austraLasia 767
'THE PASSION' - AUSTRALIAN HEAD OF SIGNIS
OFFERS POSITIVE CRITIQUE:
'a considerable cinematic achievement'
LONDON: 4th December '03
-- Australian Fr. Peter Malone MSC, well-known film critic and president
of the world Catholic Association for Communication, has met with actor-director
Mel Gibson and seen an early screening of the much discussed 'The Passion..',
scheduled for release on Ash Wednesday 2004. His overall view - 'The
Passion of Christ is a considerable cinematic achievement'.
Fr. Malone provides an extensive critique of the
film, placing it within the background of other major films based on the
Gospels. This critique, now a formal statement by Signis, would make an
excellent resource for media education classes or groups, or valuable
information for a Salesian community to read and chat over. In fact,
Cardinal Castrillon of the Congregation for the Clergy, who has also
seen the early screening, urges all priests to eventually see the
film.
The Signis statement points out that 'The
Passion...' draws its story from the four Gospels and some apocryphal material -
but it is not Gospel, the statement stresses, like any other representation of
the Gospel is not in itself Gospel. The use of perspectives from all four
Gospels obviously could lead to difficulties too, but, in the statement's words
'the screenplay is able to combine Gospel incidents into a coherent narrative of
the passion'. Theologically the film 'presents the perennial teaching that
Jesus, in his person, was both human and divine in nature'. Of particular
interest to Fr. Malone was the choice of Jim Cavaziel for Jesus - presenting
Jesus in a striking manner, since Cavaziel 'is a big and strong man, with some
girth, a credible carpenter and a solid man. This makes the film's Jesus
more real than usual'.
Another positive theological feature of the film
is that 'while Mel Gibson's film wants to immerse its audience in the experience
of the Passion....the camera tracks to Jesus in profile, sitting in the tomb as
a prelude to his risen life...The resurrection, presented briefly, is still the
climax of the passion.' A further theological strength of the film is its
insertion of eucharistic scenes of the Last Supper during the nailing and the
lifting up of Jesus on the Cross. Broken body and bread are seen together,
as also blood spilt and wine poured.
'Most audiences should be satisfied with the
portrayal of Mary', says the statement. 'Those who find some of the cinema
representations of the past too much like holy cards or plaster statues will
appreciate a more biblically-grounded Mary'.
As for the early criticisms that this film is
anti-semitic, Fr. Malone rejects that, saying 'there seemed to be a general
consensus that the film was not anti-semitic [and ] some Jewish leaders and
reviewers like Michael Medved spoke positively about the film'.
If any readers of 'austraLasia' would like the
full statement, I would be happy to provide it on request, though I am sure
it will be available from the Signis website (www.signis.com ) in due course. It
appears to be not presently available there. It runs into 8 A4 pages in a
Word document.
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