FILM REVIEW
The Passion of Christ
Director: Mel Gibson
Cast: James Caviezel, Monica Bellucci, Maia
Morgenstern
Classification: tba
Running Time: 125 minutes
Opens On: 26 March 2004
The Passion of Christ is a film about the last twelve hours of the
life of Jesus of Nazareth's life. The film opens in the Garden of Olives
(Gethsemane) where Jesus has gone to pray after the Last Supper. Jesus
resists Satan's temptations. Betrayed by Judas Iscariot, Jesus is arrested
and taken back to within the city walls of Jerusalem where the city
leaders of the Pharisees confront him with accusations of blasphemy and
his trial results in a condemnation to death.
Jesus is brought before Pilate, the Roman governor of Palestine, who
listens to the accusations levelled at him by the Pharisees. Realising
that he is confronting a political conflict, Pilate defers to King Herod
in the matter. Herod returns Jesus to Pilate who gives the crowd the
choice between Jesus and the criminal Barrabas. The crowd chooses to have
Barrabas set free and to condemn Jesus.
Jesus is handed over to the Roman soldiers and flagellated.
Unrecognisable now, he is brought back before Pilate, who presents him to
the crowd as if to say "is this not enough?" It is not. Pilate washes
his hands of the entire dilemma, ordering his men to do as the crowd
wishes.
Jesus is presented with the cross and is ordered to carry it through
the streets of Jerusalem all the way up to Golgotha. On Golgotha, Jesus is
nailed to the cross and undergoes his last temptation - the fear that his
Father has abandoned him. He overcomes his fear, looks at Mary, his Holy
Mother, and makes the pronouncement, which only she can fully understand,
"it is accomplished." He then dies: "into Thy hands I commend my
Spirit."
At the moment of his death, nature itself overturns.
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