The Passion of Christ

The Passion of Christ

The release of The Passion of the Christ in theatres across the world has become a significant event in many people's lives. It has become the most powerful and moving Christian film in all of time. Never before has a person of Mel Gibson's caliber created such a film. At least, no one has created a film as well produced as Mel Gibson's. With high quality cinematography, heart pounding orchestration, and highly graphic scenes, this movie has stirred the hearts of believers and non-believers.

The movie, chronologically, is a harmonization of the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You could even say that the movie is sort of like a fifth gospel, the gospel according to Mel. What's crazy is that the movie is pretty much entirely based on the four accounts from the New Testament. One would think that a producer out of Hollywood would throw in a twist here and there to make the story more interesting, but Gibson followed the stories presented in the Bible as best as humanly possible. Granted, there are a couple scenes that were thrown in the movie without any reference to the New Testament, but without those scenes, the painting of the character of Jesus wouldn't have been as clear.

The story that Mel Gibson tells is most similar to the book of Matthew. Matthew is one of the longer gospels that gives more room for details. Because of this, it is assumed that the movie was based mostly on this gospel. The story starts out in the garden of Gethsemane. Here, Jesus is praying to his father. As He predicted, Judas betrays Him with a kiss, bringing a great multitude to capture Him. From here the servants of the high priest take Jesus to the Sanhedrin to be tried. Here, as the crowds roar against the Christ, Peter denies Jesus three times just as Jesus said he would. Mel uses many flashbacks to show that Jesus' prophesies had been fulfilled. He also uses flashbacks to better reveal the characteristics of Christ.

After spending a night locked up at the Sanhedrin, the Jews took Jesus to Pontius Pilate, wishing for Him to be crucified. Before Pilate makes a decision, the movie jumps to a scene where Judas, being possessed by many demons, hangs himself. When Pilate hears that Jesus is from Galilee, he sends Him to Herod who was also in Jerusalem at the time. As the Jews were away, Pilate's wife asks that nothing be done to Jesus because of recent dreams she had been having.

When the Jews come back with Jesus, they say that Herod left the decision up to Pilate. When Pilate hears this, he offers Jesus or a murderer, named Barabbas, to be released, hoping that the Jews would pick Jesus. However, the Jews pick Barabbas, leaving Jesus to be crucified. To keep a bloody battle from occurring between the Jews and the Roman guards, Pilate decides to punish Jesus. For hours, Jesus is beaten and ...