The Passion: As Reviewed by a non believer

I recently had the chance to see one of the most talked about movies of 2004. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ had been stirring up controversy for months and after being given an RRating by the Motion Picture Association of America, the film was ready for release. Entire theaters were selling out just so people could realistically witness what they had been reading and learning about for years. The film was released on Ash Wednesday and by the time it approached its first weekend of release, The Passion had already broken box office records. This was obviously a film worth seeing, except for one small issue… I don’t believe in God. As a “nonbeliever” I wasn’t sure how to approach the film. I knew I wanted to see it, I was all for the controversy, but if you don’t believe in the subject matter being presented how can you fairly judge the film before you. I had made plans to go on opening weekend with a group of friends to see The Passion. This group was quite diverse in religions ranging from Atheists to devout Christians. The experience would be one to remember. As the film began I remember thinking: I’m going to take this film for what it’s meant to be, one of the greatest stories ever told, and if I see it differently I will keep that to myself. And as that thought finished, the film began with no opening credits or title card. The story unfolded in the long forgotten language of Aramaic. Jesus Christ was found and taken in to the Jewish leaders who would stop at nothing to see him crucified. He seemed to understand that this was his fate and took everything that came to him in the sort of stride that one would expect from the son of God. The movie was slightly more graphic in spots than even I was expecting and there was one instance during the crucifixion scene where I closed my eyes for a few seconds. The movie was also quite touching; I cried during a scene where Mary feels as though she cannot help her son. But the real question was still yet to be answered: Would one film about the life of a man who supposedly gave everything for the human race make me believe in a story that has existed for hundreds upon hundreds of years? As the screen went to black for the final time and my group of friends exited the theater I began to see how the film had affected them. The devout Christians were very much shaken up; most of them had either been crying or were still crying. The atheist was keeping quiet, I never found out if this was out of respect for those the movie had affected or if he himself had been affected by it. I wasn’t sure what to think. I had just watched a man brutally tortured and eventually killed for almost two hours; true or not, that kind of thing can mess with a person’s head. The next day is when I made my final decision on The Passion of the Christ. I believe movies have to power to affect people, make people feel emotions they may never have felt before and I believe this movie was one of them. To watch a person receive these kinds of cruelties and only end up dying in the end can make you feel a certain way. To have been in a room with a group of people who believed that what they were seeing was actually true, was something that had actually happened, is an awkward experience that could cause a person to experience a new emotion. But, I do not believe that an experience such as this can change a person’s feelings on a subject such as religion. Most of the people who do not believe in Christianity do not believe because they do not feel there is sufficient proof to the stories that are taught. I am one of these people, and a just because Mr. Gibson created a deeply moving film does not make me change my beliefs. I would, however, recommend The Passion of the Christ on its own merits. It is a truly outstanding and powerful story that can be appreciated, even by those who do not see it as a true story.