6:01 p.m. - 2004-10-04
The Passion Of The Christ

Movie Review or Sorry...No Passion

Ok...now before I start my movie review I just want to make a little disclaimer. I don't intend to write my review with the intention of making anyone uncomfortable, no do I want anyone to think I am some sort of heathen and going to hell.

Sorry folks...The Passion Of the Christ did not move me.

Maybe there was too much hype. Maybe I needed to see it on the big screen. Maybe I am just way too numbed by the violence I see every day on TV, news and other movies. I don't know, but I seem to be the only one I know who was not moved by the movie.

Prior to this movie's release, we were told about how powerful it was. Mel Gibson said that it was meant to push the viewer off the edge and that it does just that. One anti Christian group after another stated that this movie is just so powerful that people are going to come out of there wanting to kill and hate Jews.

After the release of the movie in the theater, we were treated to news clips and stories about throngs of the faithful going to see the movie as a group. Whole churchfuls of people going together and weeping, crying and gnashing of teeth going on during and after the movie.

For two months after the movie's release, no social event went with out discussion of this movie. Christians, Jews and secular alike proclaiming that it was either the most moving, most inspiring or most violent movie they have ever seen. The most violent comments are the reason that I did not go to the theater. I decided to wait for the DVD.

All through the month of July the buzz at Blockbuster and in the media was about the release of the DVD. In August we experience The Second Coming of The Passion Of The Christ. I have been meaning to rent it ever since and last weekend was my first opportunity to sit and watch a movie, so off to Blockbuster I went with my $4.29.

We watched it last night and I must say that it wasn't any more moving than any other Jesus movie. Hollywood has made many many passion movies and to me this was just another. I found the subtitles distracting from the images and yes, there was violence, but I did not find myself having to hold my hand over my eyes and watch through my fingers. I did not shed a tear. When the movie was over, I wished I had spent my $ 4.29 on something else.

Now I am only offering a review of the movie. I am not offering a review of Christ and the genuine ordeal he went through. I was raised in a church and remember watching the solomn service on Holy Thursday as the lights were dimmed afer the choir sang and the story of the passion was read from the bible. We prayed in silence in the semi-darkness lit only by candles casting eerie shadows as the pastor cried, "It Is Finished" The candles were blown out and the service would end just like that, with the silent congregation filing out of the church and you could feel the awe. Services like these leave me dumbstruck.

For me, sometimes the story is better told than watched. I feel that way about this story.

P. I. Yarnsmith

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