Plate, S. Brent, ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan,
2004. 198 + xxiii pp. $14.95 (US), $21.95 (CAD). ISBN: 1-4039-6799-7 (cloth),
1-4039-6800-4 (paper).
[1] Mel Gibson’s 2004 movie The
Passion of the Christ marks a major
departure from his former directorial feature of Braveheart in 1995, wherein Christian religion—as
filtered through a pre-Vatican II Roman Catholicism with its nostalgia for the
old Latin Mass and its traditional rites—rather than nationalist history formed
the focus of its narrative. In line with a longstanding Hollywood tradition of
“Jesus” movies, mostly known to be re-inventions of the Passion of Christ story
(such as Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ and Norman Jewison’s Jesus Christ
Superstar), Gibson’s movie caused another
spate of controversies concerning its Christology and theological vision(s),
its portrayal of Jews and Judaism, and also, its social-ethical impact on the
masses as an alternative popular form of informing the masses in the narrative
of Jesus’ Passion in lieu of the Bible. This is precisely the intent of this
collection of essays edited by S. Brent Plate; to locate Gibson’s movie in its
immediate socio-cultural, aesthetic, and politico-religious contexts, and to
discover the Zeitgeist of our time
in relation to the popular and critical receptions of Gibson’s film to varying
degrees of success.
[2] The collection of essays is
conveniently divided into four parts: “Jewish-Christian Relations: Reviewing
Anti-Semitism,” “Christian-Christian Relations: Reviewing The Passion in Christian Theological History,” “Visual and Verbal
Theologies: Reviewing the Image of Jesus,” and “Media Approaches to The
Passion: Personal Devotion and Public
Discourse.” Considering the plethora of perspectives from which it seeks to
re-view Gibson’s movie, to situate it within a chain of “individual and
collective religious histories” by “remembering” (xi), ranging from historical
theology through art history to sociological (gender and race) and mediatic or
journalistic approaches, there is
inevitably an uneven wielding of critical perspectives throughout the book.
Marvin Perry and Frederick M. Schweitzer’s “The Medieval Passion Play
Revisited” in Part I takes on an impassioned tone of attack against the film,
claiming that it re-affirms the late medieval Passion play traditions in which
the Jews are demonized as deicides, while Amy-Jill Levine’s vitriolic “Gibson,
the Scribes, and the Pharisees” in Part IV derides the conspiracy theories
fueled by Gibson’s publicity of the movie, concerning the animosity of academic
Jewish and liberal Christian circles towards the movie. By contrast, Yaakov
Ariel’s essay, “The Passion of the Christ and the Passion of the Jews” and Steven Leonard Jacobs’s “Can There Be
Jewish-Christian Dialogue After The Passion?” in Part I, study from a Jewish and non-Jewish
perspective respectively the capacity of the film to stimulate inter-religious
dialogues between Jews, Christians, and even Muslims, as well as to stifle
them.
[3] Part III of the book is by far
the most comprehensive of the four parts, in terms of the number of
contributions on the visual and spectator-related aspects of the film. David
Morgan’s “Catholic Visual Piety and The Passion of the Christ” studies the influence of late medieval and early
baroque traditions of Catholic iconography on the film, with their emphasis on
Christ’s suffering humanity, while Diane Apostolos-Cappadona’s “On Seeing the
Passion” traces the influence of the paintings of Caravaggio and Rembrandt on
Gibson’s directorial feature alongside that of early Christian iconography.
Gaye W. Ortiz’s essay stands in isolation as the only essay in the collection
to deal with Gibson’s movie from a sociological perspective concerned with
gender portrayals of women in the movie, including Mary the mother of Jesus,
Mary Magdalene, the androgynous and almost feminine-looking Satan, and the
off-screen presence of Sister Catherine Emmerich, whose visions of the Passion
inspired Gibson’s movie and are worth including in calling attention to the
tensions invoked in Gibson’s portrayals of women in his film. Peter Chattaway’s
“Come and See: How Movies Encourage Us to Look at (and With) Jesus” compares
and contrasts the subjective and objective perspectives invoked by previous
Jesus films as well as The Passion of the Christ.
[4] Another noteworthy feature of
this book is its inclusion of two journalistic responses to the movie
itself; Neal King’s “Truth at
Last: Evangelical Communities Embrace The Passion of the Christ” and the collaboration between Robert H. Woods,
Michael C. Jindra, and Jason D. Baker, “The Audience Responds to The
Passion of the Christ.” While these two
essays trace the responses of American evangelical communities and the larger
viewing public towards the movie, a large part of their focus is devoted to
revealing the findings of their on-line and public surveys concerning reception
and perception of Gibson’s movie. Emerging from both studies is a common thread
in which Gibson’s movie is seen to be fundamental to affirming a sense of
Christian community built around the moment of the Passion and its theological
implications. Cinema-going to
watch Gibson’s movie is therefore seen to be a profound para-church experience
capable of edifying Christian faith from this angle. To further facilitate
discussion, the book includes as appendices a viewer’s guide (with questions)
and a transcription of the “Criteria for the Evaluation of Dramatizations of
the Passion” by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
[5] The collection’s structuring
highlights a thrust towards the commodification of the Jesus film not only as
intellectual property but also as a vital part of mass culture in its ability
to stimulate the forming of book clubs, movie clubs, and forums, somewhat akin
to Oprah’s “Book Club.”
[6] Notwithstanding the confusing
abundance of perspectives from the hateful to the positively rosy, this book
will kick-start critical inquiry into Gibson’s movie not only as a product of
traditional parish Catholicism that resists modern innovation, but also as a
product of Hollywood re-appropriations of the Passion narrative. Lucidly
written throughout, it is useful not only for scholars interested in the
intersections between Christianity and Hollywood entertainment, but also for
the college student or layperson who is interested in popular culture and its
implications for Christian faith and religion.
Kevin Teo Kia-Choong
University of Calgary
nuovocp2@singnet.com.sg
