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Movies / On DVD / The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ

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The Passion of the Christ (2004)

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Reviews Counted:46

Fresh:17

Rotten:29

Average Rating:4.9/10

Consensus: The graphic details of Jesus' torture make the movie tough to sit through and obscure whatever message it is trying to convey.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for sequences of graphic violence

Runtime: 2 hrs 22 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Feb 25, 2004 Wide

Box Office: $370,203,632

Synopsis: The Passion of The Christ is a film about the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth's life. The film opens in the Garden of Olives (Gethsemane) where Jesus has gone to pray after the Last Supper.... The Passion of The Christ is a film about the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth's life. The film opens in the Garden of Olives (Gethsemane) where Jesus has gone to pray after the Last Supper. Jesus resists Satan's temptations. Betrayed by Judas Iscariot, Jesus is arrested and taken back to within the city walls of Jerusalem where the leaders of the Pharisees confront him with accusations of blasphemy and his results in a condemnations of death. Jesus is brought before Pilate, the Roman Governor of Palestine, who listens to the accusations leveled at him by the Pharisees. Realizing he is confronting a political conflict, Pilate defers to King Herod in the matter. Herod returns Jesus to Pilate who gives the crowd a choice between Jesus and the criminal Barabbas. The crowd chooses to have Barabbas set free and to condemn Jesus. Jesus is handed over to the Roman soldiers and flagellated. Unrecognizable now, he is brought back before Pilate, who presents him to the crowd as if to say "is this not enough?" It is not. Pilate washes his hands of the entire dilemma, ordering his men to do as the crowd wishes. Jesus is presented with the cross and is ordered to carry it through the streets of Jerusalem all the way up to Golgotha. On Golgotha, Jesus is nailed to the cross and undergoes his last temptation -- the fear that he has been abandoned by his Father. He overcomes his fear, looks at Mary, his Holy Mother, and makes the pronouncement which only she can fully understand, "it is accomplished." He then dies: "into Thy hands I commend my Spirit." At the moment of his death, nature itself overturns. -- © Newmarket Films [More]

Starring: James Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Monica Bellucci, Mattia Sbragia

Starring: James Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Monica Bellucci, Mattia Sbragia, Claudia Gerini, Luca Lionello, Hristo Shopov

Director: Mel Gibson

Director: Mel Gibson
Screenwriter: Mel Gibson, Benedict Fitzgerald
Producer: Bruce Davey, Stephen McEveety
Composer: John Debney
Studio: Newmarket Films

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Feb 17, 2009

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  • The Passion of the Christ focuses on the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth's life. The film begins in the Garden of Olives where Jesus has gone to pray after the Last Supper. Jesus must resist the temptations of Satan. Betrayed by Judas Iscariot, Jesus is then arrested and taken within the city walls of Jerusalem where leaders of the Pharisees confront him with accusations of blasphemy and his trial results in a condemnation to death.
  • Source: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
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    Reviews for The Passion of the Christ

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    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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    If I were a Christian, I'd be appalled to have this primitive and pornographic bloodbath presume to speak for me.

    Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment 15 Comments
    03/05/08
    Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Jonathan Rosenbaum
    Chicago Reader
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Mr. Gibson has gone to a lot of sweat and expense to make a movie that doesn't say much of anything new.

    Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
    03/04/04
    Rex Reed
    Rex Reed
    New York Observer
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Whereas the words say love, love, love, the sounds and images say hate, hate, hate.

    Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment 2 Comments
    03/04/04
    Andrew Sarris
    Andrew Sarris
    New York Observer
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    Puts us in a situation where we can't help but feel Jesus's pain. If only Gibson had taken the time to tell more of us why it mattered.

    Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment 2 Comments
    02/27/04
    Michael O'Sullivan
    Michael O'Sullivan
    Washington Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    A very dour, pedestrian picture.

    Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment 3 Comments
    02/27/04
    Stephanie Zacharek
    Stephanie Zacharek
    Salon.com
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    This is a movie so singular, so intense, so overwhelming that it simply has to be experienced.

    Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
    02/26/04
    Phil Kloer
    Phil Kloer
    Atlanta Journal-Constitution
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    A film of artistic ambition and devotion.

    Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
    02/25/04
    Lisa Kennedy
    Lisa Kennedy
    Denver Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Gibson makes many of the key scenes work.

    Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
    02/25/04
    Robert Denerstein
    Robert Denerstein
    Denver Rocky Mountain News
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    There are scenes in The Passion that will remain forever with those who see it.

    Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
    02/25/04
    Terry Lawson
    Terry Lawson
    Detroit Free Press
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    A filmed bloodletting like no other on record, essentially a terribly graphic two-hour torture sequence.

    Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
    02/25/04
    Tom Long
    Tom Long
    Detroit News
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    Controversy aside, The Passion is ultimately a movie -- and a masterful one at that, obviously the work of an extremely talented filmmaker.

    Full Review Source: CNN.com | comment Comment
    02/25/04
    Paul Clinton (CNN.com)
    Paul Clinton (CNN.com)
    CNN.com
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Instead of letting his reverence broaden him, Gibson uses his action-movie expertise to reduce the Crucifixion to something kinetic, literal and merely tragic.

    Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
    02/25/04
    Mick LaSalle
    Mick LaSalle
    San Francisco Chronicle
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    The extreme violence does not teach a lesson; it's an end in itself, more suited to the S&M crowd than to anyone seeking an uplifting sermon on everlasting redemption.

    Full Review Source: San Jose Mercury News | comment 1 Comment
    02/25/04
    Glenn Lovell
    Glenn Lovell
    San Jose Mercury News
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    What graphic sex is to the use of the body in hardcore porno, graphic violence is to destruction of the body of Christ in this Passion.

    Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment 1 Comment
    02/25/04
    Geoff Pevere
    Geoff Pevere
    Toronto Star
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    May have succeeded in exploiting Jesus's death for its most highly pitched emotion and drama. But in the process, for many believers, it may have served only to trivialize and further obscure the story's most central and sacred mysteries.

    Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
    02/25/04
    Ann Hornaday
    Ann Hornaday
    Washington Post
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Gibson has made a movie for nobody, really, but Gibson.

    Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment 5 Comments
    02/25/04
    Lisa Schwarzbaum
    Lisa Schwarzbaum
    Entertainment Weekly
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Blood-soaked pop theology for a doom-laden time, its effect that of a gripping yet reductive paradox: It lifts us downward.

    Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
    02/25/04
    Owen Gleiberman
    Owen Gleiberman
    Entertainment Weekly
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Bears the same relation to other biblical epics as a charnel house does to your local deli.

    Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
    02/25/04
    Peter Rainer
    Peter Rainer
    New York Magazine
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    So obsessively and so graphically bloody-minded that it comes perilously close to the pornography of violence.

    Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
    02/25/04
    Rick Groen
    Rick Groen
    Globe and Mail
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Despite controversies swirling around the movie, one cannot deny that Gibson has made a stunning film, beautifully photographed in contrasting dark and golden hues by Caleb Deschanel.

    Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
    02/24/04
    Claudia Puig
    Claudia Puig
    USA Today
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
     
     
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    As The Passion of the Christ proved, there's a lot of money in so-called "faith-based" film marketing -- but it's proving disappointingly elusive for the major studios. More...

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