Mel Gibson's Controversial Dream
by Andrea Kirk
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At Easter in 2004, movie-goers will be able to see the most realistic depiction — as near to a documentary as possible 2,000 years later — of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in history.
The Passion is the monumental undertaking of Hollywood superstar Mel Gibson, age 47. The idea had been taking form in his mind for 10 years, the actor said at a press conference in Rome.
"I want to show the humanity of Christ as well as the divine aspect," Gibson said. "It's a rendering that for me is very realistic and as close as possible to what I perceive the truth to be."
Criticizing some previous films depicting the life of Christ as "cheesy Hollywood epics," Gibson seeks to create a film as close to reality as possible. "The Gospels tell you what basically happened; I want to know what really went down," Gibson told Time magazine.
He is going to great lengths to bring the story to life in the most authentic way possible. Before moving the cast and crew to the set in Rome, the filming took place in the southern Italian towns of Sassi de Matera and Craco, where The Gospel According to Matthew by Pier Paolo Pasolini was filmed in 1964. The houses and buildings in these towns are entirely built from a sand-covered rock, reminiscent of biblical Jerusalem.
Gibson had his script translated into Latin and Aramaic by Los Angeles based Jesuit linguistics professor Bill Fulco, New York Daily News reported. He will show the film in these original languages, with some lines also in Greek and Hebrew — without subtitles. Gibson hopes audiences will then be better able to enter into the story to experience the truth of Jesus' crucifixion. "Subtitles would somehow spoil the effect that I want to achieve. It would alienate you and you'd be very aware that you were watching a film if you saw lettering coming up on the bottom of it. Hopefully I'll be able to transcend language barriers with visual storytelling. If I fail, I'll put subtitles on it, though I don't want to."
"A Moving Caravaggio"
Inspired by the Italian Baroque painter's art, Gibson hired cinematographer Caleb Deschanel to create a "moving Caravaggio." Caravaggio created powerful, life-like painting with a "darkness" and "spirituality" that appeals to Gibson. Translated onto the big screen, Gibson hopes his film will be more than just a work of art, becoming a living experience. "I watched the filming of the flagellation scenes standing very close to Jim Caveziel (the actor who plays the role of Jesus)," said Father Thomas Williams, LC, after a recent visit to the set. "When the skin came off from the whipping, I could see muscle tissue and blood that was indistinguishable from an actual wound."
In an interview with Bill O'Reilly of FOX television, Gibson explains the reason his film will include a great deal of realistic violence. "I think anybody that is in the know about Jesus as God and believes in Him realizes that He was brutalized and that I'm exploring it in this way, I think, to show the extent of the sacrifice willingly taken . . . It's going to be hard to take, but I don't know that people are going to be upset by it."
With the amount of attention Gibson has given to every detail of costuming, set design, and historical authenticity, there is little doubt he will achieve a moving visual masterpiece, but what the Catholic actor/director/producer is more interested in is being true to the Truth he embraces.
A Labor Of Love
Mel Gibson was raised in an "ultra-traditionalist" Catholic family in New York State before moving to Australia. He and his wife have eight children.
The Passion seems to have emerged from a 10-year spiritual journey Gibson had when he came back to the faith after being "a pretty wild boy, quite frankly."
"When I was growing up, the whole story of the Passion was very sanitized," Gibson told the New York Daily News. "It seemed to me very much like a fairy tale." But after Gibson allowed God back into his life after age 35 he looked at the death and resurrection of Our Lord with new eyes.
"I had to reconsider and say to myself . . . this actually happened, this is real. And that started me thinking about what it must have been like, what Christ went through, and I started seeing it in film terms."
Gibson quickly realized the risk and gravity of such a project but still persisted. "Every nation and creed has been influenced by Christ in some way or another, and everyone has differing opinions about who he is, what he is and why, or whether they even believe in him or not. And that's the point of my film, really: to show all that turmoil around (Jesus) politically because he is who he is."
The Dolorous Passion Of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The discovery of Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich's (1774-1824) diaries entitled The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ was a key moment in Gibson's decision to make this film.
Looking for another book in his library one day, Gibson came across the book for the first time when it literally fell into his hands from the shelf.
Venerable Anne Catherine experienced visions of the Passion of Our Lord which were recorded in her diaries. She also had many visions of the Catholic Church under spiritual attack. These visions concluded with a conversation with the Heavenly Spouse who told her that, despite a seemingly complete decline of Holy Mother Church, She would rise again. "Even if there remained but one Catholic, the Church would conquer again because She does not rest on human counsels and intelligence."
The Passion script, co-written by Mel Gibson and Ben Fitzgerald, also drew upon Mary of Agreda's City of God and the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. According to some Italian papers, Gibson has consulted with Vatican officials and theologians to hear advice on creating an authentic re-telling of the story, but a Vatican source told ITV that Gibson has, over the years, declined six invitations to meet with the Pope.
Time magazine describes Gibson as a "truculent Catholic" who "scorns the Second Vatican Council." Gibson himself says that "dwindling numbers and pedophilia" are two fruits of the Council.
Time's journalists note that Gibson is a "devout Catholic in an industry whose products often mock religion" and conclude that "it hardly seems unreasonable there can be a contemporary film about a Christian hero when there are so many about, say, serial killers."
Professional And Personal Persecution
With this positive endorsement from such a widely-read mainstream magazine, and the fact that Gibson has been named the third most powerful man in the film industry by Entertainment Weekly, it is surprising that, to date, no film studio has taken the distribution rights. Icon Productions, Mel Gibson's own production company which produced 1995's Academy Award winning Braveheart, is exclusively funding the estimated $25 million project. The Passion has been "good for the soul, not good for the wallet," the producer/director admitted.
Besides the general lack of faith in a movie with "two dead languages" making a big hit at the box office, Gibson suspects that Hollywood is reluctant to endorse the project because of a certain prejudice against Christianity from those who do not want to see the project succeed.
"When you touch this subject, it does have a lot of enemies," Gibson said. "For example, I know that there are people sent from reputable publications — they go about, while you're busy over here, they start digging into your private life and sort of getting into your banking affairs and any charities you might be involved in. And then they start bothering your friends and your business associates and harassing your family, including my 85-year-old father. I find it a little spooky," Gibson told FOX's Bill O'Reilly.
In reaction to this harassment, Gibson closed the set to all media at Cinecitta studios in Rome, only granting an interview with Time magazine in January. When ITV showed up at the set with requests for interviews with Gibson and James Caveziel, the actor who will portray Jesus, we were politely informed that Gibson was not granting any interviews at all at present. But an interview with Caveziel, a devout Catholic who has been blessed by John Paul II, is pending.
© Robert Moynihan, Inside the Vatican
This item 4686 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
