Wasn't anyone bothered by the fact that the movie is UNREALISTICALLY and gratuitously violent?
Buckets of blood (far more than one man could lose without dying of blood loss) spewed on the ground. Throwing Jesus over a bridge hanging from a chain. A raven plucking out the eye of the thief. How are these saying anything meaningful besides saying something about Mel Gibson sadistic Catholic-guilt riddled bloodlust? I think the guy is far more interested in making people squrm in agony than actually, I dunno, telling a story? [inkling]Four years late. Just watched Passions of the Christ. I have a question
by shopaholic 33 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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R.Crusoe
THE CROSS?
This link:
suggests the cross has another origin. If you have 5 minutes hear it out and see if you can spot any flaws in its sources/historical accuracy.
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Finally-Free
Wasn't anyone bothered by the fact that the movie is UNREALISTICALLY and gratuitously violent?
I was. I thought the scene where he was being whipped/scourged was excessive. Considering the number of blows and the force behind them, I can't believe someone would have survived it long enough to be crucified afterward.
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inkling
I was. I thought the scene where he was being whipped/scourged was excessive. Considering the number of blows and the force behind them, I can't believe someone would have survived it long enough to be crucified afterward.
Exactly. Yes, the death of Jesus as described by The Bible was awful. Yes, if he truly went through that pain for the good of human kind I am deeply thankful.
But the fact remains that are worse ways to die, and longer ways to die, and more painful ways to die, and his death doesn't NEED to be the nastiest bloodiest ever to be profoundly meaningful to his followers. I don't like being lied too to hype up gore that never happened. What made his death interesting is WHY he died, his motivation, his hopes, and the hope he inspired in his friends, and with so much screen time spent lingering on amped-up gore, none of the context that makes the pain MATTER survives. [inkling] P.S. I have not actually seen the full movie. I have read much about it, but cannot bring myself to see it. -
hillbilly
The Watchtowers stock in trade is to take some "detail", tie that detail to pagans or demons then show some reason why everyone else has it wrong. Why? It "proves" to the student that their church has it wrong and is mislead by demons and clebrates it's pagan roots.
Passions of the Christ, if you accept Christ or not, is a powerful movie. I am not a bible scholar, but I thought it was a vivid, real portrayal of what happen based on the Gospels and what outside history of the events indicates happened.
~Hill
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funkyderek
inkling:
Wasn't anyone bothered by the fact that the movie is UNREALISTICALLY and gratuitously violent?
I was. Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against violence in movies but this had no plot to speak of, it was nothing but a connected series of horrific torture scenes, the stated purpose of which was to cause audiences to feel guilt about a largely fictitious event that may have happened millennia ago. There's no Sermon on the Mount here, no Good Samaritan, just relentless violence mostly extrapolated from the rather sketchy gospel accounts and embellished by the imaginative ravings of the bloodthirsty faithful. The overall effect is of a pretentious snuff movie that looks like it was directed by an egotistical drunken anti-Semite.
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Satanus
I did not see this movie, because of the torture it has in it. Not saying that i will never see it. My morbid curiosity may get me there, one day. It's a disturbing movie, by a disturbed individual.
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Tatiana
In the three congs I attended while "in," it was preached quite a lot from the platform about not seeing ANY R-rated movies. A young sister got in big trouble for sneaking and taking several younger witnesses (including me) to see Lady Sings the Blues. After I got married, my mother moved to Charleston, South Carolina, and we went to a get-together at an elder's home. I was shocked to hear him say he decided which R-rated movies to see and which ones to avoid. As I recall, there was lots of wine drinking that day too! Yet, when we went to visit my witness friends in Vero Beach, Fla., and the brother sat down and turned on Cherry 2000 (rated R), my mom walked over and turned his channel, giving him a lecture on why it was totally wrong for him to watch it. Now, why she didn't do this at the elder's home in Charleston, I don't understand.......HA...yes, I do!!
I also remember that we were never allowed, under any circumstances, to attend local HS football games, or the prom......that is, until an elder moved to South Carolina from New York. In his fomer cong, they allowed their two girls to go to prom and go to football games, so imagine my confusion at age 12, when all of a sudden WE could go too. VOILA!!! Jehovah changed his mind. For 12 years I was told sports (ie; competition) was bad, bad, bad....then it was not bad. I was beaten for doing cheers in the yard, and now all those beatings were for nothing??? Ah....the consistancy of God and religion. *sigh*
The rock star Prince sang the praises of brother-sister incest.
Hmmmmmmm....a big donation will make them forget all about that now.
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Maddie
I believe there were some accusations about Mel Gibson being anti-semetic, of which he denied. I too thought the film was extremely violent and found it disturbing,but that doesn't mean it wasn't a fair portrayal of what happened. I remember one Memorial talk I attended many years ago and the elder went into quite a graphic description about the brutality of the Romans.. Apparently quite a few of those sentenced to crucifiction died beforehand because of the the beatings, and birds did pluck at the eyes of those that were being crucified.
I agree with other posters that the WT make such an issue out of "the cross versus the stake", as a way of separating their members from everyone else again (cult control).
Maddie
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Tatiana
As for Passion of the Christ.....I saw it, and let me just say it never crossed my mind during the entire movie that it would be in any way, shape, or form relevant--important--pertinent what he was hung on.