King Herod pranced toward Jesus like a first-century drag queen.The camera continually cut back to the Jewish high prieststhroughout Jesus' ordeal, seemingly to remind the audience: "Aimblame here."
When a hammer drove a nail through Jim Caviezel's palm, I justabout lost it. Having crucified dozens of people, I can tell youthat the nail goes through the wrists. Otherwise it will tearthrough the flesh.
Last spring, The Girlfriend and I left the theater disappointedafter seeing "The Passion of the Christ." The fatal flaw had beenthe absence of substantive character development. Mel Gibson cannotjust throw someone up on screen that looks like Jesus and expecthis audience to immediately establish an emotional connection.
By doing that, the ensuing carnage fails to have nearly theimpact for which it is intended. In removing the emotional context,the graphicness of the violence becomes pornographic -- dull,tedious and disgusting.
It only works if viewers make the leap at the beginning of thefilm of saying, "That's my God on screen."
However, remember one of the pivotal rules of film appreciation:If you do not like a movie that many people say has value, watch itagain.
With that thought in mind I borrowed the recently-released DVDfrom a friend in order to give the movie a second shot. It did nothelp when I opened up the case to find an insert advertising half adozen officially licensed products. The cup of mine cynicismoverfloweth. I wonder if they sell little golden calves, too.
I invited over the only one of my "true, Christ-like, spiritual,Christian friends" who had cared for the movie that much. After athorough discussion, we went into it.
A funny surprise happened: the film got much better. Seeing it asecond time revealed greater depth spliced amidst the relentlessviolence. Knowing better what to expect, one can get past the shockof the violence and begin to absorb the more valuable sequencesthat lend greater context to the horror. It becomes no longerpornographic.
And on the troubling anti-Semitism question, this second viewingyielded an interesting possibility: Gibson's continual referencingto the Jewish high priests seemed more like a terriblemiscalculation than an intentional "blame the Jews" statement. Hedoes not seem to realize the volatile symbolism they possess inPassion plays.
So we have a flawed film that still has a great deal of merit --a gray film. It is neither wholly good nor pure evil.
But many people on both sides of the "Passion" debate willreject that analysis.
That way of understanding this world is one that many peoplecannot accept. Instead, they will pull out their scales, weigh thegood and the bad, and then throw their judgment towards whicheverside they feel weighs more heavily.
This inability to see and accept ambiguity in our lives leads tovery dangerous miscommunications and misinterpretations. Both todayand in the past it has led to literal and figurativecrucifixions.
When one says something is gray, an individual who sees theworld in black and white will often radically misinterpret it assomething black or white.
It is possible for those with different values to interact andlearn from each other. How, though, do those who speak differentlanguages communicate without going insane? Unfortunately, at thispoint, I do not have a clue.
Write to David at
swimminginbrokenglass@gmail.com
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