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KERRY O'BRIEN:
The dramatic
events which provide the touchstone of Christianity -- the
life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ -- have inspired
a procession of Hollywood epics.
And they haven't been without controversy.
But nothing has rivalled the response to the new film,
directed and bankrolled by devout Catholic, Mel Gibson - The
Passion of the Christ.
Even before the movie was screened, debate focused on claims
that it was anti-Semitic.
Now, as the film opens across Australia, the focus is shifted
to the unflinching depiction of Christ's suffering, described
by Time magazine as "the goriest story ever
told".
Tracey Bowden reports on the movie and the reaction from
Christian and Jewish leaders.
TRACY BOWDEN: Ash Wednesday, and Christians around the
world gather to mark the first day of Lent, the 40 days
leading up to the death and resurrection of Christ.
This holy day was deliberately chosen for another event -- the
release of Hollywood's latest version of the very same story.
Moviegoers lined up to see actor- turned-producer and director
Mel Gibson's controversial new film, The Passion of the
Christ.
The film depicts the last 12 hours of Christ's life in brutal
detail.
Its release has been preceded by not just heated debate, but
enormous publicity.
STEPHEN CRITTENDEN, ABC RELIGIOUS COMMENTATOR:
This has
been the greatest pre-publicity campaign since Gone with
the Wind.
It has been extraordinary.
And what they've done is they've drawn in church leaders
who've been writing film reviews, they've had screenings for
Protestant church communities.
They've shut the media out until the very last minute.
TRACY BOWDEN: A devout Catholic, Mel Gibson says the
film is his version of what happened, according to the gospels
of the New Testament.
But is the film true to the gospels?
CARDINAL GEORGE PELL, CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY:
There are additions, dramatisations, but I believe that it's
basically, as a work of art, it's very faithful to the gospel.
RABBI RAYMOND APPLE, GREAT SYNAGOGUE, SYDNEY:
I would
tend, unfortunately, to disagree because when I look at the
story as the film presents it, I have so many questions.
TRACY BOWDEN: Leaders from Australia's Jewish and
Christian communities, Rabbi Ray Apple and Cardinal George
Pell, have both seen the film.
CARDINAL GEORGE PELL: I thought it's a beautiful piece
of work. Deeply moving for me as a believer, very confronting,
very violent.
TRACY BOWDEN: Rabbi, would you use the word
'beautiful'?
RABBI RAYMOND APPLE: No.
In fact, I was so sorry that I went, that, with all the
violence I really would have walked out before the end if I
had had the guts to do it.
I felt that the violence in some ways obscured the message.
TRACY BOWDEN: Certainly, some of the first members of
the public to see the 'The Passion of the Christ' have been
deeply affected.
WOMAN: I don't know anyone who could sit through that
and not feel some emotion, whether they cried or squirmed in
their seat, or had to turn away, because it was very graphic.
WOMAN 2: When you are watching it, it's sickening, it's
very emotionally difficult.
MAN: I'd almost walked out about halfway through it,
and it was just really challenging.
STEPHEN CRITTENDEN: I think this is Mad Max
for Christians.
This is Mel Gibson catering to the kind of -- his sense of the
ruling aesthetic at the moment, which is violent.
And I think by overemphasising the violence, by
overemphasising the violence to the degree that he has, he's
lost the spirituality in the story, he's lost the great sort
of human dramatic moments.
TRACY BOWDEN: Could it have been done with less
violence, Cardinal Pell?
CARDINAL GEORGE PELL: I think the point of the film,
the point of the Passion narratives, is precisely
Jesus's reactions to the violence, how he takes it, what
message he gives out despite the suffering that he has
received.
That's the point of the Passion.
RABBI RAYMOND APPLE: I would have much preferred that
there would have been a consistent positive message without
the need for all the beatings and the scourgings and so on and
so forth.
TRACY BOWDEN: A key criticism is that the film depicts
Jews, all Jews, as the villains, responsible for the death of
Christ, and that this will fuel anti-Semitism.
RABBI RAYMOND APPLE: One gets the impression that there
was a vast mob, presumably all to be regarded as Jewish, who
were baying for his blood and insisting on him being crucified
when his followers, as well as his detractors, were Jewish.
CARDINAL GEORGE PELL: Whenever we see a film or read a
book, when there is a villain and the villain has a crowd of
supporters, we don't move on automatically and stereotype the
whole race because of the errors of judgment of that leader
and the crowd.
So there's nothing in the film to justify anti-Semitism.
TRACY BOWDEN: The Passion of the Christ has
certainly focused attention on the story of the crucifixion,
and is perhaps the best publicity Christianity has had in a
long time.
But to what end?
STEPHEN CRITTENDEN: This is a question I'd want to ask
-- whether the churches and the church leaders have, perhaps,
put their critical faculties to one side, because they're so
keen on what this might bring, and they're less sort of
critical about where this story and the way it's being told
might be taking us.
And my feeling is that it may well be in a backward direction.
TRACY BOWDEN: Is the Church, in some way, grateful that
Mel Gibson has put the Bible back in the headlines, if you
like?
CARDINAL GEORGE PELL: I am personally.
But I'd imagine there might be a few in the Church who don't
like the film or are affronted by the film.
But I'm delighted that this film is producing such a
discussion of Christ, what is his true message, and what is
the significance of his life and death.
RABBI RAYMOND APPLE: I cannot really advocate that
people should go and see it.
Nonetheless, it does make its contribution towards religious
discussion and, in some cases, it may well open people's eyes
to teachings which have a very significant place in the whole
marketplace of human ideas.
TRACY BOWDEN: After all the controversy, the success or
otherwise of Mel Gibson's Passion is now in the lap
of the gods.
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