Vivid and controversial, Mel Gibson's gore-spattered, self-financed celebration of the suffering and death of Jesus (James Caviezel) is inseparable from the bitter debate it engendered, rooted in issues of scriptural fidelity, explicit violence and the manipulation of anti-semitic stereotypes, by design or through heedless insensitivity. A product of both its time and producer/director/co-writer Gibson's particular beliefs — conservative Catholic — and sensibilities, this chronicle of Jesus' last 12 hours is deeply invested in the same spectacle of redemptive agony that drives the excruciating conclusion of BRAVEHEART (1995). It begins
in media res, as Jesus p...
Released:
2004
Rated:
R
Length:
127 mins