'The Passion of Christ' opens to mixed reactions among audiences

After months of controversy and curiosity, "The Passion of the Christ," a startlingly graphic movie about Jesus and His cross, opened in theaters this week.

In response to a surge in demand, it will be shown in 2,800 theaters, up from the original 2,000. That is on the scale of some of Hollywood's biggest movies, according to Variety magazine.

As director Mel Gibson's film is shown, Christians say they sense something powerful is about to happen. "Something supernatural is under way in the land," Lonrna Dueck of The Globe & Mail in Toronto wrote.

"Whether you see the movie or not isn't about a toss of the coin to make an entertainment decision. Attending this movie is a spiritual decision," Dueck said. "… Yes, I do think the devil will try to keep people from seeing 'The Passion,' using anything as simple as a busy schedule, or as complex as a bad religious experience earlier in life."

The film portrays the last 12 hours of Jesus' life, including His torture and death on the cross.

Pastors and ministry leaders say 'The Passion of the Christ' will show what Jesus did, but it will be up to Christians to answer questions from friends and neighbors about why He did it.

Some predict the film will result in an influx of visitors at America's churches, not unlike what happened after the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001. But the increased attendance after Sept. 11, 2001, was not sustained, leaders warn.

"People came to our churches in droves after 9/11, and they didn't get the answers to their questions, and they're not there now," Steve Pate, a Baptist leader in Denton, Texas, told Associated Baptist Press. "If we don't get them this time, we may not get another chance, because they are going to stop thinking of the church as a place with answers to life's hard questions."

The film's brutality includes scenes of the Crucifixion and a beating that lasts 45 minutes.

Micki Allen of Arlington, Texas, told The Dallas Morning News that she's feeling weak-kneed at the prospect of watching the movie, but will go because she believes it is important.

"We've become so numbed to the reality" of Jesus' crucifixion, she said. "We're so far removed from the reality of what happened 2,000 years ago. By using this medium, the story is going to be … more real."

Morris Chapman, president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that as he watched the film in December, he forced himself not to turn away.

"I could not let myself miss one lash of the whip upon the back of Jesus as it became soaked with the crimson red of His blood. I could not let myself miss one quiver of the torn flesh, one step up Mount Calvary, one pounding of the nail, and one word from the lips of my Lord," Chapman said, according to Baptist Press.

Parents, church leaders and theater owners have been debating whether children should see the extremely violent film.

Theater owners are preparing for a first: children flocking to a violent R-rated film with their parents' blessing, USA Today said. Regal Entertainment Group, the nation's largest theater chain, has issued consent forms requiring that pastors and church leaders get parents' permission before showing the film to children in rented theaters.

Gibson says he intended the film to be just what it is: shocking and extreme.

"I wanted it to push the viewer over the edge so that they see the enormity - the enormity of that sacrifice - to see that someone could endure that and still come back with love and forgiveness, even through extreme pain and suffering and ridicule," Gibson told ABC-TV interviewer Diane Sawyer.

He decided to depict Jesus' sacrifice on film after reaching "the height of spiritual bankruptcy" 13 years ago, he told Sawyer. Things got so bad that Gibson contemplated jumping out a window.

"I would get addicted to anything, anything at all. OK? Doesn't matter what it is … drugs, booze, anything. You name it - coffee, cigarettes, anything. All right? I'm just one of these guys who is like that. That's my flaw."

Gibson is Roman Catholic, and the movie "is also very Catholic," Bruce N. Fisk, associate professor of New Testament at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., told BeliefNet. "The storyline borrows bits from each of the four Gospels (with nods toward Matthew and John), but it is also steeped in church tradition and guided by images and symbols long cherished by Catholic worshippers."

Many observers describe the general thrust of the film as true to the Gospels. The film is "substantially accurate," said Darrell Bock, professor of New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, who saw it last June. "I'd say that of the two hours I saw, there might be four to five minutes where it's not accurate."

Gibson has endured months of criticism over charges that the film might incite hatred of Jews. He has repeatedly insisted he is not anti-Semitic, and that the criticisms miss the point of the movie. "Critics who have a problem with me don't really have a problem with me in this film," Gibson told Sawyer. "They have a problem with the four Gospels. That's where their problem is."

When asked who killed Jesus, Gibson said: "The big answer is, we all did. I'll be the first in the culpability stakes here."

In the movie, Gibson makes a cameo appearance holding the spike being nailed through Christ's wrist. The intention is to make the point that with his own hand, Gibson was among those responsible for Jesus' death.

James Dobson of Focus on the Family says criticism of Gibson has tried to throw up "a smokescreen."

"Apparently the idea of a movie that accurately portrays the death and resurrection of Christ and that 'has the power to evangelize' is more than certain members of the liberal media establishment can stomach," Dobson, who has seen a rough cut of the film twice, wrote in a letter to supporters.

This article is courtesy of www.religionjournal.com.