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Cardinal Pell on "The
Passion"
"It Is Strong Meat"
SYDNEY, Australia, FEB. 24, 2004 (Zenit.org).-
Cardinal George Pell wrote this commentary on the film "The
Passion of the Christ." It appeared in the Sunday Telegraph and
on the archdiocese's Web site.
* * *
By Cardinal George Pell
Next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the day when Mel Gibson's film
"The Passion" will premiere around the world, depicting the
last 12 hours in the life of Jesus Christ.
Through a combination of anti-religious hostility, fear of
anti-Semitism and shrewd marketing, "The Passion" has
received more publicity before its release than most films do during
their brief span of life.
The film is a contemporary masterpiece, artistically and technically.
It is not absurd to compare it with the paintings of the Italian
master Caravaggio, because of its beauty and drama. It is more
genuinely spiritual, even more violent but less erotic than
Caravaggio's canvases.
"The Passion" belongs to the turn of the 20th century, the
cruellest in history, because of its violence which is explicit and
continual. The scourging is worse than the crucifixion.
It is like Gibson's film "Braveheart," only more so, and
confronting; viewers need to be warned. As a believer I found the film
draining. Some with me at the screening wept.
It is certainly an antidote to those who think the crucifixion was
like an afternoon tea party. Jesus is not trivialised nor
sentimentalised.
The film is not a literalist transcription of the gospel accounts, but
a work of art where the terrible conflict between good and evil is
illustrated symbolically. Evil is personified by a terrifying
androgynous figure of a woman with a man's voice and (at one stage) a
horrible child-like creature. Christ stamps on a snake (the tempter)
during the agony in the garden at Gethsemane.
The outstanding performance is from Maia Morgenstern, a Romanian Jew,
playing Mary the mother of Jesus. She is strong and beautiful in her
suffering and tenderness, a convincing mother for the teacher and
public figure who is being persecuted.
Actors who play the role of Jesus are at a severe disadvantage with
me, because the demands of the role are impossible. I would not have
gone across the road to hear some Christ figures in other films, but
James Caviezel does well as Jesus. While Jesus' upper denture was
probably not as perfect or pearly white as his, he has reverence for
what he is attempting and comes closer than anyone I have seen in the
role.
This film is not anti-Semitic because the heroes Jesus and Mary are
Jews. We witness a terrible quarrel within the Palestinian Jewish
community. Neither Jesus, nor anyone else calls for revenge. He
explains that his attackers do not know what they are doing. Neither
does the film lay the blame for Jesus' death on the Jewish nation.
The High priest Caiaphas and his supporters are not pleasant people,
but we do not normally stereotype and condemn a whole people because
of a few villains. This film gives anti-Semites no comfort. No one has
accused the film of being anti-Roman, although they come out worst of
all. Pilate's ineffectual attempts to free Jesus are shown clearly and
the Roman soldiers, or some of them, are sadistic brutes, not just
doing their job, but revelling in their cruelty.
The film will be popular, confronting and controversial. It is light
years away from "Jesus Christ Superstar." Nor is it sugar
and spice like "Godspell."
Every type of person will come to see it, if for different reasons.
Some believers will be affronted. More will have their faith
strengthened. Non-believers will find it engrossing, an elemental
struggle between good and evil. Those who are searching will be
provoked to reflection. I have requested that all senior students in
Catholic schools be invited to see the film, but there will be no
compulsion.
It will help outsiders understand why there have been so many martyrs
prepared to die for Christ, (more in the 20th century than any other)
and why Christianity has such a profound influence in many different
cultures after 2,000 years. The call to follow Christ is personal and
primal. There was never any medieval morality play with an impact like
this film's.
The finest sermon on Christ I have heard was by an English layman,
Malcolm Muggeridge; but that was a pale contribution beside this.
Generations of believers will see Mel Gibson's "The Passion"
as a classic. But it is strong meat. Not for the faint hearted.
ZE04022424
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