THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (Mel Gibson, 2004)
Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST has extremely polarized those who have seen it upon its release mainly because of its subject matter, which is religious in nature. Bring up any spiritual theme onscreen and people will speak up. If at all, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST became an effective film because it sparked cinematic discourse. Either love it or hate it, the film knows what it wants and pursues it. It has a single direction. It quickly appealed to me because of its departure from the previous Jesus films, most of which ambitiously wanted to cover Jesus's entire life story. The result is an approximated two hours of condensed history that you'd feel burdened to watch by second viewing. PASSION is different. It focuses on Christ's final hours, and filmmaker Mel Gibson pulls no punches in his delivery of blood and gore. We have been so occupied with what we have been taught about Christ's suffering for our sins, and how we should be grateful and all by doing...