Some Passion reveiws from "Real People"

Internet movie site Ain't It Cool News is posting reviews for The Passion of the Christ from ordinary folks that have seen it in sneak previews. Pretty powerful stuff and much more interesting than the negative clacking from the NY Times.

The version I saw was not the final cut. It had a shot with the timecode still on it and there was a lot of music used from Last Temptation of Christ (no comment). The story is all too familiar, I’ve read and studied the Gospels hundreds of times and I was blown away at how new this all was to me. -- Douglas Tennapel

This will easily be the most important film released in 2004. It is the most graphic and accurate Jesus film ever made, and every person ought to see this movie when it's released. It doesn't matter if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus or not -- you owe it to yourself to witness this amazing piece of art. Mel Gibson has given us a masterpiece that must be seen to be believed. Really, no joke. I LOVE the Lord of the Rings movies, Spider-Man, the Last Samurai, and all the other great films in recent memory, but "The Passion" is on a whole different level altogether in terms of importance, achievement and raw artistic, cultural and spiritual value. -- Music Prof.

The visual look to this film was one part silent movie, one part mystic awakening and one part nightmare. It places you where you need to be, immediately uncomfortable yet familiar enough to go on. Visually this movie stimulates emotionally like nothing out there right now. It creeps…it doesn’t flash in your eyes, it engulfs. The camera doesn’t just film Caviezel, its star. It embraces and caresses him. Even in his darkest hour he expresses such a sense of knowing. Not the typical righteous stoicism we see in the usual film portrayals of Jesus, but a deep sense of spiritual knowing. So that even if you don’t believe in “the Jesus Story,” you can believe that Jesus was someone who possessed an inner quality of peace and forgiveness. -- Saffy

The Passion of the Christ

I don't know anything about this movie reviewer, but he seems to do a remarkable job in cutting through the storm of puffed-up criticism levelled at Mel Gibson to focus on the movie itself:

"There have been some that have refused to see the forest for the trees, and some will probably never stop viewing it through a fearful paradigm. That stance is as unfortunate as it is baffling. Take, for example, The Mona Lisa. While having a chin in the painting, it is not a painting about a chin. Neither is The Passion Of The Christ about Jews calling for Christ’s death. While those moments are present, the classic Passion story (and this film) is about the willful decision of The Son Of God to die sacrificially. It’s a story of choice, not victimization or murder. There is a guilty party, however, but it is humanity itself.

As the Scriptures made clear and THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST explicitly re-enacts, no man—Jew or otherwise—had the power to kill Christ. But even to the extent of some peoples’ involvement, Christ’s response to his persecutors remains not only one of the story’s most powerful themes, it is also the clearest moral response to assuage any concerns of violent anti-Semitic uprisings. For anyone who uses THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST as vindication for hatred and bigotry (anti-Semitic or otherwise) is as inexplicably—or willfully—obtuse to the film’s message as its critics seem to be.

A Christian who spews hate as a result of this film is an illegitimate, and stupid, one. Salvation is impossible without Christ’s death and resurrection, of which Christians are thankful for, not angry about. Most importantly, Christ’s response to those who enacted the crucifixion is not only contrary to bigotry and violence, it specifically forbids it.

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST is no more anti-Jewish than World War II films are anti-German. Just as corrupt Nazis didn’t represent every German, neither do corrupt Jewish leaders represent an entire Jewish race. Rather than a “Jews vs. Jesus” framework, director Mel Gibson frames his story in the reality of the day, that Jesus—rather than being hated by all Jews—was a polarizing figure within the Jewish world. Some feared Him, even hated Him, but many others loved Him.

Gibson responsibly depicts this reality as we see Jews defending Christ before the Pharisees themselves, as well as other expressions of love for Christ by many other Jews. One of the film’s (and Gospels’) more fascinating perspectives is that corrupt Jewish leaders aren’t the only ones who deny Christ but some of His disciples do as well. There’s plenty of guilt to go around. A corrupt Jewish leadership may have called for an innocent Man’s death, but the Christian perspective is that they were simply doing our dirty work. And ultimately, it was Christ’s decision—not theirs, and not ours—that put Him there. It was His choice, but our guilt."

Okay, That's It!

Hey, I don't mind having my intelligence questioned by the vultures of Madison Avenue each hour of my waking day. But when they put some corn oil slop in a SPRAY BOTTLE and STILL call it "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter", well, then they've gone too far. Oh, yeah? You can't believe its not butter, eh? Have you ever SEEN real butter it's a stick, dammit... A stick!...

Kerry Campaign Headquarters

I Hate Stupid People in Positions of Power

Has any NFL or CBS executive ever even watched MTV? Every video on MTV features a girl who is a slut and a boy who is a gangster/rapist. Now the executives "in charge" claim ignorance that an "MTV produced halftime extravaganza" delivers on its specialty of whores and scum? Whoever approved MTV's participation in the halftime show should be fired for gross incompetence.