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The Passion of the Christ (2004)
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Reviews Counted:259
Fresh:129
Rotten:130
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: The graphic details of Jesus' torture make the movie tough to sit through and obscure whatever message it is trying to convey.
Runtime: 2 hrs 22 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $370,203,632
Synopsis: The Passion of The Christ is a film about the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth's life. The film opens in the Garden of Olives (Gethsemane) where Jesus has gone to pray after the Last Supper.... The Passion of The Christ is a film about the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth's life. The film opens in the Garden of Olives (Gethsemane) where Jesus has gone to pray after the Last Supper. Jesus resists Satan's temptations. Betrayed by Judas Iscariot, Jesus is arrested and taken back to within the city walls of Jerusalem where the leaders of the Pharisees confront him with accusations of blasphemy and his results in a condemnations of death. Jesus is brought before Pilate, the Roman Governor of Palestine, who listens to the accusations leveled at him by the Pharisees. Realizing he is confronting a political conflict, Pilate defers to King Herod in the matter. Herod returns Jesus to Pilate who gives the crowd a choice between Jesus and the criminal Barabbas. The crowd chooses to have Barabbas set free and to condemn Jesus. Jesus is handed over to the Roman soldiers and flagellated. Unrecognizable now, he is brought back before Pilate, who presents him to the crowd as if to say "is this not enough?" It is not. Pilate washes his hands of the entire dilemma, ordering his men to do as the crowd wishes. Jesus is presented with the cross and is ordered to carry it through the streets of Jerusalem all the way up to Golgotha. On Golgotha, Jesus is nailed to the cross and undergoes his last temptation -- the fear that he has been abandoned by his Father. He overcomes his fear, looks at Mary, his Holy Mother, and makes the pronouncement which only she can fully understand, "it is accomplished." He then dies: "into Thy hands I commend my Spirit." At the moment of his death, nature itself overturns. -- © Newmarket Films [More]
Starring: James Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Monica Bellucci, Mattia Sbragia
Starring: James Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Monica Bellucci, Mattia Sbragia, Claudia Gerini, Luca Lionello, Hristo Shopov
Director: Mel Gibson
Director: Mel Gibson
Screenwriter: Mel Gibson, Benedict Fitzgerald
Producer: Bruce Davey, Stephen McEveety
Composer: John Debney
Studio: Newmarket Films
Reviews for The Passion of the Christ
Irrespective of your religious beliefs, Mel Gibson’s brutal depiction of the most renowned story of sacrifice and love is distressing to the very core.
The film's lack of discretion robs the viewer of his or own conception of Christ's crucifixion. It is an exploitative disservice to "the greatest story ever told," that reduces that illustrious narrative to an extended torture episode.
All [Gibson has] done...is to trade in the Hollywood conventions of yesteryear for the crasser, more bloodthirsty conventions of today.
I emerged from The Passion of the Christ depressed and spiritually bruised.
More sensational than spiritual, this blood-soaked take on the Stations of the Cross retells the Gospels as a horror movie. You can't help asking: where has all the love gone?
If I were a Christian, I'd be appalled to have this primitive and pornographic bloodbath presume to speak for me.
For a filmmaker who wants to create an adaptation of the story of Jesus, Mel Gibson's motives seem ironically impure.
Easily the most controversial film of the year, Gibson's fil is a visually bold, relentlessly violent epos that suffers from a shallow, undernourished narrative and no characterizations to speak of.
By giving us the feeling of experiencing Jesus' thoughts, and by making us privy to his prayers, The Passion draws us toward Christ's full humanity like no film before.
Gibson's passion is all over this film...but his resorting to mawkish, superficial tactics blows the tone off-course from time to time
Mr. Gibson has plucked at the rawest of nerves yet I cannot blame him. He is expressing himself through the medium of film and using the text of his bible as the basis.
A tormented movie about torment; loopy, over-reaching and occasionally suspicious. Simultaneously, it is a daring artistic endeavour.
Incredibly intense, unflichingly realistic and powerfully moving...One of the all-time great cinematic achievements...God bless Mel Gibson.
Latest News for The Passion of the Christ
October 03, 2008:
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As the NFT in London prepares a Juliette Binoche season, Kim looks at Abel Ferrara's Mary which also stars Marion Cotillard and Forest Whittaker. More...
May 16, 2008:
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February 05, 2007:
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