The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ opens in Gethsemane. We see Jesus in ‘medias res as’ in the dead of night, some hours after the last supper. He prays and is tempted by Satan, while his apostles, Peter, James, and John sleep. Judas Iscariot has already been seduced by the Jewish priests of the Temple in Jerusalem to betray Jesus. He was given thirty pieces of silver to tell them the location of where his teacher is. Thus the priests have sent a contingent of guards to arrest Jesus for heresy.
Gethsemane
In the woods outside Gethsemane, Judas approaches with the temple guards and betrays Jesus with a kiss on his cheek. As the guards move in to arrest Jesus, Peter intervenes and attacks them, cutting off the ear of Malchus. However, Jesus tells Peter to stop with the violence and magically heals Malchus’ ear. The temple guards arrest Jesus and the remaining apostles flee.
Jesus replies, “I am”
John runs and tells Jesus’ mother Mary of the arrest, as well as telling Mary Magdalene. Peter follows Jesus at a distance, seeing him severely beaten by the Temple guards on their way back to Jerusalem. At the Jewish Temple, the head priest, Caiaphas, holds a trial of Jesus. This he does despite the objection of some of the other priests, who are consequently expelled from the court. When questioned by Caiaphas whether he is the son of God, Jesus replies “I am”. Caiaphas is horrified and tears his robes, and Jesus is condemned to death for blasphemy.
One of You Shall Deny Me Three Times
Upon entering the Temple, Peter is confronted by a mob of Jewish spectators. They have recognised him as one of Jesus’s followers and so they confront him. Three times Peter denies knowing Jesus, but then runs away sobbing at his cowardice.
Meanwhile, the remorseful Judas attempts to return the money in order have Jesus freed. However, the priests refuse to take back the coins. Tormented by demons and his guilt, he flees the city and hangs himself. He uses a rope that he finds on a dead donkey at dawn and ties it to a tree.
The Dilemma
Caiaphas brings Jesus before Pontius Pilate, the local Roman governor of Judea, to be condemned to death. But after questioning Jesus, the Latin-speaking Pilate (who is fluent in Jesus’ native Aramaic language) finds no reason to convict him. He is warned by his wife, Claudia, about a bad dream she had the night before about condemning a holy man to death. So instead, Pilate sends Jesus to the court of King Herod Antipas, as Jesus is from Herod’s ruling town of Nazareth. Herod sends him back to Pilate.
Pilate’s Failure
After Jesus is returned, Pilate offers the crowd that he will chastise Jesus for heresy and then will set him free. Pilate attempts to have Jesus freed by giving the people an option of freeing Jesus or the violent criminal Barabbas. To Pilate’s dismay, the hostile and religious crowd demands to have Barabbas freed and Jesus killed. In an attempt to appease the crowd, Pilate has Jesus brutally scourged and mocked with a crown of thorns, yet the crowd continues to demand that Jesus be crucified. Faced with a citywide riot, Pilate is left with no choice but to reluctantly order Jesus’ crucifixion.
Carrying the Cross
As Jesus carries the cross along the Via Dolorosa to Calvary, Veronica wipes Jesus’ bloodied face with her veil until the Roman guards grab her and shove her on her way. Unwillingly, Simon of Cyrene is pressed into carrying the cross for Jesus. He sees Jesus’s pain, and how he is too weak to carry the large wooden cross by himself.
Golgotha
On a hill outside Jerusalem called Golgotha (Aramaic for ‘Hill of Skulls’), Jesus is then crucified with his wrists and feet nailed to the cross. One criminal that is crucified next to him mock him for being now helpless and unable to do anything. At mid afternoon, as he hangs from the cross, Jesus prays forgiveness for those who did this to him, and redeems one of the criminals crucified next to him.
Jesus’s Death
After Jesus gives up his spirit and dies, a single drop of rain falls from the sky, triggering an earthquake which destroys the Temple and rips the cloth covering the Holy of Holies in two, to the horror of Caiaphas and the other priests. The camera pans across to Satan who is then shown screaming in defeat. The Roman soldiers then kill the two criminals by breaking their legs, while one of them thrusts a spear into Jesus’ side to make sure that he is dead. Jesus is brought down from the cross as Mary and Mary Magdalene weep for him.
Jesus’s Victory
In the final scene, the shroud is seen deflating after the shape of a body that was inside of it escapes. Jesus stands and looks out of the tomb, preparing to walk out of the place where he was buried. The wounds on his hands, feet, and side are still visible. It is an incredibly moving moment in the film and represents the most momentous turning point in the history of mankind.
Jim Caviezel
Mel Gibson warned actor Jim Cavizel that playing the character of Christ was going to be very difficult and that if he accepted, he most likely would be marginalised by Hollywood. Caviezel asked for a day to think about it and his response to Mel who was funding and directing the movie was: “I think we have to make it, even if it is difficult. And something else, my initials are J.C., and I’m 33 years old. I didn’t realise that until now.”
Mel responded with “You’re really scaring me you know.”
During Filming
During filming, Jim Caviezel who plays the part of Jesus lost 45 pounds, was struck by lightning. He was accidentally struck twice during the scourging scene leaving a deep 14 inch scar. He dislocated his shoulder when the cross was dropped into the hole with him on the cross. He then suffered pneumonia and hypothermia from being nearly naked with only a loin cloth on the cross for endless hours. The crucifixion scene alone took 5 weeks of the 2 month shooting.
Hi body was so stressed and exhausted from playing the rold that he had to undergo two open heart surgeries after the filming production.
Jim explained, “I didn’t want people to see me. I just wanted them to see Jesus. Conversions will happen through that.”
Lives Were Changed
Almost like a clairvoyant prediction many amazing things happened.
Pedro Sarubbi, who played Barabbas, felt that it was not Caviezel who was looking at him, but Jesus Christ himself. As he played that role he said of Caviezel, “His eyes had no hatred or resentment towards me, only mercy and love.”
Luca Lionello, the artist who played Judas, was an avowed atheist before shooting began. He eventually converted, and baptised his children.
One of the main technicians working on the film was a Muslim who converted to Christianity.
Some producers said that they saw actors dressed in white whom they didn’t recognise during one of the filming sessions, and when they reviewed the recordings they realised that they couldn’t see any of them in that footage. Were they angels?
Seen Worldwide
The Passion of the Christ is the highest grossing US religious film as well as the highest R-rated film of all time, making $370.8 million. Worldwide it grossed $611 million.
More importantly, it has reached 100’s of millions of people around the world.
Mel Gibson paid $30 million out of his own pocked for the production of the film because no studio would take on the project.
Today Jim Caviezel simply and boldly proclaims his faith in Christ, and the miracle it was for him to represent Christ as an actor and a greater believer of Christ because of this experience.
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