After watching the Passion of the Christ, I'm further convinced there is something wrong with some people. The Passion of Christ depicts the last 12 hours of Jesus' (first) existence and does so in the most horrifying and gruesome manner possible. In the first of many torture scenes, Jesus was chained to a wooden post while he was whipped with what appears to be a wooden stick. After 5 minutes of whipping and disfigurement of his body, the captain orders the guard to stop, giving the audience a sigh of relief that it was over. But boy were we all wrong. It was a line change! Out comes the new torture tools, even more gruesome and painful than the previous! And basically this continues on and on....to the end of the movie. Objectively speaking (since I'm not religious), I found this movie to be very weak. The movie did not try to connect with the audience and the only reason why people called it touching and powerful is probably because they are religious themselves and the name “Jesus”alone already touches their heart. To me, it would have been the same if Saddam was the one being tortured. It would have been much more effective if the movie was about what Jesus did in his life from beginning to end that made him so divine. Instead, I was entertained with two hours of butchering. I realize the movie does have a different intent than showcasing his entire life but as a movie, it should provide enough details so that the audience can better connect with the characters. In that sense, the movie was very weak.
What really disturbs me about this movie is that despite the horrific violence in the movie, parents still bring their kids to see the movie. My god, there were adults crying in the theatre...what do you think the movie will do to a little kid!? And a lot of the kids there were younger than 10! I understand the need as a parent to make sure their children understands what Jesus did but is this really necessary? Kids were covering up their eyes, and undoubtedly some were crying. People complain about what violent games like Grand Theft Auto and visual images of tragic events can do to kids. Well, let me tell you, Passion of the Christ will do a child more harm than any of those. Sure it is only a movie but it was VERY realistic and graphic. There are better ways to learn about Jesus' sacrifice. There is no excuse for parents to bring kids that are not even 10 years old. We don't teach about the weapons of World War by watching videos of the effect of mustard or chlorine gas on a person (believe me, if you really wanted to you will be able to find such videos). This should be no different.
Check out Mack's blog for his opinion of the movie and my shopping adventure.
In other news, went shopping with Annie, Sharon and Mack before the movie and they picked out some clothing for me. Unfortunately, time constraints cut the shopping short. We will have to continue this ;)