Why Mel's bloody "Christ" misses the point [View All]

[Paragon]

Much has been made of how terribly violent Mel's R-rated Passion is - and why he felt showing it explicitly was necessary to show how much Jesus suffered.

It's too bad that isn't the point.

Word is, the movie starts with a fearful Jesus in the garden of Gethesame accepting his Father's news that he must die on the cross. THAT is Jesus' sacrifice - to willingly sacrifice his human life, not what sort of amazing stamina he had from being tortured. The imagery most churches use of Jesus nailed to the cross is disturbing enough -- if you need a bloodier Jesus on the cross in order to feel sympathy and understand Jesus' sacrifice, there's something wrong with you. (Yeah - you, Mel.)

My advice? Spend your money on renting or buying a copy of Martin Scorcese's The Last Temptation of Christ. When a crucified, suffering, and dying Jesus is able to reject Satan's temptation of a normal, human life and willingly give that life up - I finally understood what Jesus meant when he said "it is accomplished".