Analysis of Mel Gibsons The Passion of the Christ - Essay Example

The Passion of the Christ The Passion of the Christ is a 2004 American drama movie directed by Mel Gibson and Jim Caviezel acting as starring. It shows passion of Jesus with reference to the Gospel of Mathew, Luke, mark and John. The movie primarily covers the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus. It starts from the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the grievance and insomnia of the Virgin Mary, and finally ends with a succinct depiction of Jesus’ resurrection (The Passion of the Christ). There are also many flashbacks of biblical scenes of Jesus’ early life with Mary; his mother, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ teaching the Apostle as well as the Last Supper.

The movie has been controversial since its release (Bock 1). Some of the critics argue that the extreme violence in the film hampers delivery of its message. Others argue on the authenticity of non – biblical material used in the film. Moreover, some question the historical accuracy of the film as others argue on its portrayal of the Jews. However, this paper focuses on the argument on the extent by the film follows the books of gospel in New Testament. The movie does not strictly follow the New Testament as revealed in the four Gospel books.

This is because there are many incidences and events not covered within the Gospel books yet appear in the film. The first instance of controversies occurs in the Garden of Gethsemane when the movie commences. While Jesus was praying, Satan appears and attempts to distract him. However, he crushes a serpent under his heels (Bock 1). This scene clearly does not exist in any of the books of Gospel and thus, depicts the movie derives certain events from other sources other than the Bible. Consequently, the movie depicts Judas Iscariot being tormented by demons appearing as children to him (The Passion of the Christ).

However, such a scene never exists in the Bible and thus is derived from other external sources. The film also uses the Latin language to communicate and develop the movie (Bock 1). However, during the time of the crucifixion of Christ, people of that time spoke Greek and not Latin. Thus, use of Latin language comes from an external source apart from the Bible. Further, the film focuses on the fragile relationship between Pontius Pilate with Tiberius Caesar. It occurs when Pontius discusses with his wife concerning imperial orders to curb Judean revolt.

The scene whereby Pilate speaks with his wife is not biblical since in the book of Mathew, it comes out as a summary of dream of Pilate’s wife whereby she requests her husband not to harm Jesus (Bock 1). These events are clearly new and do not exist in the four books of the gospel thus, inexistence in the Bible. Moreover, the scene in the movie whereby a Roman soldier refers to Simon of Cyrene as Jew shows that the movie depicts him as a Jew. However, this contradicts the synoptic Gospels that only provide his name as well as his place of origin.

The Gospel books depict Simon as a pagan while the movie portrays him as a Jew (Bock 1). The movie also has a scene depicting Jewish soldiers under the command of the high priest bribing some people in order to rebel against Jesus. However, the bible discusses on how the Jews persuaded the crowd to speak ill of Jesus. The scenarios are not biblical and clearly illustrates that the film used other outside sources other than the bible in developing the film. Additionally, The Passion of the Christ reveals that one of the thieves who were crucified with Jesus and who mocked him had a crow peck his eye out.

Thus, the thief got punished by nature for mocking Christ. Consequently, the flashback in the movie shows Jesus making elevated four-legged furniture for a Roman (Bock 1). However, the two scenarios never exist in the New Testament gospel books and thus, are derived from an external source. In conclusion, there are various scenes within The Passion of Christ, which are sourced outside the Bible. These have led to the emergence of controversies concerning the truthfulness of the movie. Thus, some critics argue that the movie does not vividly describe the last hours of Jesus in a truthful manner.

However, despite presence of such events and scenes, it has minimal impact on the success as well as the intention of the film to humanity.Works CitedBock, Darell. Interview by Beliefnet. You Cant Whitewash the Events of the Bible Beliefnet. n.p., 2014. Retrieved from web March 30, 2014 from http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2003/09/You-Cant-Whitewash-The- Events-Of-The-Bible.aspx The Passion of the Christ. Dir. Mel Gibson. Perf. James Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Christo Jivkov, Francesco De Vito, Monica Bellucci.

Newmarket Films, 2011. Film.