An Uncompromising Work of Art
An Uncompromising Work of Art
No.154: April 7, 2023
Welcome to The Square Inch, a Friday newsletter on Christianity, culture, and all of the many-varied “square inches” of God’s domain. This publication is free for now, but please consider clicking on the button at the bottom to become a paid subscriber to enjoy this along with Monday’s “Off The Shelf” feature about books and Wednesday’s “The Quarter Inch,” a quick(er) commentary on current events.
Dear Friends,
I am getting a late jump on The Square Inch today, partly due to some frustrating auto mechanic work. I’ve been working on my daughter’s Range Rover—she hasn’t had heat for awhile—and, having replaced the heater control valve, I noticed a very small coolant leak while attempting to bleed out the system. Should be an easy five-minute fix to splice in some new hose but, alas, the plastic nipple on the coolant reservoir turned out to be very brittle and it broke off. Sigh. Now I get to replace the whole reservoir.
It is a fallen world and that reminds me: Happy Good Friday!
Last year on this day I wrote about substitutionary atonement, and I don’t have any new angles for you. Jesus took your place and that is the most significant truth in the entire universe. It will take all eternity to sing his praises and, if you’re headed to a Good Friday service tonight, we get to have a head start.
About a forty-five minute drive from me is the Stillwater River, and it is my favorite playground. My favorite fishing spot used to be right next to (well, on, actually) a really big ranch, but the 500-year flood we had last year wiped out the fishing access. This ranch used to be owned by a pretty famous guy by the name of Mel Gibson. Maybe you’ve heard of him. Anyway, he sold the ranch in the early 2000s (and it was just back on the market for a cool $30 Million), and rumor has it that he did so to finance this independent film he was making. You might have heard of that, too:
The Passion of the Christ.
I was disappointed to not have a famous neighbor anymore, but it turned out to be a pretty fine investment for Mel, since that movie remains the top-grossing R-rated film of all time, to the tune of $370 Million. I hadn’t seen the film in a very, very long time—in fact, maybe I hadn’t watched it since the theater—so I watched it again last night. And it seems to me that it has aged very well.
I thought I might share with you some things I really like about it, but first let me just get this out of the way: if you’re a staunch Presbyterian who is convinced that portrayals of Jesus are a violation of the 2nd Commandment, that’s perfectly fine. But no need to fire off a heated email my direction. I do not hold that particular conviction so that is one of those places where I take issue with the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms.
The production values are off the charts, something that had never before been the case for any overtly Christian film. Cinematography, sets, costumes, makeup—everything is first rate. Everything is brought impeccably to life.
The argument can be made that The Passion of the Christ is the first portrayal of Jesus as a real man. No halo, no otherworldly and ethereal voice, no hazy look in his eyes like he’s drugged. The flashback scene of him teasing his mother is a favorite of mine, and his teaching at the Last Supper is straightforward and, well, real. Not over-performed.
Along that line, it is a profoundly anti-Gnostic film. This is not the Jesus of the Docetists, going through his suffering completely above it all. The film opens with Jesus in agony in Gethsemane, and Mel Gibson rather famously made sure you understood all throughout that his suffering was profound and real. I mean, it’s a gory film. It earned its R-rating.
The languages. This truly is the most impressive thing of all. Every word is Hebrew, reconstructed Aramaic, or Latin. And every single actor simply sold it. Not a weak link in the bunch. No one ever looks like they are trying to remember how to pronounce these dead languages. I frankly cannot fathom the amount of rehearsal work (or takes!) it must have taken for these actors to pull it off. But the words roll off their tongues like they’ve spoken it their entire lives.
The politics. It just seems to me that this film perfectly portrays the tenuous and fraught relationship between Rome and the Jewish people, and the legal wrangling that ends with Pilate’s pragmatic compromise. It is a deeply informed film from the historical standpoint.
I really appreciate the script’s faithfulness to the source material. Not perfect, but certainly it is faithful compared to Hollywood’s usual standards.
The message. Think of all the ways a film about Jesus can go wrong. The Passion of the Christ is not about a social justice Jesus, a “moral exemplar” Jesus, a commie Jesus, a revolutionary Jesus, or any other identity we sinners like to project onto him. This portrayal has Jesus on a clear and unmistakable mission, identified at the very start in Gethsemane when Satan mocks him for thinking he can bear the weight of sin. This is sin-bearer Jesus. The passover lamb. The Suffering Servant obeying his Father to the death, even death on a cross. When you stop to think about it, it is actually staggering that Mel Gibson pulled off such a theologically uncompromising film. He did it by keeping Hollywood’s grubby hands off of his project. Very wise.
I have no interest in rehashing the vociferous criticisms the film provoked. It isn’t anti-Semitic. It isn’t a religious “snuff” film. Yes, one can detect a pretty strong Roman Catholic influence: the stations of the cross get a tad tedious, and Mary definitely gets a lot of face time, but most of that stuff is tasteful and entirely unobjectionable.
Mel Gibson famously went off the rails and, as it turned out, did have a pretty vicious anti-Semitic streak. Jim Caviezel these days strikes me as having more than one screw loose. But one time both of those guys got together and made a really, really stunning work of art and we should give credit where credit is due.
And guess what? We get to see if they still have that mojo, because they are currently filming the sequel.
Thank you for reading The Square Inch Newsletter. Have a wonderful Easter!
He is Risen!
Time for another watch.
I never saw the film. I don't know if I could bear it. Thank you for writing about it. Your remarks about not making any images of Christ and your view of that was thought-provoking to me. I have prints of the painting of Jesus by the late Stan Lynde where SL incorporated the crucified Christ and the risen Christ into one painting. Have you seen that painting? I find it so beautiful and moving. But I did wonder if it was a violation of the graven images commandment. Maybe not, according to your thinking.