Catholic bishops give 'Passion' mixed review
In a much-anticipated review, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has given mixed marks to Mel Gibson's new movie, "The Passion of the Christ," praising the controversial film for showing "the depth of Christ's love" and for its depiction of Mary, but criticizing the portrayal of leaders of the Jewish temple at the time of Jesus.
"Although the film's brutality poignantly conveys the depth of Christ's love by showing him freely enduring such extreme agony for the redemption of all sinners, the graphic nature of the raw visuals is played to diminishing returns," the review declares. "Following the basic outline of the gospel passion narratives, director Mel Gibson embroiders his interpretive retelling of scripture with extra-biblical sources as well as his own imagination, to craft an at times profoundly moving movie which succeeds in stripping Christ's sacrificial suffering of its Sunday school sugar-coating."
The bishops' conference routinely reviews films and television shows through its Office for Film and Broadcasting in an effort to provide a guide to popular culture for Catholics. The reviews are published in many Catholic newspapers, including the Boston archdiocesan paper, the Pilot, and are also distributed on the Internet and on a toll-free phone line.
On the subject of anti-Semitism, the bishops' critics declared, "the Jewish people are at no time blamed collectively for Jesus' death; rather Christ himself freely embraces his destiny." But the critics encouraged Catholic filmgoers to heed official church teaching, which declares that "though Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ, neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his passion."
"The scene of the stock frenzied mob uniformly calling for Christ's crucifixion in Pilate's courtyard is problematic, though once Christ begins his laborious way of the cross, Jewish individuals emerge from the crowd to extend kindness," the critics said.
The critics said they had particular problems with the film's "historically skewed depiction" of the Jewish temple leadership.
"The most visually distinctive representatives of Jewish authority -- the High Priest Caiphas and those in the Sanhedrin aligned with him, do come across as almost monolithically malevolent," they said. And, they said, the "overly sympathetic portrayal of the procurator (Pilate) as a vacillating, conflicted and world-weary backwater bureaucrat, averse to unnecessary roughness and easily coerced by both his Jewish subjects and his conscience-burdened wife, does not mesh with the Pilate of history remembered by the ancient historians as a ruthless and inflexible brute responsible for ordering the execution of hundreds of Jewish rabble-rousers without hesitation."
"The Passion of the Christ" took in an estimated $15 million to $20 million after just one day of release, a remarkable number for a religious-themed movie so divisive that no Hollywood studio would touch it.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
