The Passion of the Christ

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 trial results in a condemnation to death.

Jesus is brought before Pilate, the Roman Governor of Palestine, who listens to the accusations levelled 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 Barrabas. The crowd chooses to have Barrabas set free and to condemn Jesus.

Jesus is handed over to the Roman soldiers and flagellated. Unrecognisable 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 his Father has abandoned him. He overcomes his fear, looks at Mary, his Holy Mother, and makes the pronouncement that only she can fully understand, "it is accomplished." He then dies: "into Thy hands I commend my Spirit."

And at the moment of his death, nature itself overturns.

What the critics are saying:

"I was moved by the depth of feeling, by the skill of the actors and technicians, by their desire to see this project through no matter what."
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"The Passion of the Christ is so relentlessly focused on the savagery of Jesus' final hours that this film seems to arise less from love than from wrath, and to succeed more in assaulting the spirit than in uplifting it."
- A.O. Scott, New York Times

"In the end, one can respect Gibson's high intentions and dedicated work, while remaining spiritually and dramatically unmoved by the result."
- Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

"A film so narrowly focused as to be inaccessible for all but the devout."
- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times