Passion of the Christ Review

Can There Be Too Much Passion? On Ash Wednesday 2004 The Passion of the Christ directed by Mel Gibson was released for the world to view. This movie is Gibson’s depiction of the last twelve hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, on the day of his crucifixion in Jerusalem. Some commentators find the film overwhelmingly violent, while others argue that the media exaggerated the violence within the film and found the movie entertaining, educational and gave a true understanding of the word passion that other films fail to express. A third set of reactions have less to do with the severity of violence shown within the film and more to do with the special effects, amount of violence that audiences around the world expect from a movie of this magnitude and exactly how accurate the film portrays the story. There are several reviews arguing how unnecessarily violent the film is and several saying how the films message would not have been the same without the intensity of the violence portrayed. However, these articles are mainly a single person’s thought on the film and nothing more than a singular opinion from a sole point of view. William Brown and John Keeler from the School of Communication and the Art in Regent University, along with Terrence Lindvall from the Department of Religious Studies in Virginia Wesleyan College analyzed the movie and conducted a nationwide study to determine the audience’s perceptions of the film and its spiritual influences. They bring up the fact that majority of news reporters were either neutral of positive about the film; while editorials, reviewers, critiques and feature articles had the tendency to be negative. They further discuss that the “effects of violence in films and other media content have been an ongoing public issue (93).” Thus the dedication to the special effects for the violence in this film and many others are seen as a problem for being too realistic and detailed making the films more than just a