Question re. "Passion" movie

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I watched the Passion of Christ movie for the first time last night. It was very moving, and I’m glad I finally got the nerve to watch it.

Question: At one point during the movie, as Chist is carrying his cross, and Mary is following along in the crowd, we see the devil walking along too, carrying some child-like demon in his arms. What was that about? What does the baby symbolize?

(My daughters thought it was like a baby Voldemort! Yes, it does have Harry Potter undertones in that brief scene!)

Thank you.
 
I’ve watched it several times and i’ve often wondered about that too.
 
I think Paul Thigpen (editor of The Catholic Answer) has said that it was Satan making a parody of Mary and Jesus (in effect, mocking them) because throughout the whole movie, the closeness of Jesus and Mary is emphasized.

That was, perhaps, the most disturbing scene in the whole movie for me… a reminder that when we are being “beaten up” in our day-to-day lives, the Evil One is there to try to make us despair and forget Jesus and our Blessed Mother. Made me want to stay faithful to my daily rosary even more!
 
From an interview with Mel Gibson…

When asked why he portrayed Satan —an androgynous, almost beautiful being played by Rosalinda Celentano— the way he did, Gibson replied: "I believe the Devil is real, but I don’t believe he shows up too often with horns and smoke and a forked tail. The devil is smarter than that. Evil is alluring, attractive. It looks almost normal, almost good—but not quite.

“That’s what I tried to do with the Devil in the film. The actor’s face is symmetric, beautiful in a certain sense, but not completely. For example, we shaved her eyebrows. Then we shot her almost in slow motion so you don’t see her blink—that’s not normal. We dubbed in a man’s voice in Gethsemane even though the actor is a woman … That’s what evil is about, taking something that’s good and twisting it a little bit.”

But what about the ugly baby?

“Again,” said Gibson, “it’s evil distorting what’s good. What is more tender and beautiful than a mother and a child? So the Devil takes that and distorts it just a little bit. Instead of a normal mother and child you have an androgynous figure holding a 40-year-old ‘baby’ with hair on his back. It is weird, it is shocking, it’s almost too much—just like turning Jesus over to continue scourging him on his chest is shocking and almost too much, which is the exact moment when this appearance of the Devil and the baby takes place.”
 
bluerose said:
I think Paul Thigpen (editor of The Catholic Answer) has said that it was Satan making a parody of Mary and Jesus (in effect, mocking them) because throughout the whole movie, the closeness of Jesus and Mary is emphasized.

That was, perhaps, the most disturbing scene in the whole movie for me… a reminder that when we are being “beaten up” in our day-to-day lives, the Evil One is there to try to make us despair and forget Jesus and our Blessed Mother. Made me want to stay faithful to my daily rosary even more!
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Yes, it was distubing. I even was having nightmares about it last night.

Thank you for your answer.
 
Oh I still remember going to the theatre and watching it. I was very emotional there. I could not hold back the tears. Everyone there was crying. I still get emotional when I watch it. It hurts me so much to know that my heavenly father suffered that much and more. 😦
 
“The Passion” is right up there with “Schindler’s List” and other movies like that–movies that I’ve seen once, that EVERYONE should see–but cannot bring myself to watch it a 2nd time.

–God Bless,

Barbara

P.S. The weird thing for me about Mel Gibson is that I just saw Apocalypto, and I didn’t find it as ‘disturbing’ as The Passion. Maybe because Passion hit ‘deeper’ and also since I was an Anthropology major back in college and studied a lot of the Mayan culture, it kind of de-sensitized the sacrificed portrayed in the movie!
 
What was the significance of the cup that was hanging from the cross in the “Passion of the Christ” movie?
 
My first thought was the bible passage where God said that He would put enmity between Mary and the serpent, between Her offspring and his offspring.
 
I bought the DVD and watched that movie for the first time last night. Mainly because no one could believe that I had not seen it yet.

This was a very violent film however I am a fan of the genre of horror.

I found it disturbing but also informative. For me it was the thought of a mother standing by helplessly watching as her child is being ripped to shreds. I was shocked because he did not look human in the final scene. I suppose I just never thought about it before. I have only seen pretty pictures of Jesus.
 
Auriel said:
I bought the DVD and watched that movie for the first time last night. Mainly because no one could believe that I had not seen it yet.

This was a very violent film however I am a fan of the genre of horror.

I found it disturbing but also informative. For me it was the thought of a mother standing by helplessly watching as her child is being ripped to shreds. I was shocked because he did not look human in the final scene. I suppose I just never thought about it before. I have only seen pretty pictures of Jesus.
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:yup: Even on most crucifixes or paintings of the Crucifixion Christ isn’t quite portrayed in the physically ravaged way he probably was in reality and in the Passion movie.
 
Auriel said:
I bought the DVD and watched that movie for the first time last night. Mainly because no one could believe that I had not seen it yet.

This was a very violent film however I am a fan of the genre of horror.

I found it disturbing but also informative. For me it was the thought of a mother standing by helplessly watching as her child is being ripped to shreds. I was shocked because he did not look human in the final scene. I suppose I just never thought about it before. I have only seen pretty pictures of Jesus.
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The movie compelled me to do some research on the facts about crucifixion and what I read horrified me even more than the film.
 
Even though Mel has had his problems his description of the devil is perfect. I thought it was fitting that he was always dogging Jesus. Another good movie for people to understand the devil is Devils Advocate, sharp crisp and clean.

question I saw the movie when it was out and bought the dvd. I remember hearing there was another version that was “tamer” or redone somehow, has anyone heard about it?

And Im sure it was spoken about, but I remember hearing on the radio they were saying at the time, the movie was over the top with the whipping and it was bad but not like that. Is there anything about that??
 
Just a thought on a previous post:

The Passion cae ut before any “valdemort” as baby reference I think…so the association would be the other way around a son looks like his father not the father looks like the son…even if you meet the son before the father i.e watch a Harry Potter movie before watching the Passion of the Chirst…

I thught the scene with Mary mopping up the Blood of Jesus at the scouraging was very powerfull…it make you understand the Kosher rules regarding blood and such. The Jewish regard for life life blood and the horror…it makes you understand the power of the Bread of Life discourses in John Chapter 6…Cannabalism and blood…now yo know whay 'many found the teaching “hard” and many disciples stopped “following Jesus from that time on”!

Many scholars think this was the turning point for Judas…the eating of human flesh and drinking human blood…
 
Kitty_Chan said:
question I saw the movie when it was out and bought the dvd. I remember hearing there was another version that was “tamer” or redone somehow, has anyone heard about it?

And Im sure it was spoken about, but I remember hearing on the radio they were saying at the time, the movie was over the top with the whipping and it was bad but not like that. Is there anything about that??
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I did hear about an edited version although it may be that was only available for theatrical release and not dvd. I’m not sure. You could probably find out by going to the Passion website.

If you were listening to regular secular radio, you may have heard this but my experience was that most credible media sources validated that a true Roman crucifixion was indeed every bit as bad as Mel’s depiction.
 
blessedtoo said:
I did hear about an edited version although it may be that was only available for theatrical release and not dvd. I’m not sure. You could probably find out by going to the Passion website.

If you were listening to regular secular radio, you may have heard this but my experience was that most credible media sources validated that a true Roman crucifixion was indeed every bit as bad as Mel’s depiction.
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I think that it was worse, because if you think about it, the Lord became sin for our salvation, and sin is not something pretty to look at, in the eyes of God it is vile and despicable.
 
lak611 said:
What was the significance of the cup that was hanging from the cross in the “Passion of the Christ” movie?
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Perhaps Mel wants to explain to people visually that those crucified with Jesus are thieves.

I’ve always thought of that pouch hanging on Gesmas’ neck and the cup hanging on Dismas’ cross as explanation of why they were executed. Or they could be a a subtle reference to the Eucharist (Which Mel showed as a flashback during the Raising of the Cross)

Trivia: If you’ll look closely, Dismas’ right hand is nailed with his palm downside on the crossbeam; i.e. he was nailed on the back of his right hand.
 
blessedtoo said:
I did hear about an edited version although it may be that was only available for theatrical release and not dvd. I’m not sure. You could probably find out by going to the Passion website.

If you were listening to regular secular radio, you may have heard this but my experience was that most credible media sources validated that a true Roman crucifixion was indeed every bit as bad as Mel’s depiction.
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That was called The Passion Recut released on March 11, 2005; it’s basically the same film, but with five minutes of the ‘gory’ scenes cut out so the film could get a PG-13; thus broadening the audience of the film. The MPCAA still deemed it too violent and refused to give it a PG-13, so Mel released it unrated, which instead of broadening, had instead limited the reach of the film since many theaters are unwilling to show an unrated film. Others just passed on it since the DVD and VHS of the original version was already available by then.
 
Auriel said:
I bought the DVD and watched that movie for the first time last night. Mainly because no one could believe that I had not seen it yet.

This was a very violent film however I am a fan of the genre of horror.

I found it disturbing but also informative. For me it was the thought of a mother standing by helplessly watching as her child is being ripped to shreds. I was shocked because he did not look human in the final scene. I suppose I just never thought about it before. I have only seen pretty pictures of Jesus.
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You’ve only seen a small fraction of Jesus images; a number of medieval images of Jesus’ passion are quite bloody (yet not as bloody as Mel’s).

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gallery.euroweb.hu/art/g/geertgen/virdolor.jpg

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http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/webmuseum/ecceHomoBosch.jpg

Here’s a modern statue of Jesus scourged:

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