Los Angeles, California, USA, March 1, 2004 — Once thought to be a film that would appeal only to a conservative Christian niche audience, Mel Gibson's Biblical epic, The Passion of the Christ, opened to packed theatres.
At $117.5 million US in its first five days, The Passion of the Christ, which debuted on Ash Wednesday, put up the second-best five-day figures ever, behind only The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (although it should be noted that those hobbits didn't speak Latin or Aramaic!) It opened at No. 1 in Canada as well, with $6 million in earnings in its first five days.
The Passion's weekend box office gross easily outpaced the remainder of the weekend's top twelve films combined, no doubt to the chagrin of all those Hollywood studios that passed on the movie. The overwhelming success of the film prompted Jay Leno to quip in his February 26th opening monologue, "(it's doing so well that) there's now talk of turning it into a book."
Awareness and attendance of the film has been buoyed by public debate both over the film's violence and charges of anti-Semitism.
Defending the violence in the film, Gibson told Leno "the Bible is R-rated. I mean, look at that book... That's a hot book!" He also notes that scourging and crucifixion were very violent acts. In an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer aired on February 16th, Gibson spoke to the violence in The Passion, saying "I wanted it to push the viewer over the edge... so that they see the enormity of that sacrifice... (To see) that someone could endure that and still come back with love and forgiveness."
On the charges of anti-Semitism, Gibson told Sawyer that "Critics who have a problem with me don't really have a problem with me and with this film, they have a problem with the four Gospels." Indeed, the most critically attacked scene of the film is one in which the Jewish Chief Priest, Caiaphas, backed by a boisterous mob, calls upon Pontius Pilate to condemn Jesus to death on the cross, a scene straight out of Matthew 27. But Gibson, and the film's many defenders point out that this scene does not indict the Jews as those solely responsible for Christ's death, as Scripture clearly states in John 10:18, "(Jesus said) 'No one takes my life from me. I give it up willingly! I have the power to give it up and the power to receive it back again, just as my Father commanded me to do.'" (CEV)
"He was beaten for our iniquities," says Gibson. "He was wounded for our transgressions, and by His wounds, we are healed. That's the point of the film. It's not about pointing fingers. It's not about playing the blame game. It's about faith, hope, love, and forgiveness."
The film's large audience opens the door for Gibson's main goal to be achieved. "My hope," he says, "is that its message will change people's lives".
|
