Mel Gibsons Passion

Nathan Brown looks at the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson’s latest film, The Passion.

One of the strange things about our culture’s fascination with celebrity is how we think we know the people whose names and faces clutter our screens and magazine covers. But, sometimes, they surprise us. One such is actor Mel Gibson.

Although generally regarded as an Australian, Mel Gibson was born in New York state, only moving to Australia at the age of 12. He spent his teenage years in Sydney and studied acting at the National Institutes of Dramatic Arts. Gibson’s movie debut in Summer City was released in 1976. In the following years, he came to prominence with his roles in the early Mad Max movies and Gallipoli.

Now one of the most recognisable names and faces in the movie industry, 47-year-old Gibson has appeared in almost 50 films, often in action roles such as those of his Lethal Weapon movies. He’s also filled the director and producer roles in a number of films through the 1990s, including Braveheart (1995), for which he won Oscars for best actor and best director. He is currently involved in work on a fourth Mad Max movie, due for release next year.

As such a high-profile actor, Gibson’s personal life has been the raw material for many news, tabloid and gossip stories. He is married with seven children, and maintains links in Australia. However, in recent months, Gibson has been making the headlines for his personal faith and his commitment to a somewhat unusual project—another movie due in cinemas next year.

Mel’s faith
Gibson was raised in a strict and conservative Catholic family. In fact, his father has published two books highly critical of the modernisation of the Catholic Church, and Mel now shares his father’s zeal for the traditional aspects of Catholic belief and worship.

However, Gibson junior admits a period in his life when these beliefs had a low priority. “From about the age of 15 to age 35, I kind of did my own thing, as it were,” Gibson comments in a recent interview with Hollywood movie reviewer Holly McLure. “Not that I didn’t believe in God, I just didn’t practise faith or give it much consideration. I went through that period in my life where you put a lot of other things first.

“I wasn’t exactly the most zealous keeper-of-the-flame, you know. I was a pretty wild boy, quite frankly. Even now, when I’m trying more than I was before, I still fail every day at some level, but that’s being human.”
However, Gibson retains much of his earlier faith. “I read these articles that make me sound like I left the church for awhile, but I didn’t actually leave it; I always believed. Let me put it this way: I just wasn’t too active.”

Mel’s passion
For Gibson, his journey back to an active faith has been difficult. “For me, coming back to being a Catholic is hard, particularly when you look at all the scandals in the church,” he reflects.

“When I was growing up the whole story of the Passion [the death of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Bible] was very sanitised and distant; it seemed to me very much like a fairytale. So, coming back 20 years later, it seemed so distant. I had to reconsider and say to myself, Now hang on a minute, this isn’t a fairytale; this actually happened—this is real. And that started me thinking about what it must have been like—what Christ went through—and I started seeing it in film terms.”
And so began a process lasting some 10 years in which the idea of a movie on the Passion grew. “I have a deep need to tell this story,” Gibson says. “The Gospels tell you what basically happened; I want to know what really went down. I began to see it realistically, re-creating it in my own mind so that it would make sense for me, so I could relate to it. That’s what I want to put on the screen.”

But over the past couple of years, as Gibson’s imagination has been painstakingly turned into cinematic reality, there has been a rigorous process supporting Gibson’s movie-making. “We’ve done the research,” he comments. “I’m telling the story as the Bible tells it. I think the story, as it really happened, speaks for itself. The Gospel is a complete script, and that’s what we’re filming.”

Just outside Rome, Italy, Gibson’s team constructed a two-acre scaled set, recreating in fine detail a portion of first-century Jerusalem. McLure describes it as “a breathtaking spectacle of biblical proportions, with giant columns, flights of stoned steps, massive wooden doors and weathered, Roman emblems, creating a political and cultural climate where Jesus spent the remaining hours of his life.”

While he’s assembled an international team of actors, technicians, consultants and sundry experts to bring the story to life, it is Gibson who has remained firmly in control—as co-writer, director and major financier—of the $A40-million project.
The challenges Gibson set himself have been to attain the highest possible realism in telling the last 12 hours of the life of Christ and to use only the original (and now dead) languages of Aramaic and Latin. At the time of writing, The Passion was set for release at Easter 2004, but some critics are already raising questions.

Mel’s critics
Beginning with Edison’s 1898 filming of the world famous Oberammergau Passion play, there have been more than 100 major films made on aspects of the life of Jesus. These have ranged from reverent to blasphemous, from musicals to the surreal. So why is Gibson—best known for his action hero and romantic comedy roles—adding to this cinematic tradition?
“I’m doing what I’ve always done: telling stories that I think are important in the language I speak best—film,” Gibson says. “I think most great stories are hero stories. People want to reach out and grab at something higher, and vicariously live through heroism, and lift their spirits that way.

“There is no greater hero story than this one—about the greatest love one can have, which is to lay down one’s life for someone. The Passion is the biggest adventure story of all time. I think it’s the biggest love story of all time—God becoming man and men killing God. If that’s not action, nothing is.”

The making of The Passion may be seen by some as an act of devotion, perhaps even an expensive—even extravagant—expression of personal faith. But as yet, Gibson has been unable to find a distributor for his film and the question remains as to whether the movie-going public will be attracted to what promises to be a challenging viewing experience.

But Gibson is confident in the strength of the story he is telling. It “has inspired art, culture, behaviour, governments, kingdoms, countries—it has influenced the world in more ways than you can imagine,” he says. “It’s a pivotal event in history that has made us what we are today. Believers and nonbelievers alike, we have all been affected by it.
“So many people are searching for meaning in life, asking themselves a lot of questions; they’ll come looking for answers. Some will find them, some won’t.”

The objections and criticisms are being heard and spilling into the mass media.

Representatives of various Jewish communities have questioned the portrayal of the Jewish authorities in Gibson’s movie.
“This isn’t a story about Jews versus Christians,” Gibson responds. “Jesus himself was a Jew, His mother was a Jew and so were the 12 apostles. It’s true that, as the Bible says, ‘He came unto his own and his own received him not’—I can’t hide that. But the struggle between good and evil, and the overwhelming power of love go beyond race and culture.
“This film is about faith, hope, love and forgiveness. These are things that the world could use more of, particularly in these turbulent times. This film is meant to inspire, not offend.”

And when questioned about violence in the film, Gibson asserts again the realism of what he is attempting to portray: “That’s the way it was. There is no gratuitous violence in this film. I think we have gotten too used to seeing pretty crucifixes on walls, and we forget what really happened,” he explains. “We know that Jesus was scourged, that He carried His cross, that He had nails put through His hands and feet, but only rarely do we think about what that really means.”

And then there is the language barrier. Gibson insists the film will not have subtitles, leaving only a few ancient-language experts in the world able to understand the dialogue as it runs.

“I’m just trying to be as real as possible,” Gibson replies. “There’s something kind of startling about watching it in the original languages. The reality comes out and hits you. Full-contact. I know we’re only re-creating, but we’re doing the best we can to simulate an experience of really being there.

“Subtitles would somehow spoil the effect that I want to achieve. It would alienate you, and you’d be very aware that you were watching a film if you saw lettering coming up.

“Hopefully, I’ll be able to transcend the language barriers with my visual storytelling. If I fail, I fail, but at least it’ll be a monumental failure.”

Sources: “An interview with Mel Gibson about his Passion” (http://holly.ibelieve.com/content; Christ’s Agony as You’ve Never Seen It (zenit.org); www.time.com; Herald-Sun; Christianity Today; www.abc.net.au/news; www.melgibson.com

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