The Passion of the Christ

The Passion of the Christ (2004) covers the last twelve hours of Jesus, and almost all of it is torture and execution. It opens with the arrest in Gethsemane and ends at the cross. The life before that exists only in brief flashbacks. This is not a life story but an account of a death. The languages match the period: Aramaic, Latin and Hebrew, watched with subtitles. Gibson initially wanted to release it without them. No studio would fund it. Gibson put in around thirty million dollars of his own money and arranged distribution himself. The result was over six hundred million worldwide and one of the highest earning independently financed films ever made. During the shoot Jim Caviezel, who plays Jesus, was struck by lightning, dislocated his shoulder carrying the cross, and was genuinely injured during one of the scourging scenes. An argument about antisemitism began as soon as it opened; Jewish organisations objected to where the account places blame. Gibson rejected the charge and the dispute ran for years. The level of violence occupies its own place in film history; some critics read it as a choice about spectacle rather than a religious purpose. It runs 127 minutes. Good for: religious narrative, historical drama, and contested films. Less good for: the violence is nearly continuous and graphic. This is not a film to open lightly.