The Passion: Live (Fox)

[Kate the Great]

Wasn't feeling it. Thoughts:

 

• I think a lot of mistakes came about in casting -- Jancarlos Canela seems to be charisma-free, and none of the other disciples except for Judas (Chris Daughtry and the Bald of Evil TVTrope) stood out. I thought it was striking how none of the non-Hispanic minority disciples had lines; they were just kind of... there, and I thought them backing down when the police officers (latter-day Roman soldiers) did "stand back, guys" hands was a disservice to Christianity and the very real trials that early Christians went through in the pre-Constantine Roman world. If you're going to tell a story about redemption in the face of brutality, there have to be stakes. There were none here.
   
• Canela and Prince Royce looked too similar in hairstyles for me to tell them apart.
   
• They really rushed through a lot of the Passion to get to the singing of bad songs.
   
• Agree with previous posters about Trisha Yearwood's terrible dress. Seal was the only fully positive aspect of the production as far as I was concerned; his singing was effortless, and I thought the gospel choir (in full, blinding, ridiculous white garb and overkill backlighting) was more, well, tortured than passionate.
   
• I felt sorry for the son of the multiracial couple who clearly didn't want to be on camera.
   
• Tyler Perry's postulating was so egocentric, xenophobic ("what you believe is fine, but what we believe..."), and megachurchy that it lost me pretty much from jump, though granted the whole megachurch movement leaves me cold, so I wasn't predisposed to liking it.
   
• I agree that the cross moving through the streets was an effective visual, but I thought it was pretty much the only one. You're in one of the most picturesque cities in the US and you can't do more than that?
   
• All the commercialization of it -- really, "The Passion" with its own logo? -- also rubbed me the wrong way. It felt way too calculated to be effective.
   

If you want a good film about the Stations of the Cross, please let me recommend Jesus of Montreal, with Lothaire Bluteau. It's humble, spiritual, and affecting in a way The Passion wanted really hard to be, but wasn't at all. Brief note: I'm not religious, but I team-watched it with a Christian friend of mine who shared many of my opinions, if not felt more strongly against this production than I did.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Kate the Great

[Archery]

I thought it was striking how none of the non-Hispanic minority disciples had lines; they were just kind of... there, and I thought them backing down when the police officers (latter-day Roman soldiers) did "stand back, guys" hands was a disservice to Christianity and the very real trials that early Christians went through in the pre-Constantine Roman world. If you're going to tell a story about redemption in the face of brutality, there have to be stakes. There were none here.

 

Just to say, that's what the disciples did - they took off.  Peter attacks a guard, but later fulfills the prophecy of Jesus that he would deny even knowing him when questioned.  The only disciple recorded at the crucifixion is John, whom Jesus tells to take care of his mom.  Almost all of them showed tremendous courage and were martyred in the next few decades, but during the actual event, they backed off and hid. 

[Kate the Great]

I stand corrected, sorry! I knew the Peter-denying-Jesus part, but it just seemed so... watered down in their staging somehow. I'm not saying we needed Mel Gibson-level violence, but it felt very sanitized. I knew they didn't, say, jump the Roman soldiers, but I think there's a happy medium there. Taken strictly as a narrative, the story lost narrative tension there in a big way that I don't think is lost in the Gospels.