My problem was that 98% of the movie wasn't about the great man Jesus was said to be and his teaching.... it was about seeing the crap get kicked outta him. Which was for "us" and all, but.... I just think his life would've been more of a compelling and worthwhile film than 2 hours of his death.
Quoted for truth.
I believe in Jesus, and I understand that he went through hell, but why did Gibson have to emphasize his torture rather than his life?
Actually, yes Gibson intentionally meant to emphasize the torture that Jesus went through before his death. It says so right in the title of the movie, THE
PASSION OF THE CHRIST, with the keyword here in this case being "Passion". Now a lot of people (especially those who aren't Catholic or religious in general) found the title confusing. To clarify, the "Passion" here in the title does not, nor did it ever refer to the love that Jesus had for people. In this case, "Passion" is a reference to the suffering that Jesus went through in the days up to his death. I was a practicing Catholic until about 16 years ago, so I know this because I've had first hand experience from my mom making me take part in this.
Every Xmas holiday season our church would put on what's known as the "Passion Play" of Jesus Christ. The play is basically telling the same story that is shown in the movie, that being the story of the Last Supper, Jesus' betrayal and eventual execution. Many, if not most, if not all Catholic churches do the same thing every holiday season, and if they do, they call it the "Passion Play." Why do they call it the "Passion Play" you ask? I don't know. They just do. It's what the church as always called it.
In terms of historical accuracy, I'll say this. It's pretty accurate in accordance to what is written down in the bible. The "graphic-ness" and harshness and viciousness of what he went through in the movie was filmed and depicted that way because THAT is what he would have gone through in real life. Getting whipped/flogged is not pretty. Carrying a cross that's big enough and heavy enough to support the weight of a man is not easy. If the movie looks like he's suffering, it's because that's what he did in real life.
Now, with THAT being said, one also has to remember that the Bible, as we know it, was merely a collection of ORAL stories for thousands of years. A written form of the Bible was only first made a few hundred years ago. Before that happened, ALL of the stories of Jesus and Noah and Abraham and Mary Magdelene were just told in an oral fashion from one family to another, from one general to another.
Now, remember the "telephone game" that we all used to play in elementary school? You know the one. You all sit in a circle and one person whispers a sentence to the person beside him, who does the same thing to the next person, who does the same to the next person, and so on and so on. This continues until we get back to the first person, who finds that his original sentence of "I had chicken last night for dinner" has become "The neighbour's chicken ate my dog's poop!" and everyone has a laugh. As the sentence goes from one person to the next, the story gets re-intrepreted over and over and over and over again until the end product is just barely related/similar to the original, if it is at all.
This is why I said earlier that the movie is accurate IN TERMS OF WHAT IS WRITTEN DOWN IN THE BIBLE". Considering how many thousands of generations and how many millions of interpretations the Biblical stories have gone through before they were finally written down, it's impossible for anyone to really know just how accurate they are. Imagine playing the "telephone game" with dozens of stories over thousands of years with millions upon millions of people? Just how accurate or similar to the original stories can they really be? You gotta wonder about that.
Of course, those who are religious people have their faith which lets them believe in the accuracy of the stories of the Bible. And I say "More power to them!" In my opinion, to have that type of faith and trust in something is admirable. Others (like yours truly), just can't help but wonder "Is that how it REALLY happened?" After all, with the exception of biographical movies (which are usually 50-80% based on true facts), chances are that for a lot of Hollywood movies that claim to be "Based on a true story", the only thing in the movie that's true to the original story is the town that it takes place in or the names of one of the characters (i.e. 1-20% based on true facts at the most).
