The following comes from an April 11 posting on Aleteia.com by Mark Shea.
On Palm Sunday night, April 13, the UP-TV network will air the commercial television debut of The Passion of the Christ to mark the 10-year anniversary of the historic film’s theatrical release.
The debut brings back memories of a fascinating time both in the cultural history of the Church, but also for me personally since I was, due to my work in Catholic media, perpetually two degrees of separation from the film and a number of the personalities involved, as well as very interested in the impact of the film on the larger culture.
In 2004, I was working as a writer for CatholicExchange.com. We were a sputtering website in those days, having launched in the late 90s at the height of the dotcom boom, we had experienced the bursting of the dotcom bubble with as much trauma as anybody. Our staff had been cut down from 60something to almost nothing. I was one of the few survivors, mainly because I was creating a huge amount of the content.
CE hired a new president, Tom Allen, who set about reviving our fortunes. One of the things Tom was involved with outside CE was this strange new project that (to be honest) I assumed had no future: a film in dead languages focusing entirely on the Passion of Jesus Christ. The only thing that gave me pause about the certainty of its doom was the director: Mel Gibson, who was a box office powerhouse. But even then I didn’t pause much because, come on: an entire script in Latin and Hebrew about a man being tortured to death? Even Gibson had joked somewhere that he thought he had succeeded in creating the ultimate anti-date movie: too violent for women and too religious for men.
Tom was brought on board by Gibson to help find investors for the film (you can see his name close to the end of the credits). To be brief, he succeeded. So periodically I would hear from him how the film was going. Tom wasn’t present at the shoot, but he spent a lot of time in Gibson’s office working on budget stuff. That was one of my two-degrees-of-separation connections.
In addition, as a Catholic media type, I had lots of friends who–throughout 2003–would periodically email me to excitedly announce that they had been invited to a private screening of a rough cut of the film. As time went on, it got to be a joke and it felt like everybody–including my barber and the guy who always offers to put pepper on your Caesar salad (what’s up with that anyway?)–had been invited to their own personal showing of the film, with Gibson serving popcorn to all, tucking them in, and then doing their dishes before quietly leaving their house that night.
Not that I was envious of them and their stupid luck or anything.
At any rate, as 2003 moved into 2004 and the launch of the film in February approached, Tom was contacted by Matt Pinto at Ascension Press with an idea for a book called A Guide to the Passion: 100 Questions About The Passion of the Christ. The idea was for Ascension and CE to jointly create and publish a short companion to the film, partly to help viewers understand the story and its meaning from a Catholic perspective, and partly to help people with no familiarity with the gospel, yet who found themselves attracted to Jesus, have some idea what to do next.
Tom was intrigued by the idea. As he drove around his home town of San Diego, he thought, “Every Baptist and his brother is going to have some evangelistic outreach coordinated with the release of the film. What are we Catholics doing? Well, nothing. We’re Catholics. We don’t evangelize.”
This struck Tom as a massive wasted opportunity, so he went to Gibson with the idea and Gibson gave it his blessing. Tom drafted a pile of questions and answers in January 2004 and then started recruiting a couple of other people on the project. Matt Pinto created some questions and answers, and Drs. Marcellino D’Ambrosio and Paul Thigpen made contributions as well.
So it was that on a Friday evening two weeks before the launch of the film I was just about to log off from work when an email landed in my inbox from Tom. It was the draft of A Guide to the Passion. Attached was a note asking me to look it over and polish it up, add some Q & A of my own (particularly regarding the biblical background of the story), add a section on arguments for the deity of Jesus, and have it back to Tom by Monday.
Two thoughts crossed my mind:
1. Who is going to see this movie? A film in dead languages focusing entirely on the brutal torture and gruesome death of Jesus. Who in our culture would care about a film full of Catholic and Marian imagery I presumed would be opaque and off-putting to Protestants and secularists? My assumption was that this film would wind up in a few art houses where nobody would go see it: a sort of relic or curio of a fine filmmaker’s private interest in Catholic matters.
2. Who, therefore, is going to read this book? Basically nobody, thought I.
But duty is duty and Tom was my boss. So if he wanted to spend his time on this boutique project that nobody was going to care about, it was not my business to tell him his business. It was my business to make the book a good one. So I plowed through the project on Saturday, greatly assisted by the fact that I had already written arguments for the deity of Jesus in another book and so could just copy that material and adapt it. It is, after all, not plagiarism when you steal from yourself.
My first hint that I might not be the infallible judge of pop culture came a week or so later when I discovered, to my astonishment, that A Guide to the Passion pre-orders had already soared to unthinkable-for-Catholic-publishing heights of 75,000 copies. That’s pretty respectable even for secular books. And it already amounted to the biggest project I had been (and have ever been) involved in. Eventually, the book sold over a million copies and went to #6 on the New York Times bestseller list. It also, by the way, saved Catholic Exchange’s financial bacon for a couple of years and kept our family from starving and living in our car. I love being wrong all the time.
Meanwhile, the release of the film was both culturally and financially explosive. Counter to everything I expected (as a Catholic more or less used to being told by both secular and Evangelical American authorities that America is not really all that into Catholic stuff), the film shot to the top of the box office and pulled in so much money that it is now the seventh grossing film of all time. Moral: I’m stupid. Don’t listen to me about what movies will be a hit….
To read the entire story, click here.
I have purchased one copy of the movie – PASSION of the CHRIST – for each of my children’s families.
I’ve asked them to watch it on Good Friday.
This is an excellent film. I could possibly say it is a ‘sacramental’ or an actual grace because it has brought viewers closer to Christ and to His Church. Pope John Paul II said, ‘It is how it was’, and I know Sister Lucia, of Fatima saw the film in her convent, and was positive about it.
F. Karl,
Sorry but your incorrect regarding Sister Lucia. The nuns did see the film but their comments were never made public and never will be. Also, I took my family, with our grade school children, to see this film when it was released and we walked out as did many other individuals. It has never been shown on TV for the simple reason its too gruesome and, probably, not very factual.
William, list one or two things which were not factual in this movie.
(It is a very accurate movie – one of the few.)
How do you know what was factual if you walked out, and did not see all of it? I doubt you know what you are talking about.
Do you not think the Crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ who died for all of our sins was gruesome? Or do you think it was a walk in the park ?
LOL…..William…..too gruesome? Oh, they would never show anything on TV that was too gruesome……..Factual?–read the Bible!
Many people are made uncomfortable by the sight of a crucifix because it represents the reality of the sacrifice that our Lord made for our salvation. Crucifixion was a horrible way to die and there is no way to sugarcoat the ordeal that our Lord underwent. The film was very accurate and follows closely the sad narrative. it is very difficult to view, but is as factual as any could be.
Amen, Fr. Karl.
As I’m sure no one living today actually witnessed the crucifixion, it is hilarious that everyone seems so sure it is factual. While it get the general story correct, the Bible does not mention any of the gratuitous details the film depicts.
This was a vanity project by Mel Gibson, keep that in mind as you watch it.
The Leftists in Hollywood have kept this film from being shown every Easter on network Tv. It was a huge box office hit so there is no excuse. It should be shown like the Sound of Music is.
It is how it was.
What a great recommendation!
TPOTC is not only a monumental achievement among film depictions of religious subject matter, but as Father Karl intimates, an extraordinary achievement simply in the realm of theatrical arts on film. Gibson’s history and temperament aside, his crowning achievement is this film, not “Braveheart” or other more Gibsonesque pretenders. And his remains a unique eye in the film industry, with the epic “Apocalypto,” “The Gringo” and the quirky, confessional “The Beaver.”
And Jim Caviezal’s stock as an actor who manages to infuse his own catholicism into his work has been a bonus over the decade as well.
I have a copy that I bought when it first came out, and I plan on watching it sometime during Holy Week. It is so wonderful to just hear the actor who played Christ actually speaking in Aramaic, one of the languages the Lord spoke.
Every Holy Week our family watches The Passion of Christ. Another great performance on the Passion is by RADIX–Doug Berry performs the whole Passion by himself……amazing work.
It has become a tradition in our family to watch The Passion on Good Friday. Yes, it is shocking and violent and gruesome, but that is what the passion is all about. That our Lord was willing to undergo this violent death for us merely reflects our debt to Him. We should be reminded of this always. Thanks to Mel Gibson for creating this masterpiece.
If the crucifixion scene is too much for some, one can always fast forward it on DVD. I would not show it to elementary school children, but the movie is well worth watching. It is debatable how many stripes the Romans used when whipping the Lord Jesus. I do think there were probably more than they used in this movie, but I really do not know.
All of you should be spending your Holy Week, ON YOUR KNEES, and in abject prayer and fasting. Not wasting time watching a movie. ANY movie!
Noel, I do not think this is much different from the Passion Plays that are put on traditionally in many Catholic countries and churches during Holy Week. I see nothing wrong in it, especially if one has done the Stations of the Cross previously during Lent or on Good Friday.
Correction to third line: “I see nothing wrong WITH it”.
Communion and the Adoration of the Cross are excellent devotions to include in ones life on Good Friday, or listening to one of the services about the last words of the Lord while on the Cross. Nevertheless, if one is unable to get to a church, movies such as this are good ways I believe to honor and remember the Lord’s passion.