RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Maybe 70% accurate and 30% script. Ask Jesus.

As your read the Gospel accounts in the Bible, this movie accurately portrays the last hours of the life of Jesus. The beating He endured and the torture of the cross are about as real to life as we could possibly stand in this day and age. Crucifixion is the cruelest death sentence every thought of by man. As for the critics who say this movie is anti-Semitic, nothing could be further from the truth. In Jerusalem at the time of Jesus death, Jews lived there and Romans ruled there. So it would be natural that it would be Jews calling for His death. The point of the message is, though, we would have done no different were we in their place. Therefore, it is not Jews who had Him killed, but each one of us.

As I understand the Gospels, the Passion of The Christ did make an attempt to portray many of the events described therein, but we can all agree that it aggressively emphasized certain aspects of the story while downplaying or outright ignoring others. Were I a more studied theologian I could probably accuse the filmmakers of taking fanciful liberties with their source material, but I will content myself with taking Mel Gibson's word that (a) The malicious, spitting, cackling Pharisees were more or less representative of the Jewish population at large, (b) Jesus' body contained roughly 150 pints of blood, (c) Don't make fun of Jesus, or crows will peck your eyes out (d) Hebrew children were apt to suddenly transform into the minions of hell sent to wreak indescribable horrors upon those who would betray our lord and savior, and (e) Mary Magdelene was totally smoking hot. The story of Jesus has long been a source of inspiration for filmmakers and as with any classic tale there are a multitude of ways to tell it. Mel chose to present it as a gay, S&M snuff film with enough gore for a dozen Wes Craven pictures.

I had mixed feelings about this film before watching it - on one hand First Century christians refrained from going to the plays and theatres in Roman times - true much lewder than the Passion of the Christ... but they also didnt produce plays about the crucifixion either. They considered them to be a worldly thing and kept away. Tat was then, this is now... Its also true that it was based on the Dolorous(Sorrowful) Passion of the Christ by Anne Emmerich, a Catholic mystic Nun. Problem here is that she writes of visions she had of the crucifixion and goes a lot further than the bible narrative. Personally I'm Bible alone in what I believe on this, not too interested in a Nuns visions. I was aware going in that many Catholic traditions would be portrayed that wern't bible based as well, also that Mel Gibson was quoted as saying that he always liked to attend Latin Mass as a child - he didnt understand Latin but liked the sound of it - which is why he chose for the film to be in aramaic - not necessairly for any authenticity but because he liked the sound of it. Prehaps i'm nitpicking here... so I saw the film - impressions? I found it personally moving - helped me to realise more vividly the physical suffering Christ went through. Sure it had non biblical catholic tradition in it - Veronica wiping Jesus face with a cloth etc, but I could gloss over that to appreciate the impact of the film. I personally think it to be a film more for believers, than a gospel spreading tool in itself. After all many people suffered horrible deaths by crufixion etc in those days.. but it was powerful to be because it was a portrayl of Christs death, and helped me to visualise it more

I don't know, since I've never seen this movie. Since I haven't seen this movie, I was tempted to just leave things alone and not comment on this. But I have read all the comments and there are some devout Christians on here who read their Bible who seem to think this movie is OK. I tend to think that if it gets the message of Christ out and gets people saved, even if it isn't 100% perfect, I think God will still use it. In fact, God will even use someone like Benny Hinn to get someone saved! As long as the movie gets people thinking about Jesus and gets people to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, I don't see the big deal in it. Although I hate it when movies don't go according to the Bible. For the record, I don't believe the second commandment forbid us to make movies about Jesus, for the purpose of spreading the Gospel. If anyone thinks that making a movie about Jesus (which is accurate) is idolatry, well, all those Sunday school role plays where someone played Jesus, or those church or Christmas plays must be committing idolatry. I mean come on! That's being a bit legalistic. There have been some very good movies about Jesus which were very accurate (more so then the Passion), and many people have gotten saved by it.

Only a fool gets history from the movies.

I honestly don't know because I didn't do an in-depth study of the film. I went into it realizing it would be grusome to watch and with the intention of looking at the big picture. I'm not sure if that last part was concious or sub-concious but what I do know is that I took away from this film a new appreciation for the suffering He went through for my sake. And that it made me realize in a whole new way how grateful I am.

I'm not a biblical scholar, so I can't make an unequivocal judgement, but I do believe that it is pretty faithful to biblical accounts, depending on which version of the bible, or whose gospel, you choose to quote. Was the movie an accurate depiction of Christ's passion, suffering, and death? Probably pretty much so in at least general terms - no one today can be totally certain of all (if any) of the specific details of the events, but if we are to believe anything at all that is chronicled (and I realize that there are some who don't believe any of the story at all), Christ lived, suffered horribly, and died an ingnominious death. Of all of the movies about Christ's crucifixion and death, this does seem to be the one that was based on the most in-depth research.

I would say for the most part yes, many say the movie was too graphic. It was probably less graphic that the actual crucifixion Jesus endured. I thought the movie was good and it touched my heart, it helped me realize just how much he loves us.