...Christ and partly explains its power.

More colloquially, I'd like to suggest that the power of the film lay in the fact that just about everyone in Australia has "a Jesus in the cupboard" or "a Jesus in the nursery wardrobe". Many people put in him there in childhood or adolescence and only occasionally open the door to see if he is still there, or to confirm that the Jesus they put in the cupboard of childhood and youth has not changed at all. It is the collective attic that is being tapped.

Put at its simplest, the artistic and visual and narrative power of the film got the key, put it in the lock and opened the cupboard door and made all who saw the movie reconsider their own "Jesus in the cupboard". For some, this led to powerfully negative reactions to the film. The dissonance between the cupboard Jesus and the Gibson Jesus was just too great. Others were fascinated and responded in a deeply resonant way--and partly for the reasons Masson described so ably. The opening of the tomb at the end of the film parallels the opening of the door of the wardrobe of childhood. In both cases, a Jesus emerges.

I add these remarks to her comprehensive review because I have been struck by the fact that almost everyone I speak with on campus at the University of Sydney has engaged in conversation about the film. Even those who have not seen it and aver that they will not see it want to talk about it--and this is surely the mark of a pretty strong "reader response" criticism! I have almost got to the point of responding to the question, "What do you think of Gibson's film?" with the statement, "It's the fact that we are talking about it that is the mark of the film's greatness."

The Passion generates a reader response like few other films. It opens the personally archived Jesus and engages him. It gets Jesus out of the cupboard--no matter what we think of Jesus getting out of the tomb "fresh, washed, and resurrected" at the end of the movie.

I would like to comment on Masson's comment that the flagellation and crucifixion scenes reminded her of and engaged a catalogue of modern evils. She referred to Eichmann, destroyed Kurdish villages, the murderers of Babi Yar, the torturers in Stalin's prisons and in Saddam's prisons and the like. I observe below that it is in this area that Gibson's film did not quite hit the mark. Masson made these connections and was drawn into reflection on the banality and reality of evil and suffering and on the redemptive power in Jesus' suffering. But the film itself does not make these...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



More articles from Quadrant
David Day's defence mythology., November 01, 2004
Housman, Baldwin and the King.(Ryan), November 01, 2004
Laws against obesity and other sins.(Society), November 01, 2004
How Woodstock passed me by.(Devine), November 01, 2004
Why the Queen is not our head of state.(The Constitution), November 01, 2004

Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.

Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication name or publication date.

About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company analysis or best practices in managing your organization, Goliath can help you meet your business needs.

Our extensive business information databases empower business professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible, authoritative information they need to support their business goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting, company research or defining management best practices - Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.