To the extent Mel Gibson's ego, I mean, faith, is forcing us to think about The Christ right now, you could do worse than looking at ionarts' rundown of the art historical Jesus (like, seeing Gibson's movie). Something I learned about Matthias Grünewald's beautiful, take-no-prisoners altarpiece: That work was made for a hospital run by an order of monks whose mission was to serve people who were in terrible pain, especially those who had lost limbs. The fact that Jesus chose to die in one of the most painful ways possible, it was thought, is a consolation to a person in pain. In that sense, there is no particular reason, either religious or artistic, to sugarcoat the details of what Jesus suffered.
Much as I dig a hardcore crucifiction, I've always been partial to the sleepy, sexed-up Pietà, myself. Although, those Caravaggio's at ionart are pretty "stirring" too. That is a nice blog! Good, bold, contemporary writing on classical art and music.
Mel's new movie is just a graphic version of the Stations of the Cross, yet another mind numbing Catholic ritual. I was never very impressed with the crucifiction. Dying an excruciating death is all too commonplace.
I've been seen what tradition holds are the actual stations of the cross in and around the Church of the Holy Sepulchure. Given the amount of violent death that city and region have seen, I think people make too much fuss about the sufferings of that dead rabbi from Nazareth.
The Gore of the Christ
I guess like most people who just saw Passion of the Christ, the first thing I thought as I left the theater was, "Wow, those Roman dudes really beat the snot out of that hippie! They must have hated that freaking hippie!"
Also, I guess I wondered why the hell they were beating up the hippie, and what the hippie's deal was. See, there's no context to Passion: just straight-up flesh-ripping violence porn. If you want to see a naked guy get whipped, flogged and nailed, and you live in a community with limited access to gay leather magazines, then this is really the movie for you.
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To the extent Mel Gibson's ego, I mean, faith, is forcing us to think about The Christ right now, you could do worse than looking at ionarts' rundown of the art historical Jesus (like, seeing Gibson's movie). Something I learned about Matthias Grünewald's beautiful, take-no-prisoners altarpiece:
- tom moody 3-02-2004 10:16 pm
Much as I dig a hardcore crucifiction, I've always been partial to the sleepy, sexed-up Pietà, myself. Although, those Caravaggio's at ionart are pretty "stirring" too. That is a nice blog! Good, bold, contemporary writing on classical art and music.
- sally mckay 3-03-2004 7:44 am
Mel's new movie is just a graphic version of the Stations of the Cross, yet another mind numbing Catholic ritual. I was never very impressed with the crucifiction. Dying an excruciating death is all too commonplace.
I've been seen what tradition holds are the actual stations of the cross in and around the Church of the Holy Sepulchure. Given the amount of violent death that city and region have seen, I think people make too much fuss about the sufferings of that dead rabbi from Nazareth.
- mark 3-03-2004 8:12 am
The Gore of the Christ
I guess like most people who just saw Passion of the Christ, the first thing I thought as I left the theater was, "Wow, those Roman dudes really beat the snot out of that hippie! They must have hated that freaking hippie!"
Also, I guess I wondered why the hell they were beating up the hippie, and what the hippie's deal was. See, there's no context to Passion: just straight-up flesh-ripping violence porn. If you want to see a naked guy get whipped, flogged and nailed, and you live in a community with limited access to gay leather magazines, then this is really the movie for you.
- mark 3-04-2004 7:49 pm