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Sunday, April 04, 2004
Malilong: Graphically violent film
By Frank Malilong, Jr.
The Other Side
But for the extremely violent scenes, “The Passion of the Christ” would have been a beautiful movie. I spent more than half the time watching it, sunk in my seat. If Mel Gibson meant to punish viewers for their sins, he was spectacularly successful, albeit in a weird, if not perverse, sense. Ayala Center Cinema 4 that early Friday evening last week was a veritable torture chamber.
I know very little about art or moviemaking so in writing about “The Passion” I speak only from the heart. The movie is a gorefest. If it is, as a movie critic claims, “a deeply personal expression of the filmmaker’s faith,” then call me an atheist.
My point is that you don’t need graphically violent scenes to convey the message about someone’s sufferings even if that someone happens to be Jesus. I mean no irreverence by the comparison, but how much of the sex act will you show to deliver the message about the victim’s sufferings in a movie about her rape?
Speaking of which reminds me of the film’s message about loving one’s enemies. How do you tell victims of heinous crimes to obey God’s exhortation in the Sermon on the Mount to love your enemies as you love yourself? How do you explain that to the families of those who died senseless deaths?
“It’s easy to love you, Lord,” someone once wrote in reflection during a weekend retreat. “I owe you everything. But love my enemies? Love the drug pusher in my neighborhood, the thief who stole my spare tire and the teenage punk who ran away with my nephew’s school allowance? Aren’t you asking too much?”
I laughed when we shared our reflections and teased him about how far he was from being blessed with a forgiving heart. “I have long forgiven those who crossed me,” I said. “I don’t harbor grudges.”
When the earth shook in Gibson’s movie after Jesus died on the cross, I waited for the scene in which the leering soldiers who whipped him were impaled with their swords and where the high priest Caiphas choked to death. When these scenes did not appear on the screen, I felt empty.
I have not really learned the grace to forgive and I thank “The Passion of the Christ,” my misgivings about the use of excessive violence notwithstanding, for that gentle reminder.
(April 4, 2004 issue)
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