Robert Cortegiano Campus Ministry Chaplain
I walked out on “The Passion” because of the traumatic violence. Mel Gibson seems more interested in portraying brutal torture scenes than presenting anything about the person and message of Jesus. This is a religious horror movie, a spiritually exploitative film that wants to scare us into believing the Gospel Message with each flesh-tearing blow to Jesus’ back and each bone-crushing nail that bound Him to the cross. The only good thing about big budget, sensationalist filmmaking such as this is the dialogue that it generates in the worldwide media and within communities of faith. The interfaith dialogue about this film at the Ignatian Residential College on Monday night was a testament to how Fairfield students are truly seeking to understand their faith and what it means in their life.
Rev. Mark McGregor, S.J. New Media, Film, Television, and Radio
Those who hope for a compelling scriptural, cinematic and even Roman Catholic view of Christ’s suffering and passion will be disappointed by Mel Gibson’s movie. “The Passion” is too fixated on the exteriors of Jesus’ suffering and blood atonement. If he had taken the film’s opening title card quote more seriously – from the book of the prophet Isaiah, “By his stripes we were healed…” – he would have focused more on the power of love that drove Jesus’ choices, and the forces of sin that attacked him. The graphically shot torture scenes eclipsed the superb images of forgiveness in the film. Gibson’s shallow depiction of many Jews disgracefully rests on stereotypes that the Catholic Church has denounced. Many will be moved by it, many repelled; but I will say that “The Passion” is an important cinematic event to get people to deepen and live out their faith.
Dr. Paul Lakeland Professor of Religious Studies
I found the movie boring, without either dramatic tension or depth of character. I think it appeals to the voyeur who gets thrills, religious or otherwise, from dwelling upon the horror of physical torment. Jesus’ greatest suffering lay not in the physical pain (others have surely suffered equally if not more, including many victims of the Holocaust), but in the sense of his own impotence and abandonment by God. And I worry about the kind of faith someone possesses if this movie actually strengthens that faith.
Dr. Philip Eliasoph Professor of Art History
I refuse to see this film or contribute my few dollars of box office revenue towards Mr. Gibson’s profoundly misguided project. I have listened, read, watched and taken into account the responses of many eminent film and media critics who have responded with visceral horror and have almost unanimously deplored its artistic, theological and historical failures. And these concerns are ahead of its very dangerous potential for reviving longstanding anti-Semitic responses from an uneducated worldwide audience. This is not an issue of artistic freedom or free speech/expression. Gibson has literally whipped up the emotions of the audience in an extremely manipulative slow-motion cinemagraphic ‘slasher’ type film causing many critics to view it as “religious pornography.” Finally, on our campus that has such a dedicated tradition of embracing multi-cultural and multi-religious diversity, such fellowship cannot possibly rest upon the endorsement of a film that perpetuates hoary anti-Semitic Jewish images.
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