Plus
|
|
|||
| A
man and his passion for reform Mel Gibson's precisely titled movie The Passion of The Christ (abbreviated in popular parlance the world over as 'Passion of Christ') is one of the most widely discussed and debated in the history of cinema. (A Google search shows 739,000 pages of reviews alone, compared with 261,000 such pages for The Godfather trilogy.) It is a powerful, unforgettable film, the only one of many I have seen on the broad theme and subject, which makes you feel you are there, watching it happen, a witness. Which is why Pope John Paul II pronounced when the controversy erupted, "it is as it was". It is important to understand - and this film helps - how a man of no ripe age and experience or exalted station, living in a small land occupied by an Empire, neither martial conqueror nor inheritor of a great state, with only twelve followers among whom was a traitor, condemned and executed, impacted on history as no other, cutting it in two, gathering a billion adherents and appearing in paintings, posters, poems, songs, novels, plays, a rock opera (I heard the 'Superstar' album on Vatican Radio, Easter '73) and movies over two thousand years later: A.D. to DVD. Like
a rolling stone The message too is unique in the terse spareness of language, beginning with the Magnificat where the messenger not only announces to the adolescent Mary her pregnancy and its provenance, but the nature of her child's mandate: to "free the captives, and preach the good news to the poor”. The Sermon on the Mount for instance is singular in that the slightly discrepant Gospel versions can trigger a serious ideological debate between two slogan-like theses: "blessed are the poor" and "blessed are the poor in spirit". The
rebel unarmed Jesus was the new man, a hero of a new type, not a warrior, philosopher, poet or artist. He was a teacher, but unlike Socrates, wounded war veteran and great teacher put to death by the status quo, this man whom Voltaire called "the Socrates of the Galilee" was an activist, with a message and a mission, uniting doctrine and deed. Unlike Moses or Joshua, a prophet armed, he was the rebel unarmed. The movie is firmly founded (much of the script is from the Scripture, the rest from the mystical 'visions' of two Catholic saints, one a stigmatic), but not literalist. It is impossible to think of a more dramatic opening: Gethsemane, misty, midnight blue, Jesus bowed in mental anguish and prayer. The artistic licence taken is philosophically brilliant: the androgynous, black cowled Satan (no horns and tail!) insinuates into the agonising mind of Jesus: "Who is your father? Who are you? No one man can take all that weight, I tell you”. The statement underscores through its evil agency, that concurrence with its common sense appeal, its banal truth, is the very temptation to be resisted. The film brings home the reality of the sacrificial cost of resistance. Mel Gibson's movie, developing the skills and individual style he had shown in directing Braveheart (the rebellion and execution of Scottish rebel William Wallace), brings to life the consequences of the decision by Jesus (a decision to submit to one, is also one) who made a triumphant popular entry into Jerusalem, to contradict serially and then simultaneously all the power centres, to refuse to conform to any of the existing camps and ideologies (Jewish/Roman, religious/political, elite/radical nationalist), to demarcate himself from all sides. He unnerved the Jewish religious hierarchy, refused to plead with either Herod or Pilate, placed himself between the rock of the dominant Jewish religious interests and the hard place of the Roman Empire. The space narrowed with his every word, and crushed him. Jesus' message expanded like a supernova across geographic and social space and time (a billion Christians in 2000), because he chose to narrow his available space dangerously, radically, fatally. He sacrificed present space for future space, and present time for future time: here-space for there-space, now-time for then-time. The
Man The "Son of Man" had an individual personality far more dialectical than many other figures that did not claim divine status. Jesus was a man of passion, often stoically calm but sometimes a man on fire, his anger seen to explode in the overturning of the money changers' tables in the Temple in Jerusalem, an act that jeopardised both his safety and his popularity: the Temple was the base of the Jewish power bloc and the market a convenient service for the large number of pilgrims who sacrificed animals during Passover. Crucial too is the scene in the Gospels of Mary Magdalene (played in the film by the arresting Monica Bellucci) who had been saved by Jesus from death by stoning (with his accompanying critique of hypocritical moralism) washing his feet and wiping them with her hair, resulting in an "ultra-left egalitarian" criticism by Judas that the scented oil could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Judas was a militant nationalist whose bitter disappointment that Jesus did not wish to launch a "patriotic struggle" led him to the ultimate treason: a matchless piece of political drama. Alone among major religious founders, Jesus was rejected and defeated: the mob opted for Barabbas, ultranationalist terrorist, assassin and social bandit. No other founding religious figure has been depicted as undergoing the drama of inner struggle, doubt, hesitation, weakness, even fear, not initially, not midway, but at the final stage of his mission, as Christ does in the Garden of Gethsemane. There is no point in life at which he has finally overcome his emotions and achieved sublime equanimity. It is a masterpiece of dramatic writing when the Gospels report his dying cry: "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" ("My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"). It was equally inspired for the Church not to have suppressed it. (If Marxists had so keen a grasp of the human psyche, Socialism would have survived far longer.) That cry is torn, choking and anguished, from the perfectly cast Jim Caviezel, and is the awesome climax of the film. Twelve
hours The shying away from the realism of the cinematic depiction helps us comprehend through, the denial by Peter and the desertion of the disciples in the face not only of the risk but the physical reality of that unfolding ferocity, and the doubts of Thomas who could not believe that anyone could transcend such relentless destruction. The movie communicates as never before the physical and psychological force of the mob; the emotional anguish of Mary as she watches her son; the torment of the crown of thorns. For me the two most powerful scenes in this uncompromising movie are when Jesus, hunched and stumbling under the Cross, encounters his mother (acted with luminous stoicism by Maia Morgenstern) and says "look, I make all things new" (Revelations), and earlier when Jesus is lashed, and using all his willpower, struggles erect, only to have heavier whips introduced and this time be battered down to the ground, having to be dragged from the scourging square, leaving long streaks of blood behind on the silent stones. (‘ThePassion of Christ’ is now showing at the Majestic Cinema in Colombo and the Regal in Negombo) |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
