The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre...

Bryan · « **Reply #60 on:** 18 Mar 2004, 04:02 pm »

Having seen the movie I will say it is very powerful. Ever wonder where the phrase "beaten half to death" came into being? This movie gives you a perfect example.

From the Roman soldiers I thought they had a sadistic sense of pride in their work. "Let's see how much He can take without dying right now." The head soldier, upon entering the scourging, had a look about him as if to say, "What all have you done!?! I wanted him scourged but not this much!" The soldiers were professional and accustomed to the torturing of the people. Certain artistic liberties were taken with the story but the beating wasn't shown to be nearly as bad as it truly was. (Historically when people underwent a scourging with that type of whip they literally had ribbons of flesh hanging out.)

Certainly the movie is voilent but it is necessary. It isn't put there for show or glorification. When the flashbacks come they are a welcome relief and do not seem out of place.

At $270M+ and counting this looks to be a mainstay at the box office. (Figures taken from www.boxofficemojo.com.) It will be interesting to see how it does internationally. Domestically, $325M - $375M doesn't seem out of reach.

Gibson did a phenominal job with The Passion. I will go see it again but probably not for another two - three weeks, especially as I saw it the day after it was released. Don't bother with the popcorn or candy. If you want a date movie, look elsewhere, even if she really wants to see this. If you can't make it through the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, this isn't the movie for you. And definately, definately leave the kids at home.

On a separate but related note, it truly bothered me pastor showed part of a bootleg copy of the movie to the youth group at his church. What was he thinking? What would make him think it was acceptable to do? The fact the tape was a bootleg copy or the matter of the youth weren't old enough to see it? Or that he hadn't screened the movie prior to showing it? He used extremely poor judgement, IMO. He was given the bootleg copy by one of the associate pastors (believe it was the youth pastor). To me, that would be enough to call into question whether either should remain pastors.

infotrad · « **Reply #61 on:** 18 Mar 2004, 04:30 pm »

Big deal:

An extremely violent Hollywood movie glorifying both extreme violence and some dude named Jesus of Nazareth who thinks there's a god and that he's his or her's son.

So what's the point of all the violence and showing it? To what avail?

Of course seeing all that graphic stuff is going to be a "powerful" experience, but then again, so would witnessing a hundred people blown apart by a bomb.

Of course, since people need to gather around a common cause, religion can't be beat for satisfying this need. To bad that there's no god... and if there were a god, people wouldn't believe in him anyways. They woud shum this god and look somewhere else for a concept more in line with their expectations or criteria for what should and shouldn't be.

I guess that's freedom of worship... but only for those who do worship... the same concept.

I'm more of a SpongeBob fan.

nathanm · « **Reply #62 on:** 18 Mar 2004, 06:08 pm »

In the last decade it seems Hollywood in a general sense has traded its old school euphemistic historical inaccuracy to excessively gritty and violent historical inaccuracy. Having not seen T.P.O.T.C. yet I can't say for sure, but I am guessing this is the case here as well. Nowadays if your historical epic doesn't have everyone's (except the lead ing'enue of course) face caked with dirt and really violent then it must not be very realistic!

Is the whole point of this movie about torture? That seems to be the theme I see over and over. Since Jesus got a good whoopin' he's all the more worthy of being our savior, eh? Am I on the right track?

Bootleg copy eh? Well, don't sweat it - there's a lot worse things a pastor could do to his youth group. Besides, how bad could it be - Christians eat flesh and drink blood from a guy nailed to a piece of wood every Sunday (or every Easter and Christmas at least) so what could be so bad about a movie depicting the same business to the kiddies? Sounds no worse than say a few rounds of Quake deathmatch. That reminds me, when's The Passion Of The Christ video game coming out on Xbox!? I can't wait!

"Gimmie the controller Billy, I get to be the Roman Guard this time!"

"Aww, why do I always have to play Jesus!? When do I get to be the guard!?"

"Lay off man, I got high score last round so I get to play the Romans!"

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #63 on:** 19 Mar 2004, 02:51 am »

Guess I missed that Commandment: "Thou shalt not steal- except to bootleg movies."

As much as the idea of showing this to little kids is disturbing, it's just as bad that the Clergy are pirating films.

I wonder if the guys criticizing the violence of the movie have ever seen it or just like to pile on? (NathanM excepted- he's always talking out his arse, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

). Certainly it's true that the very violent scourging scene is laughable tame compared to what the real thing would've been like- certainly bones & blood vessels would hang out and the flesh would be literally shredded into ribbons.

For all the controversy surrounding the "gore", the truly controversial part is the final 90 seconds; that's where Christ arose victorious over human sin. Whether you are Christian or not, that's what the movie is really about- Jesus saving "us" all.

Carlman · « **Reply #64 on:** 19 Mar 2004, 03:03 am »

Quote from: infotrad

Big deal:
An extremely violent Hollywood movie glorifying both extreme violence and some dude ....blah blah blah ...

I don't know if this is a troll or not "infotrad"..... but... you're being a bit offensive. Read page 3 of this thread. I thought this was a Hollywood thing myself.. but it's not a movie Hollywood generated, it's a story retold by a follower of the Catholic Religion... and he paid for it himself. It was released during Lent.

If you don't like history, accurate or not, you won't like this story retold accurately or not. You could deconstruct anything to the point of non-existence.... Did I type this is or is it all a dream?....

Russtafarian · « **Reply #65 on:** 21 Mar 2004, 05:55 pm »

I’ve been following this thread for the past few weeks, but I’ve refrained from commenting until I saw the movie, which I finally did last night. Putting aside the spiritual aspects, all we have is a graphic movie about the brutal execution of a delusional lunatic. But when you consider the spiritual aspect of the movie, you get a whole lot more than that.

The question I head over and over is why the movie has to be so brutal and violent. Is the violence in the movie a historically accurate portrayal of a roman crucifixion? I don’t know. I generally don't watch gratuitously violent movies so seeing this was a shock to me. So the real question is: was the level of violence necessary to tell the story truthfully? And the answer is yes. Props to Mel Gibson for having the guts to tell it like it is, even if it offends people.

Here’s one way to look at why it was necessary to show Christ beaten and tortured so brutally. If I steal from you, I’ve not only harmed you personally, I’ve committed a crime against the state of California (or wherever). It’s the same way with God. God is righteous and just, so when we do things to hurt each other (sin) we break God’s law. Unlike the state of California, which is an impersonal institution, God takes these things personally because it violates his nature. Because we’re all pretty screwed up, despite our best intentions, we’ve all hurt God a lot. And He has every right to be pissed off about it.

Now if we view Jesus as God in the flesh, what happens during the passion is a personification of how we treat God. Every lash, blow, and nail represents what we do to God every time we break His law. So each one of us can pick out a part of Jesus’ beaten, bloody body and say “that’s mine, I laid that welt, that’s where I hurt God.” Now how did Jesus handle this? Did he come down from the cross and start zapping people in rage? No, he took it, he absorbed it. Not just the hatred of the jewish leaders, or political cowardice of Pilate, or the brutality of the solders. He absorbed all the hatred, violence, and injustice of every person who ever has or will live. Christ’s death and resurrection wiped it all out for all time. In one fell swoop, Christ absorbed the sin of man and satisfied God’s demand for justice.

That’s Christianity. We become right with God by trusting Christ and what he did on the cross. But it’s the hardest thing in the world to do because it means trusting someone other than ourselves. Ultimately it comes down to that scene in the movie where the three guys are hanging on the crosses next to each other. One guy looks at Christ and finally “gets it” and asks to be part of God’s kingdom, while the other guy mocks Christ to the end.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #66 on:** 21 Mar 2004, 09:39 pm »

I went to catachism for years as a kid, but it's been many years now. I was thinking one of the other victims had asked to be crucified upside down because he wasn't worth to receive the same fate as Jesus? Could be my memory is faulty...

Bryan · « **Reply #67 on:** 22 Mar 2004, 02:44 pm »

You are thinking of the Apostle Peter. He was crucified upside down.

If the movie were nothing more than a tale of a person getting beaten to death then I would agree it would be worthless. However, Christ led a sinless life and was killed in the most horrible way imaginable at that time in history.

bubba966 · « **Reply #68 on:** 13 Apr 2004, 04:48 am »

Well, it hit the $350Mil mark Sunday. I never figured it'd hit that. Anybody got a guess where it'll stop?

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #69 on:** 13 Apr 2004, 04:57 am »

I read it just passed LotR: TT for 8th all time domestic box!

bubba966 · « **Reply #70 on:** 13 Apr 2004, 04:59 am »

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/index.html#alltime

Looks like at the end of the week, it'll pass up Jurassic Park...

rosconey · « **Reply #71 on:** 13 Apr 2004, 09:55 am »

worse the world becomes the more people jump on the religion wagon-
mel is rolling in the dough though-
for me religion is the worst evil on the planet-the world would be so much better without it

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #72 on:** 13 Apr 2004, 10:06 am »

The worst evil on the planet!?

Even worse than Syracuse!

Poll

Have you seen The Passion Of The Christ?