I am currently watching the worst movie ever made. It is a political statement. It is also completely STUFFED with self-contradictions. What it depicts is utterly ridiculous.
Probably most of you already think this is a bad movie. But I’m not sure you realize how bad it is. Or how dangerous it is.
The Passion of the Christ is an excersise in bathos. It is a political statement founded on bathos.
Definition: “Bathos: Insincere or greatly sentimental pathos.” In other words, pathetically stupid to the point of absurdity.
Remember: Jesus Christ was supposed to be a human, with all the frailties of a human. He was also God. The entire point was supposed to be that God became “man” (in the old sexist way of putting it.)
Here are some reasons why this is the worst movie ever made:
(1) You’re supposed to think it’s a realistic depiction of what the crucifiction of Christ was like. It’s supposed to be devastatingly “realistic.” It’s not.
It’s unintentionally hilarious. The main character is beaten with whips, beaten with chains with fish-hooks. Beaten with rods. For hours. Let me repeat this: chains with fish-hooks.
At the end, his back is bloody. Sorry. Wrong. At the end of this, he would have no back. He would be hamburger.
(2) Utter contradiction: When the main character is first condemned, we see the Jews demanding his execution. Ranting and raving. The Romans look uncomfortable with this vitriol. Well, whatever.
But then, during the unspeakable (and in fact absurd) hour-long-on-screen torture of the main character, it is the Romans who look pleased and sadistic. Where did that come from? Forget historical accuracy. This is just cheating. Bathos.
(3) The music. The bathos. The utter absurdness. THE FACT THAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY.
What is the message here? Well: on the one hand, we know that Mel Gibson has a self-torture complex. Think of the end of Braveheart. Think of Lethal Weapon. He adores depicting martyrs, for some masochistic reason.
On the other hand: people take this shit seriously. They think it reminds them of the main character’s suffering.
But this movie: this bloodthirsty rant, is terrible. I am so disgusted with Mel Gibson I want to vomit.