The Passion of the Christ

The Passion of the Christ tells the story that most of us are familiar with. It is the last 12 hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life and director Mel Gibson has brought those moments to life in a way that no other has. In the Garden of Gethsemane near the Mount of Olives, Jesus (portrayed by James Caviezel) is betrayed by Judas Iscariot (Luca Lionello).Jesus is then condemned to death for blasphemy and brought before Pontius Pilate (Hristo Naumov Shopov), the Roman governor of Judea, for sentencing. The roaring crowd demand his death, so Pilate orders his crucifixion. Jesus is severely beaten and made to carry his cross up to Golgotha, the hill outside Jerusalem, where he is nailed to the cross. 

When Jesus is beaten and nailed to the cross I could almost feel the agony and actually had to stop the movie several times. Another heart wrenching moment is when Mary, Mother of Jesus, wipes her sons blood from the ground after his beating. The heartbreak is so real and Romanian theatrical actress Maia Morgenstern plays Mary superbly. To me the best portrayal of all the characters is that of Satan, played by Rosalinda Celentano but the voice of Satan is dubbed in by a man. It brings a surreal ness to the character. The dialogue is spoken in the ancient Aramaic language, along with Latin and Hebrew which means you have to read the English subtitles the entire time but it is worth it. Every actor plays their part beautifully. It is almost as though you are watching everything live as it unfolds. The settings are simply beautiful. The DVD doesn’t have extra features but after watching the movie (if you can manage it in one viewing) conveys the story so completely you really don’t need anything extra.

I wrote this review of The Passion of the Christ – Full Screen for the free Catholic Book review program, created by Aquinas and More Catholic Goods.

Aquinas and More is the largest on-line Catholic bookstore.

I receive free product samples as compensation for writing reviews for Tiber River.