The Passion of the Christ

Halaman ini berisi artikel tentang the film. Untuk the actual Christian Passion, lihat Passion (Christianity).

The Passion of the Christ (terjemahan bebas: "Penderitaan Kristus") adalah sebuah film tahun 2004 yang ditulis bersama, diproduksi bersama dan disutradarii oleh Mel Gibson. Film ini didasari atas kisah-kisah Kitab Suci mengenai penangkapan, pengadilan, penyaliban dan kebangkitan Yesus Kristus - peristiwa-peristiwa yang secara umum dikenal sebagai masa penderitaan Yesus. Film ini memperoleh rating "R" (Restricted atau ada batasan bagi yang ingin menontonnya) oleh badan Motion Picture Association of America karena "rentetan gambaran kekerasan". Dialog film ini diucapkan dalam Bahasa Aramaic, Bahasa Latin dan Bahasa Ibrani, yang disertai dengan teks terjemahannya. Proses pembuatan film ini dilakukan di Italia, khususnya di kota Matera dan Craco Basilicata serta Studio Cinecittà di Roma. Film ini adalah film bukan berbahasa Inggris yang paling sukses di Amerika Serikat.

The Passion of the Christ
Berkas:Thepassionposterface-1-.jpg
Sutradara	Mel Gibson
Produser	Bruce Davey Mel Gibson Stephen McEveety
Ditulis oleh	Benedict Fitzgerald Mel Gibson
Pemeran	James Caviezel Maia Morgenstern Monica Bellucci Hristo Naumov Shopov Mattia Sbragia Rosalinda Celentano
Penata musik	John Debney Gingger Shankar
Sinematografer	Caleb Deschanel
Penyunting	Steve Mirkovich John Wright
Distributor	Theatrical: Icon Entertainment Newmarket Films Equinox Films 20th Century Fox KRS DVD: MGM Home Entertainment Warner Home Video 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Frag
Tanggal rilis	February 25, 2004
Durasi	127 minutes
Negara	Amerika Serikat Israel
Bahasa	Aramaic Latin Hebrew Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
Anggaran	$30 million USD
Pendapatan kotor	Domestic: $370,782,930 Worldwide: $611,899,420

Para pemeran dan kru

Para pemeran

Aktor/Aktris	Peran
Jim Caviezel	Yesus
Maia Morgenstern	Maria
Monica Bellucci	Maria Magdalena
Hristo Shopov	Pontius Pilatus
Mattia Sbragia	Kaifas
Rosalinda Celentano	Setan
Hristo Jivkov	Yohanes Rasul
Francesco DeVito	Santo Petrus
Luca Lionello	Yudas Iskariot
Claudia Gerini	Santa Prokula
Pietro "Pedro" Sarubbi	Barabas
Sergio Rubini	Santo Dismas
Francesco Cabras	Gestas
Toni Bertorelli	Annas ben Seth
Roberto Bestazoni	Malkus
Giovanni Capalbo	Kassius
Emilio De Marchi	Orang Romawi yang menghina
Roberto Visconti	Orang Romawi yang menghina
Lello Giulivo	Orang Romawi yang kasar
Abel Jafry	Pegawai Kuil kedua
Jarreth Merz	Simon dari Kirene
Matt Patresi	Janus
Fabio Sartor	Abenader
Luca De Dominicis	Herodes Antipas
Sabrina Impacciatore	Santa Veronika

Notable crew

• Mel Gibson - sutradar, produser bersama, penulis skenario bersama
• Benedict Fitzgerald - penulis skenario bersama
• Caleb Deschanel - pengambilan gambar
• Francesco Frigeri - perancang produksi
• John Debney - komposer
• Fr. William Fulco S.J. - menerjemahkan naskah ke dalam Bahasa Latin dan Bahasa Aramaic yang direka ulang.
• Fr. Jonathan Morris - Penasehat teologi selama masa produksi dan pemasaran film.

]</ref> The National Socialist Front has launched a campaign, which defends Mel Gibson over the criticism he received by Abraham Foxman for making the movie.

A year before the film's release there was much impassioned controversy about whether or not The Passion of the Christ is as historically anti-Semitic as are most passion plays and so would incite anti-Semitism . The ADL of B'nai B'rith wrote to director Mel Gibson, expressing its fear that Gibson's version may unintentionally do so.

The Jewish community were concerned with again being accused of deicide — the usual justification for pogroms. Rabbis in Orthodox Judaism, Reform Judaism, and Conservative Judaism were fearful that any movie based upon traditional Christian passion plays could only be interpreted by its target audiences as encouragingly anti-Semitism . Jewish communal organizations and Jewish community newspapers voiced similar fears, yet Jesuit priest Fr. William Fulco, S.J., of Loyola Marymount University — and the film's Aramaic dialogue translator — often defended the movie against that, saying the script did not violate the 1988 criteria of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for Jewish portrayals in Passional dramatisations in avoiding deliberate and inadvertent anti-Semitism. [2]

Provoking more criticism, director Gibson held private screenings for prominent, politically and socially conservative Christian and Jewish religious leaders; yet denied the ADL's request. Yet Michael Medved — a Jewish columnist and right-wing film reviewer — praised the movie's Biblical accuracy; despite a February 16, 2004, Newsweek cover story by Jon Meacham reports the movie's many inaccuracies. Similarly, the ADL stated: [3]

For filmmakers to do justice to the biblical accounts of the passion, they must complement their artistic vision with sound scholarship, which includes knowledge of how the passion accounts have been used historically to disparage and attack Jews and Judaism. Absent such scholarly and theological understanding, productions such as The Passion could likely falsify history and fuel the animus of those who hate Jews.

An Icon Productions employee gave an early version script of the script to a joint committee of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Department of Inter-religious Affairs of the Anti-Defamation League, who concluded [4] that The Passion of the Christ is:

one of the most troublesome texts, relative to anti-Semitic potential, that any of us had seen in twenty-five years. It must be emphasized that the main storyline presented Jesus as having been relentlessly pursued by an evil cabal of Jews, headed by the high priest Caiaphas, who finally blackmailed a weak-kneed Pilate into putting Jesus to death. This is precisely the storyline that fueled centuries of anti-Semitism within Christian societies. This is also a storyline rejected by the Roman Catholic Church at Vatican II in its document Nostra Aetate, and by nearly all mainline Protestant churches in parallel documents . . . . Unless this basic storyline has been altered by Mr. Gibson, a fringe Catholic who is building his own church in the Los Angeles area and who apparently accepts neither the teachings of Vatican II nor modern biblical scholarship, The Passion of the Christ retains a real potential for undermining the repudiation of classical Christian anti-Semitism by the churches in the last forty years.

When The Passion of the Christ was released, although some Jews supported Gibson, the overwhelming Jewish reaction was negative. In The Nation, reviewer Katha Pollitt said, "Gibson has violated just about every precept of the (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) conference's own 1988 "Criteria" for the portrayal of Jews in dramatizations of the Passion (no bloodthirsty Jews, no rabble, no use of Scripture that reinforces negative stereotypes of Jews, etc.)". [5]

The Jewish community were concerned about these matters:

• Most Jews, such as the High Priest, are ugly: "The priests have big noses and gnarly faces, lumpish bodies, yellow teeth; Herod Antipas and his court are a bizarre collection of oily-haired, epicene perverts. The "good Jews" look like Italian movie stars (Italian sex symbol Monica Bellucci is Mary Magdalene); Mary, who would have been around 50 and appeared 70, could pass for a ripe 35." [6]
• The High Priest is a member in good standing of the Jewish community, and as a man feared by Roman officials. Some historians have cited the fact that Caiaphas is described by Josephus as having been appointed High Priest by a previous Roman Procurator. They have interpreted this as meaning that the Romans did not allow Jews to appoint their own High Priest and that the contemporary High Priest was an employee of the Roman government.
• Palestine Governor Pontius Pilate is a thoughtful, temperate man who ultimately agrees to Jesus's crucifixion, unwilling to risk either Jewish or Christian rebellions. Historians, including his contemporary Josephus, describe his barbarous treatment of Jews in his province — crucifying many in his reign. However, Josephus also describes the Sanhedrin using the same tactics referred to in the Gospels to prevent Pilate from erecting a statue of Tiberius Caesar.
• Pilate describes Barabbas as "a notorious murderer." In reality, there is little description of his background. Matthew 27:16 describes Barabbas as notorious, Luke 23: 19 implies his crimes as political, he "had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder". Moreover, he is portrayed as a deranged psychopath, again for which there is no textual evidence. Collectively, these editorial choices render Barabbas's release more craven than the text supports. Also in Hebrew, Bar Abba literally means Son of the Father, or an illegitimate child.

When challenged if his movie defames contemporary Jews, director Gibson responded: "It's not meant to. I think it's meant to just tell the truth. I want to be as truthful as possible". In a Globe and Mail newspaper interview (February 14 2004), he said: "If anyone has distorted Gospel passages to rationalize cruelty towards Jews or anyone, it's in defiance of repeated Papal condemnation. The Papacy has condemned racism in any form... Jesus died for the sins of all times, and I'll be the first on the line for culpability".

An ADL web page posted on August 13, 2003 provided examples of Anti-Semitic responses to the ADL's criticism of this project. [7] Critics of the ADL retorted that hateful e-mail sent them was not provoked by the film, yet to be released, rather, it was the ADL's attacks against a film about Jesus that motivated it. In response, the Catholic League accused the ADL of "seeking to poison relations between Catholics and Jews", that the "attacks on Mel Gibson have little to do with some off-the-cuff quips and everything to do with waging a frontal assault against all those people — Catholics, Protestants, Jews et al. — who have seen The Passion and love it." [8]

Other commentators who had seen it — Cal Thomas and Roger Ebert — also categorically denied that the film is anti-Semitic. [9] However, in the New Republic (8 March 2004), Leon Wieseltier said: "In its representation of its Jewish characters, The Passion of the Christ is without any doubt an anti-Semitic movie, and anybody who says otherwise knows nothing, or chooses to know nothing, about the visual history of anti-Semitism, in art and in film. What is so shocking about Gibson's Jews is how unreconstructed they are in their stereotypical appearances and actions. These are not merely anti-Semitic images; these are classically anti-Semitic images." [10]

Positive views of Judaism

Some Orthodox Jews — most notably Rabbi Daniel Lapin and Michael Medved — have vocally rejected claims that the film is anti-Semitic and have voiced their support. They have especially noted the film's many sympathetic portrayals of Jews: Simon of Cyrene (who helps Jesus carry the cross), Mary Magdalene, the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, St. John and Veronica (who wipes Jesus' face and offers him water).

Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the South African-born head of the Toward Tradition organisation, declared the ADL and its allies "dangerous organizations, organizations that are driving a wedge between American Jews and Christians." Referring to ADL national director Abraham Foxman, Lapin said, that in calling the movie anti-Semitic, "what he is saying is that the only way to escape the wrath of Foxman is to repudiate your faith." [11] Morover,

Senior Vatican officer Darío Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, who has seen the film, addressed the matter so: [12]

Anti-Semitism, like all forms of racism, distorts the truth in order to put a whole race of people in a bad light. This film does nothing of the sort. It draws out from the historical objectivity of the Gospel narratives sentiments of forgiveness, mercy, and reconciliation. It captures the subtleties and the horror of sin, as well as the gentle power of love and forgiveness, without making or insinuating blanket condemnations against one group. This film expressed the exact opposite, that learning from the example of Christ, there should never be any more violence against any other human being.

Christian criticism

Fundamentalist Protestant groups criticised the film for its Catholic and ecumenical overtones, especially the addition of noncanonical scenes of Jesus with his mother (which they say encourages Maryolatry)[13]. The Passion of the Christ is criticised by some Protestant Christian spokesmen for departing from New Testament accounts. Many scenes and details are from traditional Catholic passion plays and from Emmerich's book; many scenes and events are symbolic groundwork for the story, reflecting events found elsewhere in Christian scripture and in Catholic tradition.

On the other hand, in New Zealand, the Office of Film and Literature Classification was criticised by the fundamentalist Society for the Promotion of Community Standards for rating the film R16, out of bounds for minors, arguing that children younger than sixteen years of age should be allowed to see the film's explicitly violent depiction of Christ's suffering.

The filmmakers defend said explicit violence as true to the letter and spirit of the Christian New Testament Scripture; others disagree, for example, the scene where soldiers push Jesus off a bridge is Emmerich's creation, it is not Gospel. Universal culpability for Jesus Christ's death is the principal doctrine of Christianity, a fundamental Catholic teaching since the 1st century, stated in the 1570 Catholic handbook Catechism of the Council of Trent:

In this guilt [for the Crucifixion] are involved all those who fall frequently into sin; for, as our sins consigned Christ the Lord to the death of the cross, most certainly those who wallow in sin and iniquity crucify to themselves again the Son of God, as far as in them lies, and make a mockery of him. This guilt seems more enormous in us than in the Jews, since according to the testimony of the same Apostle: If they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory; while we, on the contrary, professing to know him, yet denying Him by our actions, seem in some sort to lay violent hands on Him.

Further controversy is about the dialogue: "His blood [is] on us and on our children!" (Matthew 27:25), which has been historically interpreted by some as a curse taken upon by the Jewish people. Thus, Jewish religious groups asked this be removed from the film. However, only the subtitles were removed; the original dialogue remains in Aramaic soundtrack.[14]

CNN reported that Pope John Paul II privately viewed the film before its release. [15] Supporters of Gibson’s interpretation of the Passion claimed that the Pope remarked to his friend, Monsignor Stanisław Dziwisz, "It is as it was"; Dziwisz denied that ever happened.

Critical reaction

The film received generally mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 50% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 260 reviews — with the consensus that "the graphic details of Jesus' torture make the movie tough to sit through and obscure whatever message it is trying to convey." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 47 out of 100, based on 43 reviews.

Entertainment Weekly magazine's June 2006 issue named The Passion of the Christ the most controversial film of all time, followed by Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange (1971). Coincidentally, A Clockwork Orange shows a Passion of the Christ daydream, wherein the protagonist, Alex de Large, is a Centurion whipping the cross-carrying Jesus enroute to Calvary hill. Moreover, Monty Python described The Passion of the Christ film as "the same as ours, but without the jokes", a reference to their historical comedy The Life of Brian (1979), and influential newspaper movie reviewers praised The Passion of the Christ, one is Roger Ebert, who rated it four -of-four stars.

Author and journalist Christopher Hitchens, in his book "God is Not Great" (Page 111), slammed the film, calling it "an exercise in sadomasochistic homoeroticism starring a talentless lead actor".

Criticism of the explicit violence

Critics were troubled by the film's explicitly-detailed violence, and especially cautioned parents to avoid taking their children to the cinema. Although only one sentence in three of the Gospels mentions Jesus's flogging, and it is unmentioned in the fourth, The Passion of the Christ devotes ten minutes to the portrayal of the flogging. Newspaper movie reviewer Roger Ebert, who rated the movie four-of-four stars, said in his review:

The movie is 126 minutes long, and I would guess that at least 100 of those minutes, maybe more, are concerned specifically and graphically with the details of the torture and death of Jesus. This is the most violent film I have ever seen.

Ebert also mentioned that the R-rated film merits the MPAA NC-17 rating in a "Movie Answer Man" response, adding that no level-minded parent should ever allow children to see it.

A.O. Scott, in The New York Times, said, The Passion of the Christ is so relentlessly focused on the savagery of Jesus' final hours that this film seems to arise less from love than from wrath, and to succeed more in assaulting the spirit than in uplifting it."

David Edelstein, Slate Magazine 's film critic, dubbed the film "a two-hour-and-six-minute snuff movie — The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre — that thinks it's an act of faith", and further criticised director Mel Gibson's focusing on the brutality of Jesus's execution, instead of his religious teachings.

During Diane Sawyer's interview of him, director Gibson said:

I wanted it to be shocking; and I wanted it to be extreme . . . . So that they see the enormity — the enormity of that sacrifice; to see that someone could endure that and still come back with love and forgiveness, even through extreme pain and suffering and ridicule. The actual crucifixion was more violent than what was shown on the film, but I thought no one would get anything out of it.

Satire

The Passion of the Christ and the controversy surrounding it have been repeatedly parodied since the film's release.

In the South Park episode "The Passion of the Jew", Eric Cartman uses the film's popularity to preach a Final Solution to devout Christians who have no idea of what he is talking about. Meanwhile, Stan Marsh and Kenny McCormick watch The Passion and refer to it as "a snuff film." They launch into a quest to find Mel Gibson and get their money back.

In The Family Guy episode "North by North Quahog", Peter Griffin steals the negatives for the sequel to The Passion of the Christ (an action movie in the style of Rush Hour entitled "Passion of the Christ 2 Crucify THIS!"), citing his hope to save the world from two hours of mindless violence. He is subsequently chased by Mel Gibson in a satirization of the Alfred Hitchcock movie North by Northwest.

In the Drawn Together episode "The One Wherein There Is a Big Twist", Princess Clara produces a blatantly anti-Semitic film depiction of Christ's crucifixion (Jewish caricatures are shown whipping a cross-bearing Christ), parodying the anti-Semitic controversy surrounding The Passion of the Christ.

G4's X-Play has parodied the film in the form of an advertisement for a sequel, entitled "Passion of the Christ 2: Judgment Day," in which Jesus is portrayed as a vengeful killer.

Though not referenced directly, the Simpsons episode "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass" has Marge criticizing Ned Flanders' highly acclaimed movies based on Biblical stories due to their graphic violence. This parallels The Passion being criticized for using the Bible to show violence to its audience a year earlier. Another episode briefly shows a parody, entitled "The Salad of the Christ".

Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan remarked on the controversy surrounding the film in his "Cracked" show of 2004 saying "This movie has gotten into a lot of trouble for saying that the Jews killed Jesus. Well, it wasn't the Mexicans!"

Music

Three CDs were released with Mel Gibson's co-operation: (i) the film soundtrack of John Debney's original orchestral score conducted by Nick Ingman; (ii) The Passion of the Christ: Songs, by producers Mark Joseph and Tim Cook, with original compositions by various artists, and (iii) the eponymously-titled The Passion of the Christ: Songs Inspired By.

A preliminary score was composed and recorded by Lisa Gerrard and Patrick Cassidy, but was incomplete at film's release. Jack Lenz was the primary musical researcher and one of the composers; several clips of his compositions have been posted. -->

Lihat juga

• Jalan Salib

Pranala luar

1. Gibson breaks Hollywood’s 10 Commands - The Hollywood Reporter
2. Official site - The Passion of the Christ
3. Passion-movie.com
4. The Passion of the Christ di IMDb (dalam bahasa Inggris)
5. The Passion of the Christ di Allmovie (dalam bahasa Inggris)
6. The Passion of the Christ di Rotten Tomatoes (dalam bahasa Inggris)
7. (Inggris) The Passion of the Christ di Metacritic
8. (Inggris) The Passion of the Christ di Box Office Mojo
9. http://www.adl.org/presrele/mise_00/4275_00.asp
10. http://www.adl.org/anti_semitism/anti-semitic-responses.asp
11. http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=726
12. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CalThomas/2003/08/05/the_greatest_story_ever_filmed
13. http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-gaspari091803.asp
14. Apologetics Index entry on The Passion of the Christ
15. South Park: The Passion of the Jew Episode also on the South Park Single-Disc DVD with the same title.
16. S. Brent Plate, ed. Re-viewing the Passion: Mel Gibson's Film and Its Critics (New York: Palgrave, 2004]]]
17. Matera