Mary was never hailed but that in understanding, she has served her own son not because of a special bond between mother and son but because Mary knew how Jesus was conceived, saw how he grew up and was a witness to the first miracle at the wedding feast in Cana. Whatever objections there may be, I guess it should not be man’s main purpose in life to justify his beliefs but to prove that what he believes in is the truth as he follows the doctrines of Jesus for in the first place, the film or the story is not about Mary but Jesus and his passion. In conclusion, the passion of the Christ is to be regarded not for scholastic arguments but to encourage a person to have the right foundations of his faith. That would be, being saved by only one God who is Jesus Christ, the risen Messiah whose blood is able to cleanse the sins of the world. Indeed he paid a great price for such forgiveness and acceptance, with his own life and this makes a person come to realize the worth of his life whether it is lived in sin or in righteousness as Jesus lived his own life. Such incredible sacrifice to prove God’s love to man is just so powerful that one will stop and think, ‘Am I worth dying for?’ And this should be the question everyone should be assessing at the end of everyday so that when a new day comes, he will do his best to live a better life. Read More