Adam Plancke

I have the film on DVD, it's a great and powerful film, but the thing is I haven't watched it since it was on TV at Easter one or two years ago. Part of the reason for this is because I feel that if I were to watch it over and over then the film would lose it's impact and therefore lose the reverence for Christ's sacrifice. I know that we have communion every week and all and the respect for this worthy tradition remains the same but...I dunno, I guess it's like why they're showing my neice Saving Private Ryan in school rather than a World War Two docuementary because of the impact that seeing the Omaha invasion in the raw would have, the impact I fear would be lost were I to watch Passion and grow too familiar with it all. What do you guys think?

violet

Rumely

Just my personal feeling, you understand:

I watched the movie in the theater, and have no desire to ever see it again. I did enjoy the movie, and thought there were some excellent elements in it. I liked that the actors spoke aramaic (with presumably some latin and greek tossed in). I liked that the audience got a sense of the barbarity of Christ's treatment. I can't vouch for its accuracy, but I like the way they portrayed the interaction between Jesus and Mary before all the heavy stuff.

What I didn't care for: The portrayal of Satan just seemed wierd to me and detracted rather than added. Also, I'm not sure that Jesus' suffering God's wrath on our behalf came through as well as it could have.

For me, no manmade movie can capture the fulness of what transpired, or the magnitude of it. I have a "been there, done that" kind of feeling and am content with having seen it once. I am glad Mel made the movie and for the discussion, debate, and inspiration it sparked. It's just that what God has shown me through His Word regarding the total awesomeness (in the old sense, not the modern, flippant sense) of what Christ did for us causes the movie (for me, personally) to pale in comparison.

But hey, if it moves you to appreciation and worship, I'd say pop it on maybe once a year so it doesn't get old.

violet

Whirlwind

Mine came with a second DVD - Miracles of the Passion.

In it, people give heart-wrenching testimony as to how this movie has changed their lives. A baby was brought back from the dead, a woman suffered a heart attack while watching this movie, a murderer confessed to his crime after seeing this movie. Everybody in this documentary says that this movie is wonderful, it has changed their lives.

I threw that DVD out.

See, I threw it out because it wasn't THE MOVIE that changed our lives forever. It was the sacrifice and pain and torture that Jesus suffered for us. I can't share in the joy on that documentary DVD, in giving the glory and praise to the movie, "The Passion of the Christ". I can't do that, because the glory and praise only goes to Jesus Christ and God.

Jesus was here long before the movie ever came out. I saw this movie in the theater, and I cried very hard at seeing what was done to Jesus. He did that for me.

Remember not long after The Passion, people were lining up to see DaVinci Code. Movies come and go over time. God is eternal.

Watch your movie often, but never give the glory to the movie. Give it to Jesus and God, my friend. Bless you.

Adam Plancke

A bit like the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, a bit too much to take in was it? Yeah I think most people are like that.

Ah, Satan. On the one hand it added to the creepiness and evil of what happened, whether it be watching Jesus tortured or driving Judas to suicide. On the other hand, I think for me that's exactly why I'm quite uncomfortable with it all, that this added to it, or perhaps detracted attention away from Jesus.

I see what you're saying, yeah. I've heard of films changing lives, Star Wars springs to mind, and I know after watching Passion I was extra careful in the way I acted out of reverence of how the film portrayed Jesus' final hours. But the thing is this really happened. The same as I couldn't handle the end of Titanic, when we see the dead in the water and the lifeboats drifting amongst them, these things happened and we feel not for the events that took place in the films but the real life events the films are based on.

I'll need to start another thread about that if there isn't one already, but long story short I think any creditbility it had was stretched too far with one of the plots involved.

Absolutely. I have a new TV for it, so this Sunday night for sure. Jesus and the Ten Commandments too perhaps.

Beloved

I first saw The Passion at the theater... I thought my guts were coming out of me... It is not something I can see over and over, though I did buy the DVD...

I though the main character could not have been better...THe movie is excellant...

It's true that satan was kind of creepy... I noticed that he was made niether male or female... Yet I don't have a better idea how to portray him...

I'm so looking forward to the sequiel... Once Mel gets saved the sequiel will be even better... AMEN!

__________________
Shalom

( SHALOM says: Completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord. )

Beloved
1 Corinthians 14:1 Let Love be your highest goal.

LivingWaters

This movie, while I own the DVD, is not one I pop in very often. It is hard to watch. It was very powerful. I was very happy with the way it was made. I thought Satan was portrayed interestingly well. Many people see Satan as the man in the red costume with a pitchfork and tail, a very false portrayal. I thought making Satan very cunning, and quietly evil made Satan more real to people. I didn't see it as a distraction from Jesus in the movie at all.

Boanerges

I bought this DVD when it came out. I have yet to open it- it is really difficult to watch this portrayal of my Lord being tortured and that all for my sake. Just hinking about it is bringing tears to my eyes. Maybe one day I will watch it again but I am not sure.

Whirlwind

Yeah...

Tortured to a bloody pulp, far beyond what an ordinary man would have been able to handle...and for me. Thank you Jesus.