HOLLYWOOD — The body on the screen is beaten to a blood-drenched pulp — flesh ripped by a cat-o’-nine-tails and rising in welts at the force of the blows. Leather sandals splash and soak in puddles of blood. It is an orgy of pain and violence.
Long, brutal scenes such as that one make up much of the yet-to-be-released film "The Passion of the Christ." While early attention has focused on whether Mel Gibson’s film has the potential to inspire anti-Semitism, a viewing last week of a still-unfinished version suggests it may raise concerns about the unremitting violence of its images as well.
While not condemning the graphic nature of the film, Brother Charles Jackson, director of vocations with the California Province of the Society of Jesus, said: "It was so graphic and the scourging so long that you almost shut down. Psychologically you just can’t handle it."
The R-rated film is being broadly marketed to evangelical Christians, including the teen market, although Gibson has emphasized that it is not for young children.
"The Passion," to be released on Ash Wednesday, February 25, follows the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life, and from the initial beatings to the crucifixion, Gibson, a member of a conservative religious group, spared little in his effort to create a searing vision of pain and suffering. For some religious conservatives, watching that pain is precisely the point. Others wonder if the brutality is excessive.
Paul Hetrick, vice president of media relations with the Christian group Focus on the Family, said audiences should be prepared for the realism: "It’s not entertainment. It’s a very important film and a significant film."
"I do not believe that young children under 13 should see this movie. And Mel Gibson agrees with me," said Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., a national evangelical leader. "This is probably the only R-rated movie I’ll ever recommend that you attend. But this time R stands for ‘realistic,’ not ‘raunchy.’"
Indeed, to some supporters of the film, the violence is a needed dose of reality.
"People ask us about the R rating. The Bible is R-rated," said Ric Olsen, senior associate pastor of Harbor Trinity Church in Costa Mesa, Calif. "We have so glamorized the cross and gilded it. This was an instrument of torture. With ‘The Passion,’ we get a look back through time to see that."
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
