Whoooops!
I'd been getting all geared up to go and watch the Passion of the Christ (it's causing enormous waves of journalistic strife, so it has be interesting at the very least...), until I saw the trailer and realized that Mel Gibson is not, actually, playing Jesus.
Apparently he's "too old", a friend told me.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a massive Mel Gibson fan (although he was perfect for the role in What Women Want, I must admit), but I thought it would've been truly surreal and an interesting reflection on popular culture circa 2004 to see Mel Gibson pretending to be Jesus.
Other interesting tidbits have surfaced about this movie. Monica Bellucci (hope I spelled that right) of Matrix: Reloaded/Revolutions fame is in it, which you might say is a truly powerful incentive to go watch the movie, but she may not be as fun in this role as she was in the Matrix. I just don't think they had access to rubber one-piece miniskirts and 9-inch heels during the time of Jesus.
I might add that the trailer was quite impressive, and the film might be worth watching because of the beauty of it's cinematography alone. From what I saw, it looks very gritty, and Miseur Gibson seems to have paid a lot of attention to the finer details of Palestine at the time of Jesus' death.
Now, people on this site might now me as a stringent atheist, the kind of person who stands on hilltops in lightning storms dressed in wet copper armour and shouts "Come get me, God!", so the main reason I'm going to watch this movie on Wednesday night isn't because I'm religious, but because I'm interested to see what Jesus looks like through the filter of 21st century filmmaking.
Regards,
[SYN]
What Jesus Wants Class