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TEXT AND CONTEXT: “THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST” Peter Gilmour “We adore thee O Christ and we bless thee because by Thy Holy Cross Thou Hast Redeemed the World.” So began the prayers at each Station of the Cross in the pre-Vatican II era of the Roman Catholic Church. The priest vested in a cope, with acolyte on either side of him, processed to each of the fourteen stations which hung on the perimeter walls of the church, and led the prayers. It was one of the few pre Vatican II rituals conducted in the vernacular, and the active participation of the people in the pews, a rarity back then, was an essential part of this ritual. This participatory ritual carried out in the vernacular was intimately connected to the celebration of the Eucharist, in pre Vatican II terminology, “the Mass.” The Mass was taught to be the “unbloody reinactment of the sacrifice on Calvary.” 1 This pre Vatican II Eucharistic theology linked the Stations of the Cross with the Mass in Catholic popular religious consciousness. The Stations of the Cross played a prominent part in the pre restoration of Holy Week Good Friday service popularly known as the “Tre Ore” service. They also were part of other communal devotions, e.g., novenas and parish missions. In addition to the communal Stations of the Cross, individuals could privately “say the stations” in church. It was not uncommon to see individuals in Catholic churches walking around to each Station and praying privately. The Stations of the Cross was an significant form of pre Vatican II piety in the Roman Catholic tradition. Mel Gibson’s 2004 film, The Passion of the Christ, focuses on roughly the same time frame as the Stations of the Cross. The passion and death of the Christ as understood in the pre Vatican II Roman Catholicism is the context for this Jesus film. Gibson’s film, through flashbacks, presents other episodes from Christ’s life, some scriptural, others not, but always within the context of the Passion. This relatively low budget film costing $30 million2 premiered in Spring, 2004 and recently was released in DVD format, has turned huge profits. Immediately before the release of this film in video/DVD, theater showings were reported to have grossed $370 million dollars, the eighth largest grossing film to that date. On the first day of DVD sales, September 1st, 4.1 million copies were sold. Films released on DVD are known to equal or surpass their box office revenues.3 Fox Home Entertainment reports this first day sale of the DVD version 1 The Mass as the ritual meal of the Lord’s Supper did not enter rank and file Roman Catholic consciousness until Vatican II.(1962-1965). 2 One must always approach the financial figures released by film companies with some caution. Some of the announced film costs in all probability represent more of a general range than a precise figure. 3This initial DVD release of The Passion of the Christ contains only the film seen in theaters. There are no special features added, e.g., director and/or actor interviews, cut scenes, etc. of The Passion of the Christ makes it the best selling non-English language DVD film of all time and the best selling R-rated DVD film of all time.4 This 126 minute film starring James Caviezel as Jesus has stirred no end of controversy. It will surely be studied in the future, if not in theological curricula, for sure it will be included in business curricula. The carefully calculated and exquisitely executed advertising and marketing campaign for The Passion of the Christ no doubt will be the stuff of case studies in business schools. But will this film find its way into religious education curricula? Should this film find its way into religious education curricula? Many religious educators have strong opinions on the suitability of this film for religious education. But, truth be told, it is not their decision. Jesus Christ belongs to the public domain. The Passion of the Christ already has become part of the public, cultural curriculum. This film proved the comment by Beatle John Lennon, “we’re more popular than Jesus” momentarily wrong! Gibson’s Jesus now seems more popular than the Beatles. So how best to deal with this text that has entered the public, cultural curriculum, to the delight of some, and to the horror of others? 4Anthony Breznican, “‘The Passion’ DVD sells 4.1 million.” Chicago Tribune, September 2, 2004, section 2, page 2. One way to approach this film is through the genre of Jesus films.5 The history of the cinema reveals a plethora of films centering on Jesus. This celluloid tradition gives a glimpse into the history of the film industry, and how it overcame criticism from the religious establishment. This celluloid canon provides a context for viewing and reflecting on this most recent Jesus film, The Passion of the Christ. The Jesus film canon is diverse: “Some are silent, most are ‘talkies.’ Some are black-and-white, others are Technicolor. There are Hollywood epics with casts of thousands and international art films with English subtitles.”6 The first part of this paper presents some, not all, Jesus films which comprise this canon (readers already familiar with the history of Jesus films might prefer to move immediately to Part II of this paper beginning on page 16). Part II details some of the major contextualizations needed for a mature understanding of Jesus films and their appropriateness in religious education. 5 In this paper I define this genre as commercially made films (not church sponsored) centering substantially on Jesus as the major character, either directly or indirectly, e.g., through such literary conventions as “a play within a play.” Many other films portray Jesus as a character, but not the main character, e.g., Salome (1923), The Robe (1953) Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), Ben-Hur (1925 and 1959), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), Quo Vadis? (1951), Barabbas (1962), Pontius Pilate (1967), Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979), Dogma (1999). Other films produced by church groups, e.g., Day of Triumph (1954) and Jesus (1979) focus on Jesus as the main character but were not produced for commercial distribution. Still other films focus on overt Christ figures, e.g., The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1917 and 1936), Destination Unknown (1933), Strange Cargo (1940), and The Lawton Story (1954). These related genres of films certainly are worth serious study and have relevance to the field of religious education, but are not the focal point of this paper. 6Peter Gilmour, “Jesus of Hollywood” in U. S. Catholic, September, 1999, page 6 The Silent Era Just two years after the first public screening of film in the basement of the Grand Café in Paris, France the first Jesus film appeared in 1897. La Vie et la Passion de Jesus-Christ was directed by Georges Hatot, and had the distinction of being among the first multiple-shot films. Other Jesus films appeared in France, La Vie de Christ (1899), La Vie et passion du Christ (1900), and another film with the title, La Vie et la Passion de Jesus-Christ (1903).7 These French films did not tend to follow the passion play motif, as many American Jesus films of the same time did, but had an “original scenario.” These early films of course were not anything like films today. They were extremely short, e.g, La Vie et la Passion de Jesus-Christ was only fifteen minutes in length, black and white, and without sound. Across the ocean in the United States, The Passion Play of Oberammergau premiered in 1898. The script and scenery for this film were originally developed for a Broadway play written by Salmi Morse some years earlier. The play was never performed because the mayor of New York, fearing problems resulting from having such a sensitive subject on stage, banned its production. This film, nineteen minutes in length containing 23 scenes, was shot on the roof of New York’s Grand 7 Richard Abel, The Cine Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994). Central Palace. Frank Russell who portrayed Jesus was banned from attending the opening of the film. Either the producers wanted to keep alive the myth that it was shot on location, and/or they thought “Jesus” in the audience would be too much of a distraction for film goers to bear. Regretfully, only a fragment of this film survives today. The first feature length Jesus film (80 minutes) appeared in 1913, From the Manger to the Cross,.and was reported to have cost $100,000. Directed by Sidney Olcott (who also directed Ben Hur in 1907), written by a woman, Gene Gauntier who also played Mary, this film was shot in Palestine and Egypt. One scene shows Joseph and Mary resting with the Sphinx in the background. Robert Henderson- Bland8 plays a subdued Jesus in contrast to the style of much acting found in silent films. The title cards in this film are taken directly from the King James version of the Bible. From the Manger to the Cross is often cited as the best silent Jesus film ever made. This film was reissued in 1937 with music and sound effects. Illustrations from the Tissot Bible functioned as a visual source book for this film.9 8 So taken with his role, Robert Henderson-Bland wrote two books about his role in this film: From the Manger to the Cross (1922) and Actor-Soldier-Poet (1939) 9 Herbert Reynolds, “From the Palette to the Screen: The Tissot Bible as Sourcebook for From the Manger to the Cross” in Une Invention Du Diable? Cinema Des Premiers Temps et Religion, pp.

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