‘Passion’ returns to local screens

A little over one year after “The Passion of the Christ” opened to record-breaking audiences, Icon Productions will release “The Passion Recut,” opening locally Friday, March 11 at the Grand Cinemas Alderwood in Lynnwood and AMC Pacific Place in downtown Seattle.

“The Passion of the Christ,” a retelling of the biblical story of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, was released just prior to Easter observances in 2004. “We received many requests to re-release the film around the Easter holiday,” said Bruce Davey, President of Icon Productions. “Mel (Gibson) decided he wanted to recut a version that appealed to a broader audience without compromising the integrity of the original film.”

“The Passion Recut,” is being released without a rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Bob Berney, President of Newmarket Films, the film’s distribution company, said that director Mel Gibson had intended to “reach toward a PG-13 level, but the MPAA felt it still was an ‘R’ due to the overall intensity of the film, so we are going out unrated and perhaps it’s ultimately somewhere in between.”

Simultaneously brutal and beautiful, the original “Passion” was less like “The Greatest Story Ever Told” and more closely aligned with Pier Paolo Pasolini’s bleak “The Gospel According to St. Matthew.” The R rating was justly deserved for its graphic portrayal of the last 12 hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life — horrific, disturbing, and merciless, a physical and spiritual vivisection. While Berney insists that the new cut is “a shift in tone and balance that makes the film more accessible to a wider audience, particularly those that had concerns about some of the extreme moments in the original version,” parents should still consider whether it’s appropriate for children under high school age.

Originally released Feb. 25, 2004, “The Passion of the Christ” earned a record $370.2 million in American theaters and $611.4 million internationally, making the film the ninth highest grossing domestic film of all time and the top grossing R-rated film ever. “The Passion” earned three Academy Award nominations in the categories of cinematography, original score and make-up.