Word: crucifixion
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Jesus has brief onscreen sex with his first wife Mary Magdalene and later commits adultery. Judas is a hero, the strongest and best of the apostles. Paul is a hypocrite and liar. Jesus is so dazed that, even on the eve of his Crucifixion, he is still not quite sure whether to preach love or murder Romans. Ready for director Martin Scorsese's new movie, The Last Temptation of Christ? ... When it opens this Friday, religious crowd scenes are almost certain to appear outside the theaters as well as in them. For the past month, conservative Christians have denounced...
...indescribable atrocities committed upon Jesus’ increasingly carcass-like body in the initial torture scene are heartbreaking, until the recurring image of the elated torturers flaying mercilessly achieves a somewhat tedious tone. The march in which Jesus bears the cross to the point of his crucifixion is similarly excruciating, but he has one too many dramatic falls for the experience to have a fully realized impact. The wounds that the film inflicts on his audience are rarely left fresh, but exposed for so long that they are allowed to scab over...
Nevertheless, Gibson eventually succeeds in overwhelming his audience with the kind of potent visual poignancy unseen in his previous directorial work. In one remarkable shot, the camera takes an overhead God’s-eye view of the crucifixion site, underpinning the magnitude of the event by exhibiting the individuals’ relative irrelevance. Furthermore, every aspect of the persecution becomes a multi-sensory experience, as each lashing is accompanied by a vivid shower of crimson and unnerving sound effects. At one point, a Roman soldier flagellates Christ with a whip of broken metal tips, the shards embedded and then...
...violence is physically exhausting and, ultimately, numbing. Blood streams off the screen far over the level I’ve ever previously seen in film. At one point, a strip of flesh is actually torn off. The crown of thorns is pressed directly into his forehead. During the crucifixion, the nails are driven through Jesus’ flesh. Each instance of Jesus’ pain is lovingly photographed to make sure the audience doesn’t miss any details. Although that might help accentuate the suffering and thus the holiness of Jesus’ experience, by the end, these...
...your hands,” even though this is only in one gospel and unnecessary to the story. Nowhere does Pilate have that discussion about truth with his wife. As it was against Jewish law to crucify, the Jews would not have taken the initiative in the crucifixion. The difference is that Gibson used some anti-Semitic accounts by a 19th century nun in order to pad out his story...