I saw THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (tm) yesterday. Ye Gods. It dredged up Christian teachin' I have long outgrown.
Flashback: When I was in first grade, my mom found her true calling: going to church. A lot. So she dragged me and my sister along so we could find ourselves too. It worked for awhile. I started questioning around fourth or fifth grade, seriously doubting around seventh or eighth, and finally left the church for good freshman year of high school. My sister went through a period of renewed, fervent faith as she watched me descend into the pits of despair. Then she quit too. Because nothing really happened to me, and it was too costly to go on with so much guilt and doubt.
Flash forward: and now I'm as blasphemous as they come. I'm usually not sensitive to violent movies, but I'm pretty empathic, in a secular kind of way. I think The Passion was explicit and focused enough to elicit some weird reaction, in which I half believed in the torment and half recalled my upbringing that honestly seems like part of another life.
So yeah, I know it was manipulative. I know it was anti-semitic. I know it took a lot of liberties. But it got to me. Anyone who sees this movie more than once is a masochist or a sadist. And not just cause it's two hours long with no hope of a potty break.
Either way, I'm afraid of you.
This Passion however, got to me in an entirely different way, and I recommend it.
Flashback: When I was in first grade, my mom found her true calling: going to church. A lot. So she dragged me and my sister along so we could find ourselves too. It worked for awhile. I started questioning around fourth or fifth grade, seriously doubting around seventh or eighth, and finally left the church for good freshman year of high school. My sister went through a period of renewed, fervent faith as she watched me descend into the pits of despair. Then she quit too. Because nothing really happened to me, and it was too costly to go on with so much guilt and doubt.
Flash forward: and now I'm as blasphemous as they come. I'm usually not sensitive to violent movies, but I'm pretty empathic, in a secular kind of way. I think The Passion was explicit and focused enough to elicit some weird reaction, in which I half believed in the torment and half recalled my upbringing that honestly seems like part of another life.
So yeah, I know it was manipulative. I know it was anti-semitic. I know it took a lot of liberties. But it got to me. Anyone who sees this movie more than once is a masochist or a sadist. And not just cause it's two hours long with no hope of a potty break.
Either way, I'm afraid of you.
This Passion however, got to me in an entirely different way, and I recommend it.