Betty Bowers Reviews: The Passion Of The Christ

http://www.bettybowers.com/melgibsonpassion.html

I don't normally bother to see a film when I've read the Book. Unlike Justin Timberlake, I prefer to eschew implausible deniability when it comes to the fragility of surprise. But since The Passion of the Christ (not, mind you, just any Christ you might happen to cross crosses with, but the Christ), grew from the prodigiously fertilized soil of Roman Catholicism, a church that has never been fettered by its source materials when it comes to wildly dramatic theological flourishes, I went anyway

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From the very first reel, there is no question about which character has the starring role. Taking a cue from the local Los Angeles television news programs, if it bleeds it leads. And I haven't seen so much bleeding since my nefarious maid washed my St. John's summer silks in a rigorous hot water cycle in a pique after my casual, yet keen observation to another St. John (Ashcroft) about her only son's inscrutable deportment led to his deportation to Guantanamo Bay. In the end, Passion is really just another action movie awash in gratuitous blood. Like Braveheart -- only the men's skirts are longer.

For those of you not within driving distance to a thriving abattoir, this film may be your only chance to delight in this many quarts of gushing blood, while still skirting criminal arraignment. As a Baptist, I don't often find myself promoting R-rated films, but I'm proud that I live in a country where witnessing two hours of bloody, barbarous torture in gloating detail is considered indicia of religious piety, whereas a mere second gazing upon a woman's breast is cause for outraged apoplexy.

FABULOUS!!!

"I'm proud that I live in a country where witnessing two hours of bloody, barbarous torture in gloating detail is considered indicia of religious piety, whereas a mere second gazing upon a woman's breast is cause for outraged apoplexy."

"From the very first reel, there is no question about which character has the starring role. Taking a cue from the local Los Angeles television news programs, if it bleeds it leads. And I haven't seen so much bleeding since my nefarious maid washed my St. John's summer silks in a rigorous hot water cycle in a pique after my casual, yet keen observation to another St. John (Ashcroft) about her only son's inscrutable deportment led to his deportation to Guantanamo Bay. In the end, Passion is really just another action movie awash in gratuitous blood. Like Braveheart -- only the men's skirts are longer."

Loved this:

"Never has a recovering drunk claiming to have been guided by the lethal hand of the Lord so fabulously manipulated the media and public opinion into embracing gruesome carnage. Well, other than George W. Bush and that thing in Iraq"


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I think that's my favorite review so far. :D

"Perhaps fittingly for a production that licensed a jeweler to sell $12.99 nail necklaces (what's next? crown-of-thorns prom tiaras?), "The Passion" has the cartoonish violence of a Sergio Leone Western. You might even call it a spaghetti crucifixion, "A Fistful of Nails."