‘Passion’ stirs reaction, private viewings

Now, at last, the viewing public gets to decide whether Mel Gibson’s film vision of Jesus’ final hours is a blood-soaked failure or artistic and spiritual genius.

“The Passion of the Christ” officially opens in 2,800 movie theaters today, which is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent in the traditional Christian church calendar.

Gibson spent $25 million of his own money on the film, which he produced, directed and co-wrote, and he has benefited from a skilled marketing campaign and months of word-of-mouth buzz as the film has been screened for private, often conservative, Christian audiences.

In Maine, the Rev. Tom Franks of Morrill Baptist Church in Waldo County made arrangements to rent the Colonial Theatre in nearby Belfast for a 3 p.m. screening Sunday.

As of Tuesday, Franks said, 22 congregation members had signed up and were encouraged to bring friends not affiliated with the church.

“It’s a wonderful way for church folks to reach out to any unsaved friends,” said Franks, who added that the film’s graphic nature should not deter viewers.

“I hope it shies little kids away, but, as far as I’m concerned, it’s historical and I don’t think it will be any different than watching a war movie.”

Bangor Baptist Church booked a screening for Thursday at the Hoyts Cinema multiplex in Bangor. The tickets sold out almost immediately after the church’s Sunday service, bookkeeper Michelle Conway said.

Bangor Hoyts manager Don Peet said the cinema will feature “Passion” in two theaters, with nine showings each day. As of Tuesday afternoon, only the 6:45 p.m. Wednesday showing had sold out.

The movie has sparked months of intense interfaith debate over its R-rated violence and portrayal of Jews.

Gibson’s “personal embellishment of the Gospels” denigrates “the masses of Jews who were not followers of Jesus,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

President Ted Haggard of the National Association of Evangelicals responded that “we understand our Jewish friends’ fears and concerns, born of long historical experience. The relationship between us is too important and too strong to be compromised by our differences regarding this film.”

The final cut that audiences will see is virtually identical to the version previewed by The Associated Press two months ago. The key changes are in fine-tuning: the soundtrack and mournful music, and special effects. Gibson also has added a brief flashback of Jesus teaching disciples to “love one another.”

The most incendiary and oft-misinterpreted line in the Gospels and the film, the Jewish crowd’s cry that “his blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:25), is absent in the English subtitles. However, Gibson says it’s included amid the barely audible crowd chatter spoken in Aramaic (the movie’s dialogue is in Aramaic and Latin).

As with everything regarding the two-hour film, early reviews have bounced between extremes.

One-time altar boy Roger Ebert expressed respect for Gibson’s vision and astonishment at the level of violence, while David Denby saw “a sickening death trip” that is worsened by “some serious mischief” regarding Jews.

Imaginative additions to the Bible’s spare version of events, showing Jewish guards as remarkably brutal and the high priests as cold-blooded, remain intact in the film’s final version, along with the portrayal of Pontius Pilate as a reluctant executioner that’s closer to the Gospel records.

Without ever mentioning the film, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a 112-page booklet with texts of church teachings on relations with Judaism – and warnings about portrayals of the Passion and New Testament interpretation.