One thing I do not understand is why there is all the buzz about "The Passion of the Christ " movie being such a portrayal of violence. Are folks just now becoming aware of what a crucifixion is all about? Some people are acting as though they are quite shocked about the fact that film maker Mel Gibson has put such violent scenes into his Passion movie. Why is it such a surprise that there is a new violent motion picture on the block at all? Thats just about all that comes out of Hollywood these days.
I myself have not had the pleasure of viewing the Passion movie as yet. Though I have seen other films that have included crucifixion scenes and have often wondered why these scenes were played off so mildly. I mean they will show Jesus being beaten with a cat-o-nine tails and you would merely see a few red streaks running across His back. Or when the crown of thorns would be placed onto His head there may be two or three small streams of blood trickle down onto His brow. I really can't recall any of them that I have ever seen depicting any overly pitiless beatings or brutal manhandlings. They were more or less made to look like a day in the park as far as I am concerned as opposed to what really happened to Jesus.
Then we also have all endured listening to the whimpering of parents, "Oh, I just don't know if I should take little Johnny and Betty to see this." Well, given the fact that this entire movie is not in English and is all captionized, I don't think it would tend to hold the attention of children anyway.
I myself have never been a big fan of captionized pictures. I feel it distracts me from seeing what is happening in the actual scenes due to my having to concentrate on all the reading. How can one enjoy the acting? Not to mention that I am not the fastest reader in the world and often don't get the complete caption read before another one is flashed up onto the screen. Therefore I miss what is being shown picture wise and also what is being communicated in the captioning as well and I have often left the theater feeling cheated.
The real truth of the matter being, the Passion movie probably doesn't even come close to showing the real essence of the suffering of our Lord on that day. After all, He did die for all the sins of humanity, past, present and future.
And what an enormous number that must be. GCJ