The Passion of the Christ
By the sound of some reviews, such as the two in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, one would think that it gloried in what the one review called “NC-17 level” violence. Now, crucifixion is a horribly violent act, the question was if the movie portrayed the violence in a way intended to provide insight or simply to be violent. If you believed the P-D critics, the latter option is the case (of course, one should always be wary of what the Post-Dispatch says, but that's another story).
After seeing the movie, I am glad to say that I can call the Post-Dispatch view of the movie completely off base. I can truthfully say that the violence, whilst very graphic and agonizing, was not violence for the sake of violence. Instead, it seems truly to have been arranged by Gibson in an attempt to make the viewer experience a very small bit of the suffering involved (obviously only a small bit since one is sitting comfortably in a theater). Sometimes that kind of thing is necessary - especially in the case of Gospel portrayals, dozens of which have provided a sanitized version of events that simply do not lend themselves to appreciating the magnitude of what is going on.
This movie is stunningly powerful. It was physically exhausting to watch, and, as I said, agonizing, but for a purpose: it pulls the audience through the experience of the crucifixion in a way that I do not believe any passion play or “Jesus movie” has ever accomplished. While virtually nothing in the movie is “new” to anyone familiar with the Gospels (and that's a good thing in a case like this), it allows you to experience the narrative of Christ's suffering and death in a whole new light.
From Jesus' praying in Gethsemane at the beginning, to Pilot's conflicting motives and desires, to the actual torture and crucifixion, the Passion is really an experience that immerses you in itself. The beauty of the film is that it makes one reflect on the familiar because seeing it in realistic detail makes it seem new again.
There were a few moments that were especially poignant, I thought. Exquisitely drawn out from the Gospel of John was Jesus' confrontation with Pilot. The way it was done didn't excuse Pilot in anyway, but showed the conflict within him as he fought to figure out what to do before finally taking the easy way out by washing his hands of the matter. When the film cuts back to Pilot during the earthquake after Jesus' death he appears to be reflecting on what has just happened - maybe not completely understanding it, but at least realizing some of it.
Also, as Jesus is carrying the cross, the scene between him and Mary was a hard one to watch. As he falls again from the weight of the cross after the brutal scourging, she rushes through the guards to try to help him. Yes, I know that isn't in the Bible, but certainly it seems like something that could have reasonably happened. He looks up at her and says “Behold, mother, I am making all things new” (that's from Revelation 21:5) - it communicates so perfectly exactly what Jesus was doing, and that, even in the middle of some of the worst torture that could be inflicted on anyone He still had His desire to make us new on his mind.
I think the choice to film in Aramaic and Latin was also wise, despite the fact that the decision essentially requires most people to read subtitles, rather than just watching the film. While the manuscripts of the New Testament available to us are in Greek, translating the words back to Aramaic adds to the environment of the film. The sound - the character - of the Semitic language being spoken lends itself to the effort to create an authentic environment for the film.
The movie is also rich in great symbolism that allows anyone looking for it to experience an even more in-depth narrative. Gibson did a stunning job of tying Jesus' life and Bible prophecy into other parts of the Bible. Early on, the reference to Genesis 3:15 is perfect for the scene before Jesus begins the sacrifice that will ultimately lead to the crushing of Satan forever. During Jesus' torture, the devil appears again, this time with a baby, presumably the anti-Christ. Even as Jesus is winning the battle, Satan is “previewing” his (well, in this case, her) last plan to take as many souls as possible. Finally, toward the end of the film, right after Jesus dies, the “tear of God” is a unique and dramatic interlude before the earthquake rends the curtain in the temple, ending the separation between God and man.
Finally, I thought the brief scene of the resurrected Jesus was extremely powerful. When the scene fades in, after the camera pans over to Jesus, you have the excitement of the resurrection, but also the expression that what he just went through was excruciating. Its one last reminder, just incase the rest of the movie wasn't able to drill it in enough, that Jesus' sacrifice wasn't easy, it came at a terrible cost. This was a case of less being more, I know some people thought more of the resurrection should have been shown, but I think that would have shifted the viewer's focus completely to the joy of the resurrection and have diluted the picture's message. Everyone likes to think about the resurrection, the crucifixion is much less comfortable but no less important to remember.
I've spent a number of hours since seeing the film trying to write this and I find it is almost impossible to really put the experience into words. The Passion of the Christ is a unique and breathtaking rendering of the Gospels. No, it may not cover every part of the Gospels, but what it does include it includes in a way that seems faithful in every way to the Gospels.
This is one movie that truly uses every resource the medium of film offers to provide a better understanding of God's sacrifice for us. On Wednesday night at the Lenten service, one of the hymns was What Wondrous Love is This, a hymn that I always find especially moving.What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.
Seeing the Passion the week before, I couldn't help but really dwell on the words “dreadful curse.” Again, even though I knew the kind of things Jesus went through, the experience of actually witnessing what it might have been like only amplified the words to that great hymn.
The Passion, in my opinion, accomplishes its goals perfectly. It is one of the most masterfully produced films I have ever seen (if not the most), and the only one that truly shows the extent of suffering Jesus was willing to go through for me and for you.
RATING: *****
Really, I'm Not Joking
I will review the Passion. I just didn't want to do a quick review, and it seems the only time I get time for this is around this time of night when I'm just too lazy to do anything other than a short post complaining about how I don't have time to write anything.
Feel like a joke? Good, because if you didn't, you'd still get one.
A physicist, a chemist and an economist are stuck on a desert island. All of a sudden a sealed can of soup floats onto the short. The physicist says, “Let's bash it open with some rocks and grab the condensed soup as it flies through the air.” The chemist says, “No, let's put the can over a fire and heat it up.” The economist says, “Assume there was a can opener.”
G'night all!
Another day...
I didn't have time to write anything today. Maybe I'll get my thoughts on the Passion up tomorrow. I hope so!
I'm hoping to be able to post more often again now that I have my server coming along. It's taken a few weeks to get it all arranged, but I hope that things should be running smoothly now…
Moving on up II
We're a movin' on up, (We're a movin on up.) To the east side.(Mo-vin on up.)
To a de-luxe apartment, In the sky-.
Mo-vin' on up (Mo-vin on up.)
To the east side, (Mo-vin on up.)
We finally got a piece of the pie.
Pop quiz: without using Google or another search engine, what theme song is that? First person to get it will be rewarded with 10 asisaid points (Christopher presently holding the only other asisaid points — 10, I believe).
At any rate, welcome to the “other side.” If you are reading this you are on Cedar, asisaid.com's new home. Let me explain. This all started back in January of 2002 when I started ChristianSource FSLUG — a Christian Linux group mailing list. I was unhappy after a few months with cPanel's version of Mailman, so I installed my own copy. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how fast the archives would grow on the site. That along with other growth on my sites pushed my account to over 400 megs in size from about 100 megs previously (not counting my clients' web sites) and I realized I had two choices: upgrade my hosting plan or figure something else out.
As the exponential growth of the archives promised to eat up larger quotas fast, and even a few hundred more megs really would keep me from some things I've wanted to do for a long time, I realized “plan A” wasn't really all that great. And, my host's next upgrade in plan size would cost $20 more a month for only a little extra space unless I split up my sites into several smaller accounts, and even then I wasn't improving the situation much.
Enter an advertisement from 1&1, Germany's largest web host (and sister company to GMX), which recently started offering U.S. services. They spent the last few quarters of 2003 giving away shared 3-year hosting plans (I signed up for one I'm not presently using). That's getting off track — when I signed up, I ended up on their newsletter list and got an announcement for a $50 dedicated server. That sounded pretty reasonable — I was paying more than that for shared hosting!
Okay, but would I really be satisifed with a $50 dedicated server? Yeah the specs were great, but I sat on hold for 20 minutes to talk to anyone on the phone and sales e-mail responses took days to get replies to. Ok, so scratch that off the list. Same went for iPowerWeb's $50 server. Then there was BurstNET/Nocster's $59 server, but BurstNET seems to be just as unreliable as it was when I fled from their shared hosting facility in 2001 (and sales never responded — that's a step down from before).
By then, I realized that the benefits of a dedicated server were great and there just wasn't any turning back. Unfortunately, everything pointed in a direction I didn't want to go — a more expensive server package approaching $100/month. But, I decided maybe I could live with that.
Then I got the idea to sell a few basic hosting accounts, which inevitably lead to upgrading to a better server… all told, I signed up for a mid-grade server from ServerMatrix, a subsiderary of The Planet, a large datacenter in Dallas, TX, that had the largest percentage of growth for a good part of last year, according to Netcraft.
Cedar, as you might have guessed, is my server. You can see its uptime info here. Asisaid is the first of my sites to move to Cedar, but more will be moving over the next week or so. Eventually it will house all of my sites, my web design clients' sites and a few additional basic accounts purchased by CS-FSLUG members in recent weeks.
At any rate, for the first time, I'm leaving a hosting company that I really don't want to leave. I've spent two and one half years at HostingMatters, and I still think they are the best hosting company in the business. ServerMatrix's support is great too, but it's different — a basic managed server is quite different from a quality shared host, since you are still suppose to do most of the work (thus support surrounds a different set of issues). Plus, HM's small size allowed one to “get to know” the team. It was nice.
At any rate, enough rambling. Welcome to cedar. I'm hoping this will turn out to be a Good Thing (apologies to Martha on that).
By the way, asisaid is officially endorsing Bush-Cheney '04 in the Feedster tracking of blogs support for candidates.
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Moving on up
Asisaid (as the guinea pig of my sites) is going to be picking up and moving to a new box as soon as WHOIS updates. If things get a little weird for the next day or two, don't worry, it should only be temporary.
Of course, feel free to let me know if you can't get to asisaid at all, or something like that…
Why am I moving asisaid? Well there's a good reason, but I'm too tired to tell it right now, so I'll let you know that (along with my reaction to The Passion) on the other side of this DNS update.
I saw it.
I saw the Passion of the Christ tonight. I need to think about what I saw for a little bit and then I'll provide my “review” of it. All I'll say right now is that it was both amazing and agonizing at the same time.
NASA Tomorrow
Word, I hear, is that NASA has a very exciting Mars related announcement tomorrow. Details apparently aren't really very clear, but it sounds like they've discovered something interesting.
I'm anxiously waiting.
Leap Day Humor
“Leap Day” deserves a bit of humor… okay, it isn’t new, but it is funny.
Jesus and Satan have an argument as to who is the better computer programmer. This goes on for a few hours until they agree to hold a contest with God as the judge.
They set themselves before their computers and begin. They type furiously for several hours, lines of code streaming up the screen.
Seconds before the end of the competition, a bolt of lightning strikes, taking out the electricity. Moments later, the power is restored, and God announces that the contest is over. He asks Satan to show what he has come up with. Satan is visibly upset, and cries, “I have nothing! I lost it all when the power went out.”
“Very well, then,” says God, “let us see if Jesus fared any better.”
Jesus enters a command, and the screen comes to life in vivid display, the voices of an angelic choir pour forth from the speakers. Satan is astonished.
He stutters, “But how?! I lost everything yet Jesus' program is intact! How did he do it?”
God chuckles, “Jesus saves.”
Site Design
Ok, so its time for the Christmas decorations to come down. Actually it was time along time ago. My problem is that I was really tired of the look I had before I switched to the Christmas layout, so now I have to figure out another new look to replace the Christmas one. I haven't figured such a design out yet.
I'm thinking about keeping the hills that currently have a nativity on them but making them green and grassy. Any other ideas?
SMS
The phone I got back in December is suppose to support SMS messaging (and I don't doubt it does, really), but I ran into a rather peculiar problem. When a internet service tried to send me an SMS yesterday via the e-mail gateway Cingular provides, the arrival of those messages appeared in my phone's log but not in my phone's message inbox. Odd.
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I actually like to read messages that are sent to me rather than being just told they arrived. Maybe my phone took care of them for me or something.
Seriously, has anyone else run into a problem like this?
