A good film.Beautiful cinematography, lighting. It was just a little heavy-handed. By that I mean had another director taken the same script, It would have been a masterpiece. The music swells to deliberately draw tears from believers in the audience. Maybe this was Gibson's goal. That this film cannot be judged by the usual film criteria...That it needs to be a "Christian film for Christians". If so, Mel succeeded.
If you don't have a belief in christ, It comes up as a confusing story. The characters are not very well defined. No attempt to go into their backgrounds. Peter, from what I understand a very important part of this saga, is given only surface attention. Same with Judas & Mary. No background. Mary is a Mom crying for her son. Scenes show her sobbing for him over and over and over. Okay, Great...but if she is such an IMPORTANT figure in Jesus's life, Why isn't she given more background attention. The two little glimpses of "little Jesus falling" and "table scene" tells nothing about Mary at all. Mary Magdelene...same thing applies. Here's a woman who Jesus may or may not have been romantically involved with. Who was she? It's a good film but falls way short of being THE film that everyone says it is.
If you don't have a belief in christ, It comes up as a confusing story. The characters are not very well defined. No attempt to go into their backgrounds. Peter, from what I understand a very important part of this saga, is given only surface attention. Same with Judas & Mary. No background. Mary is a Mom crying for her son. Scenes show her sobbing for him over and over and over. Okay, Great...but if she is such an IMPORTANT figure in Jesus's life, Why isn't she given more background attention. The two little glimpses of "little Jesus falling" and "table scene" tells nothing about Mary at all. Mary Magdelene...same thing applies. Here's a woman who Jesus may or may not have been romantically involved with. Who was she? It's a good film but falls way short of being THE film that everyone says it is.