August 25, 2004
The next great Christian film
Obviously Gibson's The Passion of the Christ was a unique event that will be difficult to duplicate. However, I believe another great Christian film is on the horizon with Therese: The Story of Saint Therese of Lisieux. This is a Catholic movie obviously (as was The Passion), but it is also the simple story of a girl who loved God greatly, even through immense suffering.
One of the great roles that Saints play in the life of a Catholic is that of hero, as Joe pointed out on this blog last week. In Therese, young women will see a hero: a girl who overcame disasterous events, terrible suffering, and yet remained dedicated to God. I have four daughters now and I hope that they look to holy women like Therese as heroes and role models.
On a side note, I also believe that to change a culture, you must depend on art, which includes everything from painting, music, movies, etc. Because art helps define us as a people. For a long time we've endured anti-Christian imagery in our art (such as "Piss Christ"), but perhaps now the pendulum is swinging back in the other direction. I hope to see more films in the vein of The Passion and Therese in the future, which means I will support them with my money in the present. Let's hope that there are other Christian directors out there looking to make the next The Passion of the Christ.
God bless,
Jay
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Jay,
Lets hope that if another Christian director makes another Jesus flick, that s/he does so in a way that is truly faithful both to the biblical narratives, and to what historians know about 1st Century Jews and Judaism.
Gibson's Passion fails miserably on both points.
Apart from a few touching moments with Mary, Gibson's Passion is a pretty bad movie.
Peace!
Posted by: Jack at August 26, 2004 08:46 AMJack,
I would be interested to hear what you think are the "failings" of Gibson's The Passion.
I found the movie to be amazing. Gibson does a wonderful job of transporting us into the events surrounding Christ's death. His movie is art, and, by definition, it does look at events as an artist would, with imagination. However, imagination does not mean that Gibson lied or falsly portrayed the events.
On the topic of Christian art. I believe that we should support Christian artists, but we must make sure that we know what we are supporting. Too often Christians will support a cause or person simply for the fact that they say they are Christian. Rather, we should support them because they are honoring Christ.
Posted by: Brian at September 1, 2004 12:30 PMIndeed Gibson’s Passion movie was art. But this art was accompanied by suggestions – from both Icon films and Gibson himself – of “historical accuracy” and “faithfulness to the biblical narratives.”
My biggest problem was with the over-the-top malevolency of Gibson’s portrait of Caiaphas, even to the point of rather obvious historical incredulities such as Caiaphas’ presence (along with a few others of the Sanhedrin) at Jesus’ scourging! There is not a reliable historian on the planet who would concur that THAT would have happened – not on the eve of, or during Passover would a Jew, let alone the High Priest (!), have entered the Praetorium to witness Gentiles scourging a Jew. The High Priest would have been concerned with issues of purity, especially during Passover given his many duties.
And I really thought it gratuitous when Caiaphas alone, approaches Jesus on the Cross and personally derides him. Which Gospel is that scene faithful too?
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops convened a committee to review the script of the movie the summer before its release. Below is a link to that review. It is a .pdf, so I hope you can access it.
http://www.bc.edu/research/cjl/meta-elements/texts/education/Passion_adhoc_report_2May.pdf
This link will take you to the USCCB site for another, brief review of the actual movie.
http://www.usccb.org/movies/p/thepassionofthechrist.htm
Finally another link to Father Richard Leonard’s, S.J., review of the movie.
http://www.americamagazine.org/articles/leonard-passion.cfm
Brian, I am not against artistic portraits of Jesus. So for instance, Scorsese’s movie The Last Temptation of Christ gets no argument from me, even though it was not all that great a flick. The difference between Scorsese’s film and Gibson’s is that Scorsese made absolutely no claims to either historical accuracy or fidelity to the Gospels (based as it was on Kazanzakis’ novel which as well, made no assertions to fidelity or accuracy). Gibson and Icon, on the other hand, did and do make such claims.
