Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" opened on Ash Wednesday to sold-out theaters everywhere. After much controversy in the media and criticism from Hollywood, the film proved that one man's vision can indeed affect others in a powerful way.

The film is based on the New Testament Gospel accounts of the last 12 hours of Jesus' life, and most of Jesus' lines are directly from Scripture (though at times Gibson adds scenes that are not found in the Biblical text). It starkly begins with Jesus' ordeal in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Satan--in the form of a woman with no eyebrows--tempts Him to give up the idea of dying for the people. The colors are all muted blues, grays, and blacks--giving the night a cursed feel.

The cinematography is by Caleb Deschanel, a true artist known for capturing unique camera angels, slow-motion scenes, and the play of light against darkness. Deschanel worked with Francis Ford Coppola on Apocalypse Now, The Black Stallion, and Being There. He also brought us the lyrical Fly Away Home and received Oscar nominations for The Right Stuff and The Natural. So it is not surprising that he films a convincing evil presence in a dark garden.

"Their sins are too many. No one man can bear them all," the Devil (Rosalinda Celentano) states in a soft voice while the sleepy disciples wait at a distance. A worm appears on the devil's pale face, and a snake slithers out from beneath its dark robe--to further torture Christ.

Jesus (James Caviezel) falls to His face in prayer to His Father, pleading for the cup of suffering to pass but accepting His Father's will. He then rises and stomps on the head of the serpent, fulfilling an ancient prophecy given in Genesis Chapter 3. God cursed the serpent, saying:

"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."

Immediately a band of Jewish soldiers appear with Judas (Luca Lionello), who betrays his Master with a kiss. The brash disciple Peter (Francesco De Vito) tries to protect Jesus by slashing off the ear of one of the soldiers. Jesus informs Peter that "those who live by the sword will die by the sword" and bends to restore the man's ear. The man continues kneeling, a look of amazement on his face, as the soldiers bind Jesus with huge, crisscrossed chains and lead Him away. The disciples all flee, fulfilling the prophecy "I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered." (Zechariah 13:7)

The following scenes show Peter denying Christ as he witnesses a midnight trial by the Sanhedren, the Jewish religious council. When questioned, Jesus does not reply at first, though he is struck by the temple guards and accused by many witnesses. Finally Caiphas, the High Priest (Mattia Sbragia) asks Jesus outright if He is the Son of God.

Jesus replies,

"I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven."
This causes the High Priest to tear his beaded tunic and declare, "Blasphemy! He is worthy of death!" before he leads the shouting group to Pontius Pilate (in those days under Roman occupation, the Jews could not put a man to death themselves).
One thinks Jesus has suffered much so far. His face is so beaten that one eye is closed, and blood mars his features. But the worst is yet to come as Pilate (Hristo Shopov) decides that Jesus is not guilty of death but should be beaten to please the crowd.

The Roman soldiers are very brutal in their beating of Jesus as they count each stripe. This scene lasts too long, and then--when the audience can barely take another whack--the soldiers turn Jesus over and start again.
Pilate's wife Claudia (Claudia Procles) keeps warning Pilate to let Jesus go. When her husband doesn't listen, she shows her compassion for Jesus by giving his mother Mary (Maia Morgenstern) some clean white cloths so that she can wipe her son's blood off the flagstones in the courtyard (the Jews highly value the sanctity of the body before burial). Mary Magdalene (Monica Bellucci), a pretty woman who was once caught in the act of adultery but set free by Jesus, helps the older Mary with this sad and grisly task.

Meanwhile, the Roman soldiers put a crown of thorns on Jesus' head and mock Him as King. Pilate brings Jesus back to the Judgment Seat and tells the crowd,

"Behold the man!"

Instead of showing pity, the priests stir the crowd to demand the death sentence, convincing Pilate to release a murderer and condemn Jesus. Pilate has a servant bring out a bronze bowl of water so that he may ceremonially wash his hands of innocent blood. As Jesus looks into the swishing liquid, a flashback of Him washing the feet of His disciples ensues, when Jesus told them,

"If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet."

After Pilate washes his hands, he hands over Jesus to be crucified.

Accompanied by the disciple John, the two Marys follow Jesus who is driven by Roman soldiers down the "via dolorosa" (way of pain), the long road that leads through Jerusalem to the place of crucifixion outside the city. Satan also follows, weaving in and out of the crowd and staring at Jesus.

Many flashbacks weave throughout the film, a welcomed relief as we see how Jesus looked without all the blood and bruises. When He is being tortured, He remembers how He celebrated the last Passover with His disciples and warned them,

"If they persecute me, they will persecute you."

When he falls carrying the cross, the camera angle shows His point of view as He stares at a man's dusty sandal. He remembers times from His childhood with Mary (and she also remembers comforting a fallen boy Jesus).

The most powerful flashback is when the soldiers start nailing Jesus to the cross on top of a rocky, windswept hill. At this point Mel Gibson uses his own left hand to drive in the first nail. As this happens, the scene cuts to Jesus at the Last Supper, holding out his unmarked hands toward His disciples and saying,

"You are my friends. Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."

The Roman soldiers brutally finish the nails in Christ's hands and feet, heave up the heavy wooden cross, and drop it into a hole. Jesus hangs high toward heaven, two robbers crucified with him, one on each side--the famous tableau of three crosses atop a stark hill. Above Christ's head is the sign that displays His crime in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek:

"The King of the Jews."

The famous last statements of Jesus from the cross are accompanied by darkness, a storm, and an earthquake at His death. The temple altar is broken in two from top to bottom.

The last few seconds of the film show deflating white garments on a stone slab, the twilight tomb, and a risen Christ with sunrise in his golden-brown eyes, holes in His hands, and His naked body rising to eternal life. I liked this understated resurrection, a stark contrast to the long, drawn-out hours of suffering and death.
After the film I sat, stunned in my theater seat, between my friend Paula and my husband Edd. As I stood up, fresh tears filled my eyes, and I prayed to Jesus--a Friend I have known since childhood and teenage years, from whose steps I have often wandered. Paula hugged me on one side, and Edd on the other--and it was like meeting Jesus again in a close and personal way, as His Spirit reached down into that theater and touched my heart--with comfort that my sins are forgiven because He paid their price. From the cross, He said,

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." (Luke 23:34). Those words were for all of us.

Some Protestants will find this film too Catholic. Gibson drew on the visions of two Medieval saints for some scenes not found in the Bible. The Stations of the Cross (those 10 stone tableaus found on the walls of all Catholic churches) are heavily depicted, such as the woman who offers Jesus a drink and who wipes His face with a towel--to capture the red imprint of His features. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is highlighted much throughout the film, especially toward the end while He hangs on the cross. After His death, she kisses his blood-soaked feet, and when His body is lowered, she holds him in a drawn-out tableau that looks like Michaelangelo's famous marble statue, "La Pieta."

Many Jews will find the film offensive because the priests seek so diligently to condemn Jesus. They even pay Judas a bag of silver coins--the price of innocent blood (fulfilling a prophecy in Zechariah 11). They violate their own rules of a fair trial and listen to contradictory witnesses at night (though some members of the council object and leave). On the other side, though, the Jews are the main ones to show compassion to Jesus--such as Simon who at first unwillingly helps bear the cross and then is reluctant to leave. Many Jewish women weep for Jesus along the painful road to Golgotha; and John, the beloved disciple, is the only Jewish man to stay at the foot of the cross to the very end, and to promise to watch after Mary as if she were his own mother.

Muslims, who do not believe that the Divine would allow His Son to suffer and die like this, might have a hard time understanding just why the crowd is out to kill Jesus. Buddhists and Hindus also might not grasp the need for a sacrifice for sins; and atheists might not see a connection beyond mere mortal suffering. Gibson could have shown more clearly the reasons for Christ's death as a sacrificial Lamb, to fulfill the Law and the Prophecies of the Old Testament.

Italians could find this film offensive, since it portrayed their ancestors, the Romans, as heartless torturers who kept beating Jesus with nail-laden whips until His flesh fell out in clumps and His blood filled the courtyard. The savage enjoyment that all the Roman guards took in punishing Jesus is probably overdone, since Roman discipline would have limited the scourging to 39 lashes. I kept waiting for the Centurion, who watched the crucifixion from horseback, to exclaim at the end (as the Gospels tell us), "Truly this was the Son of God!" But Mel apparently lost the punchline there. The only Roman who truly showed compassion was Pilate's wife Claudia, who kept warning Pilate to free Jesus. Pilate himself seemed wishy-washy, worried more about the crowd and his political career than recognizing and obeying the Truth.

The film is a work of art, with an interesting soundtrack, costumes, and settings. It is also a long ordeal of tears and pain, and I would not see it again unless I had to. The subtitles are difficult to follow, as the languages spoken are Aramaic, Hebrew, or Latin (you will probably recognize some of the words). However, I think all adults should see the movie once (it is rightly rated R and not for children). Don't eat anything while watching, bring plenty of tissues, and take a couple of pain pills first. Be prepared for your brain to think a great deal about what you witnessed and to stay up all night with dreams. Anyone who is honest with him or herself will feel as one with those who yelled, "Crucify Him!" and who whipped Jesus and nailed Him to the cross.

"Surely He has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed Him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.

"But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
and by His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5)

"The Passion of the Christ" is a definitive film of our time, and it will bring a sword through each of us--to cut to our very heart and reveal where we stand in regards to Jesus, whether for Him or against Him.

Caviezel should get an Oscar for his painful performance. He suffered a dislocated shoulder while on the cross, and twice the actors who whipped him missed the protecting board and cut into his side with their metallic whips. On one particularly cold day of filming, Caviezel noticed that the cast and crew were wearing coats and shivering while he, high above them on a cross, was hanging nearly naked, exposed to the elements while being sprayed with water to keep the "blood" wet.

For all the seriousness, the film was not without some humor. During one shoot, Caviezel was struck by lightning. As smoke rose from his ears, the actor looked up toward Heaven and stated,

"So, you didn't like that take?"

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For more information, visit thepassionofthechrist.com