Taking the Scenic Route

We watched the Passion of the Christ last night.  All I can say is WOW.  That is one powerful film.  It was one of those that was so good that you forgot it was subtitled and you feel like you were hearing it instead of just reading it.  It was a trully brutal film though and would be completely inappropriae for a young viewer.  It was hard enough for an adult viewer…a woman locally actually had a heart attack and died during the movie and I can understand why.  It is pretty overwhelming on the small screen, even with interuptions, and I am almost glad we didn’t have the money to see it on the big screen.  I got the point without being traumatized by it.  (I also had to cover my eyes a few times because it was just too much)  I am hoping it doesn’t give me night mares, but it didn’t last night, so that is good.  I can usually watch movies with that much violence without any problems, but knowing it was real made it really gut wrenching. 

I was crying through much of the movie, but the part where they show Jesus falling while carrying the cross and combine the “present” Mary running towards him with a flashback of Mary running towards him having fallen as a little kid just did me in.  We actually had to stop the film so I could get myself back together to see the rest of the film.  I identified with Mary in this film in a way that really surprised me. 

It was also sort of weird to realize that Zach is 33 years old this year.  As a kid and even young adult I could never grasp how young Jesus died.  How much difference he made in such a short life. 

I know that one of the points of the film is that it is supposed to be overwhelming.  It is supposed to be brutal, because it was brutal.  The depth of pain Jesus went through for us had never been expressed as well in a film.  I think the reason I identifed with Mary so much is because it brought a realism to the film because the brutality is so overwhelming it is almost numbing, but watching her seemed to bring everything back to how real it all was.

I wish they would do a film on this level of research and implementation about the Christmas story.  It would certainly be a lot more family friendly and it would be neat to see.