by Emily T. Wierenga

  When has such controversy over a film erupted across the globe? And what Academy Award-winning actor would risk his professional career to produce such a picture?

  He’s directed Man Without a Face (1993) and Braveheart (1995). Now, People’s Choice Favourite Actor of 2003 is putting not only his career, but his life, on the line.

  Mel Gibson, married 23 years and father of seven, directed and co-scripted The Passion of the Christ, the year’s most talked about film. It’s come with a cost well beyond the $25-million Gibson personally invested into the film — both he and Passion star Jim Caviezel have received death threats. As Gibson candidly admitted to ABC Online, “They think I’m insane — maybe I am.”

  Yet, while public response ranges from hostility to awe-filled praise, the 48-year-old’s desire for the film is being met.

   “My hope is that this powerful story of sacrifice willingly given will affect — even transform — people on a deeply personal level,” Gibson expresses.

   And indeed, it’s near-impossible to see the intensely profound film and remain untouched. One image portrays Jesus (Jim Caviezel) — the cross on His shoulders, wounds open and bleeding — falling heavily to the ground while mother Mary (Maia Morgenstern) can only watch in tears. This scene is intertwined with a flashback to Jesus stumbling as a five-year-old child, and Mary running to cradle Him in her arms.

   As Gibson comments, “I want to show the humanity of Christ as well as the divine aspect.”

   This tender humanness is also captured in another clip, where a teenage Jesus is sitting down to supper at which point Mary reminds Him to wash His hands. In the midst of the procedure, He splashes her playfully with the water, only to wrap His arms around her and kiss her on the cheek before returning to His meal.

 Mel Gibson passionately directs Jim Caviezel, pictured above as a crucified Christ, and below as a gentle teacher. Jesus’ mother, Mary (Maia Morgenstern), is featured bottom, right, while Mary Magadelene (Italy’s Monica Bellucci) is bottom, centre.

Yet, for all of the sentiment, Evangelist Billy Graham wasn’t moved to tears because of Caviezel’s ‘heavenly looks’ or ‘graceful countenance’ — elements which many other Jesus movies have relied on.

   Rather, Gibson’s goal, as described to Relevant Magazine, was to “make the story real and not portray it as a fairytale.” In line with this, the entire movie focuses on the final 12 hours of Jesus’ life, while feeding back to pinnacle moments in His youth.

   Ultimately, viewers’ breaths are caught and hearts torn by the raw beating and violence, the blood and the turmoil of the crucifixion. For many media-types and disgusted viewers, the film is a sadistic abomination provoking them to ask, “Where’s the love?”

   Yet, while Gibson has been accused of “rolling in blood,” (Edmonton Journal) the director says he was in no way trying to exaggerate the truth of the 2,000-year-old story.

  “The greatest love one can have, which is to lay down one’s life for someone else” can only be understood by re-telling the graphics of Christ’s death, Gibson explained to EP News. In other words, how else can the forgiveness of Christ be more appreciated than to show the amount of pain that He endured?

   Gibson’s passion is founded on a very personal, very real experience of Christ’s sacrifice. As described by the devoted Catholic, this event which “inspired art, culture, behaviour, governments, kingdoms, countries” spared him from a spiritual crisis in his own life, 13 years ago.

   “I came to a difficult point in my life, and meditating on Christ’s sufferings, on His passion, got me through it,” Gibson related to Associated Press.

   After returning to his childhood Catholic beliefs, Gibson decided to study Christ’s sacrifice in-depth. “I began to see it realistically, re-creating it in my own mind so that it would make sense for me, so I could relate to it ... I don’t think other films have tapped into the real force of this story,” he states.

   Now, “understanding what Jesus went through, even on a human level, makes me feel not only compassion, but also a debt: I want to repay Him for the enormity of His sacrifice,” expresses Gibson.

   The film’s underlying message is that everyone is responsible for the cross. Gibson demonstrates his own culpability in Christ’s death through a short cameo. At one point during the crucifixion, the director’s fist is shown holding a nail beneath a pounding hammer, driving it into Jesus’ palm.

   Gibson feels this act symbolizes that every person, no matter the race, religion, or nationality, has helped hang Jesus on the cross. As Billy Graham told EP News, “The film is faithful to the Bible’s teaching that we are all responsible for Jesus’ death, because we all have sinned. It is our sins that caused His death, not any particular group.”

   On top of invoking diverse reactions by way of the picture’s bloody violence, Gibson also caused a stir by scripting the film in two ‘dead’ languages — Latin and Aramaic. Indeed, according to professionals, that move was considered a career blow-out, but Gibson, being fluent in Latin and Italian himself, isn’t concerned. He insists that the story wouldn’t be as real to him in English.

   “Full-contact when you hear the words spoken as they were spoken at the time — it can kind of stun you!” he exclaims. “It gets a clarity to it through the acting, through the nuances of the characters, the movement of the camera. All of a sudden it’s very, very clear.” Gibson’s trusting the visual (in addition to the subtitles) will speak to viewers’ hearts.

   One has to wonder at the sacrifice that Gibson is making, just to share his interpretation of Christ’s story with the world. After all, not only has his private life been put under intense scrutiny, but recently a group of Jewish and Christian academics went so far as to issue an 18-page report slamming all aspects of the film.

   Yet, although Gibson didn’t foresee such hardships, he has relied on his faith to sustain him. “I have handled it by ... praying. My prayer life has grown a lot as a result of it,” Gibson shares. “I pray for the people who are upset. I sincerely believe their suspicions are wrong.”

   Released intentionally on Ash Wednesday — Feb. 25, 2004 — The Passion of the Christ is a poetic, insightful portrayal of a Saviour who not only died a gruesome death for His people, but rose again, making the sacrifice a powerful reality.

   Gibson’s hope is that Passion viewers will voice Caviezel’s thoughts, following his performance.

    “Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.’ I know that now, more than ever,” the actor expressed to EP News.



by Claudia Cangilla McAdam

Growing up, he never dreamed of being an actor. Jim Caviezel was an athlete, and basketball had stolen his heart. But at age 19, Caviezel experienced a sensation which he says, “made me know that God was wanting me to act.”

Although Caviezel finds it difficult to define that sensation, he acknowledges, “It was a deep awareness of my vocation. I had this conviction in me.”

Thus began a career that today includes such films as The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), High Crimes (2002) and most recently, Mel Gibson’s epic, The Passion of the Christ.

Considering that he felt called to this career by God Himself, it’s not too surprising to find Caviezel playing the lead role of Jesus Christ.

A devout Catholic, Caviezel poured his heart and soul into the part. It’s an experience he shares freely, honestly, and with a refreshingly deep faith that’s supported by his wife of seven years, Kerri.

“Mel Gibson told me that this was going to be very physical,” Caviezel comments of his role as Jesus. “He was right … I thought the hard part would be learning the Aramaic, the Hebrew, and the Latin. The language turned out to be easy. The physical nearly killed me.”

“Every day I picked up that cross, it was like a penance,” he adds. From the initial moment Caviezel hoisted the wooden beams, he was plagued with physical ills.

“The very first day, the crowd rushed in around me,” recalls the actor. “The guards hit me with whips, and my arms stretched under this heavy beam. Someone yanked the top of the cross in one direction. My arm went in the other direction, and my shoulder separated. I fell to my knees, dropped the cross, and buried my head in the sand.”

That scene, spontaneous as it was, remains in the movie.

During the scourging sequence, a couple of blows missed their mark and actually landed on Caviezel. One resulted in a 14-inch welt, which the makeup artist used as a model for the rest of the wounds.

“I only had two blows connect,” says the actor. “I can’t imagine what Jesus went through.”

In addition to the shoulder separation and the whip marks, Caviezel’s physical sufferings included migraines from the tightly-bound crown of thorns, and pneumonia contracted from prolonged exposure to the cold winter winds during the five-week shooting of the crucifixion scene.

As well, he underwent full-body makeup sessions that lasted up to 10 hours, and was even struck by lightning — after which he miraculously got up and walked away.

Suspended on the cross and clad only in loincloth, Caviezel spent his time between takes shivering and listening to music through headphones. He was particularly moved by Christian artist Michael W. Smith’s song, “Above All.”

“It describes Jesus as rejected and alone,” says Caviezel. He could relate, being left on the cross while others below laughed and socialized in their parkas.

Caviezel’s voice breaks as he recalls the insights gained during such moments. “It was a glimpse of being forsaken, alone, despised,” he says softly. “It was a performance borne through pain. But pain is a blessing. It all forced me into the arms of God. I learned to pray from the heart.”

What the viewers see on the screen, Caviezel describes as being “me as an instrument.” When people ask him what it was like up on that cross, the actor answers with two words: unquenchable fire.

“No comfort, no peace,” he clarifies.

In January of this year, Caviezel spoke to nearly 1,400 college students attending the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) National Student Leadership Conference in Denver, CO. Holding the crowd in rapt attention, he shared with them the spiritual journey he’s traveled in connection with his playing Jesus Christ.

The call from Gibson offering Caviezel the lead role took the actor by surprise, as he was unaware such a movie was in the works. Gibson wanted someone whose initials were J.C., and who was 33 years old — the age of Christ when He was crucified. Jim Caviezel was 33 at the time.

“Is your life a coincidence, just a chance?” he asked the students. “I don’t think so.” Caviezel challenged them to stay the course in their beliefs. “In Jesus’ suffering was our redemption. Each of us must carry our own cross.”

His voice rising, Caviezel fervently urged everyone to gather the “courage to step into this world and shamelessly express your faith in public. God is calling you to great things. See that gentle hand guiding your path.”

And who more qualified to give this message than the one who played Jesus?