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Passion Of The Christ: Definitive Edition (The)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak & Jeremiah Chin (13th July 2009). |
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The Film
 "The Passion of the Christ" was a project long in the pipeline for Academy Award-winning director Mel Gibson, a Catholic himself for who the realisation of this film was his ultimate goal. After a clearing a slew of films off his schedule, Gibson found the time in late 2002 and early 2003 to make this film, financing the entire $30 million (USD) budget himself through his Icon production company. In early reports it was noted that Gibson planned to shoot the film in a combination of Aramaic, Hebrew and Latin without subtitles. For the long production period news from the set was limited, aside from the occasional photograph leaked to the media or released officially all we knew was that the film will follow the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life on earth. In late 2003 the first trailer was released, completely void of any dialogue but featuring breathtaking shots with music from the score. But when the studio saw the first cut of the film they told Gibson to take it somewhere else, citing extreme violence and anti-Semitic overtones. Over the next few months he took the film to virtually every studio for a distribution deal but the anti-Semitic stigma the film had garnered through the press kept Hollywood away. Eventually Newmarket Films, a fledgling distribution company originally founded by b-movie icon Roger Corman, picked the film up for distribution. Before the film’s release the media went into overdrive discussing the violence in the film and whether it will actually make money or be forgotten. Whether it was good or bad publicity, the film was gaining a reputation before the public even had a chance to see it. The film opened on Ash Wednesday the 25th of February 2004 at the #1 spot with a (then) record-breaking 5-day gross of US$83,848,082 and eventually earned a total of US$370,274,604 domestically and a worldwide box office of over US$600 million making "The Passion of the Christ" the 41st highest all-time worldwide box office earner and the #12 highest all-time US box-office earner. Despite the controversy, despite the distribution problems, and despite the anti-Semitic criticism, the film was a huge success. As stated before, the film focuses on the last 12 hours of Jesus of Nazareth's (James Caviezel) life and begins in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus has gone to pray after sitting at the Last Supper, and Jesus must resist the temptations of Satan (Rosalinda Celentano). He is then betrayed by Judas (Luca Lionelle), Jesus is arrested and taken within the city walls of Jerusalem where leaders of the Pharisees confront him with accusations of blasphemy and his trial results in a condemnation to death. Jesus is punished by whip, but when the punishment is unsatisfactory the crowd choose to free a murderer back into society rather than let Jesus go, and he is sentenced to be crucified. The Romans lay a cross on his back and force him to carry it to the mound where the crucifixion will take place. The torture and subsequent crucifixion are shown here in graphic detail, and may be a bit much for some viewers to take, so watch this at your discretion. Controversy aside and whether you are a Christian or not, or whether you believe this story or not “The Passion of the Christ” is an extremely well made film, the performances from the cast are nothing short of spectacular. Especially Caviezel, who went through a tough time while filming (being accidentally whipped twice, he was struck by lightning while filming the Sermon on the Mount, and during the crucifixion he experienced hypothermia and his shoulder was separated when the prop cross fell on him). Additionally, Monica Bellucci as Magdalene and Maia Morgenstern as Mary scenes, although having little dialogue, include a phenomenal amount of emotional acting that would be draining on many actors having to repeat those performances over and over again for shot coverage. The photography by 5-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel is simply stunning, the colour palette suits the period and environment accurately. One other stand out aspect is the beautifully conducted score by John Debney which is both powerful and moving considering the images they are cut with. Artistically and technically this film is excellent, whether you wish to view this is entirely up to you, making a recommendation seems useless in this context.
Video
Presented in 1080p 24/fps 2.40:1 widescreen with AVC MPEG-4 encoding at 22.5 MBPS, much of Gibson’s film and Anti-Semitism come through clearly in the scenes of the film that rely on outdoor lighting and are in the day time. Scenes with lower light, such as the opening scenes of the Garden, Judas and everything else seems to get a thick layer of grain that doesn’t quite make sense with the rest of the film, considering how clear some of it looks.
Audio
The audio mix of Aramic/Hebrew/Latin in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixed at 48kHz/24-bit sounds really good, bringing out all the music that makes the film seem more melodramatic than anything else. All of the ambient noises of the hissing, spitting, apparent hatred of Jesus and his many slow motion groans and falls to the ground are well catalouged in the sound mix, suffering no quality loss and coming through clearly. There are a total of 9 subtitle tracks including English, English for the hearing impaired, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin, Brazilian Portuguese, Thai, and Tagalog.
Extras
The 2-disc “Definitive Edition” of “The Passion” comes with two cuts of the film, audio commentaries, documentaries, featurettes, photo galleries, deleted scenes and loads of extras to promote Gibson’s vision. DISC ONE: The two cuts of the film available are the "Theatrical" cut and the “Recut” version of the film that tries to edit down the graphic content, it only runs about 2 hours and 1 minute, making it merely 5 minutes shorter than the "Theatrical" cut. Next are the audio commentary tracks, 5 in all, each goes with only the original "Theatrical" cut of the film: First is the audio commentary for the visually impaired, which works to describe every scene as it’s happening for those who would not be able to see it otherwise. The filmmakers’ audio commentary is with director/producer/co-screenwriter Mel Gibson, cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and editor John Wright. It’s a fairly quiet commentary with a good amount of pauses and only a few comments mixed in between that will occasionally point out the obvious in the film, while throwing in little bits of film making information. Gibson gives wisdom like, “Judas was wide awake,” or pointing out who different people in the movie look like. The pauses are so long and so infrequent that it’s almost a pointless commentary that could have just been written as a blurb on an insert pamphlet for the film rather than waste another 2 hours of the audience’s time. The production audio commentary is with producer Stephen McEveety, visual effects supervisor/second unit director Ted Rae and special make-up and visual effects designer Keith VanderLaan. They bring up many of the same points in the film as the previous commentary, just mentioning locations, when they filmed on that location, how much they enjoy a certain scene, while demanding that the audience feels how significant the different religious moments in the film are. However they bring up a few interesting points about some of the histories of locations and pause far less than the previous commentary. The theological audio commentary with director/producer/co-screenwriter Mel Gibson, language consultant and Aramaic/Latin translator Father William Fulco and theologians Gerry Matatics and Father John Bartunek. Bringing in the theologians prepares you for a constant repetition of the phrase ‘powerful message in this film’ where everyone talks about how biblical the film is and their interpretation of the bible and how the film matches up with it. Tons of talk about how much god loves us, how much the film resembles the bible and a lot of other theological talk with Gibson jumping in only occasionally. One of the most annoying commentaries I’ve heard for a while since it has trouble dealing with the story and focuses more on the viewer’s faiths. Finally is the audio commentary with composer John Debney, who provides his commentary on select scenes of the film and talking about working with the images to create the score that goes with the film. He talks about the difficulty of working through certain scenes of the film and how emotionally draining the film was, but looking at his overall script it seems like he was so emotionally invested it turned into melodrama. Finally on this disc are the Biblical footnotes which just provide a biblical reference along with some of the details present in the different commentaries. DISC TWO: “By His Wounds, We Are Healed: Making the Passion of the Christ” a feature length documentary on the film which runs for 1 hour and 40 minutes or broken down into 21 segments: - “Introduction” runs for 1 minute and 20 seconds, Gibson talks about how the idea of making the film came into his life and how important it is for him. - “Script Evolution” runs for 4 minutes and 20 seconds, Gibson talks about what he was taught growing up, how the script emerged while filming “We Were Soldiers” (2002). - “Language Barriers” runs for 4 minutes and 21 seconds, Gibson and Fulco talk about translating the film into Aramaic and the purpose behind the choice. - “Finding Jerusalem” runs for 3 minutes and 47 seconds, Gibson and the crew talk about scouting locations to serve as Jerusalem, mostly chosing Italy, which always struck me as odd considering Gibson seems to be aiming for accurate historical representation, yet cast fair skinned Italians for much of the cast and filmed in Italy rathe than opting for authentic Middle-Eastern locations, at least somewhere closer to the Middle East. - “Artistic Inspiration” runs for 2 minutes and 15 seconds, dealing with Gibson’s interpretation on the film and the story, as well as drawing from the paintings of Caravaggio and other Italian Painters in putting together the film. - “The Right Role” runs for 8 minutes and 26 seconds, looks at the casting director in Italy that brought the different actors into the film, while also bringing in the voices of some of the actors. - “Evil Personified” runs for 2 minutes and 8 seconds, Gibson talks about creating the image of the devil in the film and the androgynous appearance that is supposed to manifest evil, as well as the old-man baby. - “Tailoring a Perfect Fit” runs for 1 minute and 50 seconds, this segment looks at the costume design for the film. - “The Director” runs for 6 minutes and 46 seconds, Gibson talks about his struggles in directing the film. - “Grace in Photography” runs for 4 minutes and 11 seconds, the major crewmembers talk about the lighting of the film and the creation of mood in the film. - “Make Up and Visual Effects” runs for 9 minutes and 50 seconds and talks about the different prosthetics used in the film for all the abuses that happen in the film. - “The Earthquake” runs for 3 minutes and 37 seconds, Gibson shows some behind the scenes footage of creating the image of the earthquake in the film as well as the different prop effects that were used to generate the scene. - “The Crucifixion” runs for 5 minutes and 20 seconds and looks at the crucifixion scene in the film from production design through filming. - “Jim Suffering” runs for 5 minutes and 17 seconds, Caviezel talks about the pain of him having to go through the scene. - “Breaking the Tension” runs for 2 minutes and 34 seconds, everyone talks about Gibson’s pranks on the set to alleviate the tension. - “Wrapping Production” runs for 1 minute and 18 seconds, a bunch of different shots of people applauding and cheering for the final shots of the film. - “The Cutting Room” runs for 5 minutes and 53 seconds, deals with the editing process for the film. - “The Score” runs for 4 minutes and 22 seconds and speaks to Debeny and Gibson about the film and it’s score. - “Designing the Sound Effects” runs for 9 minutes and 45 seconds, looking at the rest of the sound design for the film. - “Guerilla Marketing” runs for 6 minutes and 59 seconds, wrapping up how the film was marketed and became a top grossing film. - “Spiritual Journey” runs for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, everyone talks about the journey of the film and how much they enjoyed it. “Below the Line: Panel Discussion” featurette runs for 13 minutes and 50 seconds, a panel presentation on the film talking with all of the no-name players in the film, meaning no actors and no Mel Gibson, dealing with much of the same material covered in the making-of documentary in talking about artistic inspirations, the different settings, etc. Next are the deleted scenes, just two in all but in abysmal pixilated quality, described below: - “Pilate” runs for 2 minutes and 9 seconds, Pontius Pilate washes his hands of everything. - “Don’t Cry” runs for 2 minutes and 26 seconds, Jesus falls again and gets helped up. “Through the Ages” runs for 11 minutes and 57 seconds, this featurette deals with different depictions of Jesus within art, speaking mostly with artists and authors about the convergence of religion and art. It would have been nice to see this featurette in Blu-ray considering some of the artworks that they deal with are really interesting and would be cool to see in high-definition, yet still has the religious moralizing that obviously taints the entirety of the set. “Paths of a Journey” runs for 9 minutes and 24 seconds. This featurette looks at the pilgramegs by Christians that retrace Jesus’s supposed path from Pilate to the Crucifixion to burial. It’s an interesting featurette that reminds me of something from a Middle Eastern history class, because of the narrative and the way it’s all written to emphasize the historical elements of the set. I like how it focuses more on the idea of pilgrimage, the history of the sites and the way people seem to worship them. “On Language” featurette runs for 12 minutes and 45 seconds, obviously dealing with the different languages used within the film. The featurette talks with most of the people we’ve seen before from earlier featurette, like the making-of documentary. It fleshes out the stories a bit more and adds a bit more backstory, but it’s still the same ground already covered with a bit more analysis. “Crucifixion: Punishment in the Ancient world” featurette runs for 17 minutes and 27 seconds, looking at the history of crucifixion, it’s origins and use within the roman empire. It falls somewhere between interesting historical piece and another ham-fisted religious featurette, but still moderately interesting and a little long nonetheless. “Anno Domini” runs for 10 minutes and 3 seconds, this featurette looks at the different apostles and their histories following Jesus’ crucifixion. It’s mostly a piece of religious history, falling somewhere between fact and supposition based on bits of evidence from random places. Again may have been better suited for Blu-ray considering all the artwork they include within the featurette, I’d have liked to get a better look. There’s a huge collection of galleries divided into varied sections and subsections described below: “Production Art” contains 3 sub sections: - “Costume and Set Design” contains 29 images. - “Technical Drawings” contains 15 images. There are also 4 “Storyboard” sections: - “Garden of Olives” contains 3 images. - “The Flogging” contains 35 images. - “Crucifixion FX” contains 34 images. - “Raising the Cross” contains 7 images. “Historical Texts” contains 141 images. “Art Images” conatins 15 sub sections: - “Station I” contains 19 images. - “Station II” contains 9 images. - “Station III” contains 1 image. - “Station IV” contains 3 images. - “Station V” contains 2 images. - “Station VI” contains 11 images. - “Station VII” contains 1 image. - “Station VIII” contains 1 image. - “Station IX” contains 2 images. - “Station X” contains 3 images. - “Station XI” contains 6 images. - “Station XII” contains 40 images. - “Station XIII” contains 30 images. - “Station XIV” contains 24 images. - “Characters and their Actors” contains 35 images. “Unit Photography” contains 33 images. The theatrical trailer "G" runs for 1 minute and 52 seconds and the theatrical trailer "R" runs for runs for 1 minute and 45 seconds. Two TV spots round out the extras: - “Drums” runs for 33 seconds. - “Devotion” runs for 33 seconds.
Overall
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